Gone, but not forgotten: Teachers remembered

Rual Custer Hamm was born in Newton County in 1902. He went to college for two years, obtaining the requirements needed at that time to teach school.
He married Goldie Burdine in 1929 and the next year was teaching in Pope County. In 1940, he was made superintendent of Jasper School, a position he held for ten years. He continued his own education, receiving a BA from Arkansas State Teachers College in Conway in 1952.
That same year he was made supervisor for all Newton County Schools and started working on his Master's Degree. He was attending a workshop for school administrators in Fayetteville in August 1953 when he suffered a heart attack and died.
Nellie Casey was born in Boxley in 1895. By 1920, she was teaching public school there while living at home with her parents. The next year, she accepted an appointment as an assistance in the Domestic Science Department of Arkansas State Teachers College in Conway.

That March, she visited her brother, Professor W. B. Casey, in Russellville, where he was teaching English at the Agricultural School there.
After dinner, she went for a ride with her younger brother, Fred. Their drive went on longer than they realized, and Fred rushed back to Russellville in order to get his sister on the train back to Conway. In his haste, he skidded and rolled off an embankment. Both he and Nellie were killed.

Barbara LeRoy is the author of “Which Side Were They On?,” a 302 page book listing biographical sketches of the Newton Countians who were involved in the Civil War, available for sale either in the Bradley House Museum or by purchasing online at www.newtoncountyar.com. The book sells for $33.