By Susan Varno
Photographs by Susan Varno
It was a first for the hospital. On May 15, Gloria Gushue married Ben Sanders in the emergency room at Baxter Regional Medical Center.
They were supposed to be married in a church that evening, but Ben collapsed while leading school children on a morning tour of the Calico Rock Museum.
“I heard one of the teachers scream, ‘Gloria, get over here,’” Gloria remembers. “I called 911. The ambulance took him to the hospital, lights flashing, siren wailing.”
Gloria has been the museum’s executive director since 2009. She met Ben there when he volunteered for the docent program.
“I felt God had blessed me with Ben,” Gloria says. “He has brought joy back into my life.”
Gloria’s life has been filled with tragedy. Her son, Tommy Tomlinson, died in 2011 in an arson fire. Her first husband, Robert Gushue, died in 2014 after battling cancer for 10 years. The last few years, he needed a great deal of her care.
“To me, being in the emergency room was just another crisis,” she says.
Ben insisted he wouldn’t stay overnight in the hospital unless they got married. Gloria agreed. “I knew if we had a minute or an hour or the rest of our lives together, I wanted to be married to him.”
She called Rev. Wayne Wood, who was to perform the ceremony that evening. He married the couple at 3 p.m. in the emergency room instead with his fellow pastor, Dr. Thomas Campbell.
The impromptu wedding was another example of Gloria’s ability to find something witty or absurd in even the direst of situations. A busy woman, she is always ready with a smile, and will always take time to stop and listen, qualities that have made a huge difference in the town of Calico Rock.
“The first time I came to Calico Rock, I fell in love with it,” Gloria says.
In 1993, she and son Tommy opened Don Quixote’s Restaurant in an historic building on Calico Rock’s Main Street.
“It was our impossible dream,” she says. “We introduced Italian cooking, Reubens, marble bread and other gourmet foods to the area. I did all the baking from scratch.”
The day Tommy died in a fire at the restaurant, she closed the business.
“I still can’t go into the building. My office is still just as I left it.”
She rented the building to Freda Cruse Hardison for Shady Hollow, a not-for-profit resale shop. Proceeds support the Nikki Atwell Foundation in memory of Freda’s daughter, who died in an auto accident at 19.
“Freda has helped me a lot with Tommy’s death and Bob’s illness,” Gloria says. “The Atwell Foundation has added a scholarship for culinary arts students in memory of Tommy.”
When Gloria decides something is worthwhile, she convinces others to help her. She started the civic organization CORE (Calico Rock Organization for Revitalization Efforts) in 2006.
“CORE was also my dream,” Gloria says. “I wanted Calico Rock to become a tourist destination, not just a town people drove through on Highway 5.”
CORE received a “Hometown Helper” grant from Hamburger Helper to put up solar-powered streetlights. Under Gloria’s leadership, CORE purchased welcome banners, commissioned two murals, and started a farmer’s market. The Calico Rock Museum began as a CORE project.
“In 2008, the Calico Rock Museum Foundation bought the 1903 Rodman Building on Main Street,” Goria says. “The board agreed to let me start an artisans co-op there. Local artisans rent booths to sell their pottery, woodworking, leather, fabric, and other crafts.”
The next year, Gloria was appointed executive director of the museum. The city council gave the museum the old bank building next door. Inmates from North Central Unit prison rehabbed and restored both buildings. In 2014, the museum bought the 1906 Rand building a few doors down, and on May 5, the Printing Press Café and Ice Cream Parlor opened there.
“I had mixed feelings about opening another restaurant on Main Street,” Gloria says. “I didn’t want the Printing Press menu to be the same as Don Quixote’s, but the museum board and the people in town wanted Don Quixote food.”
The menu includes favorites from Don Quixote—including Rueben sandwiches, Greek salad, and cheese and broccoli soup.
“I’m hoping Tommy is looking down and saying ‘Good job, mom,’” she says. “The greatest thing is that Lee Lewis runs our kitchen. Lee started as a dishwasher at Don Quixote’s. Tommy trained him. Lee was his protégé.”
In April, Gloria received a surprising email.
“A woman had resigned from the Arkansas Museums Association Board,” she says. “I had been nominated and elected to replace her. The email asked, ‘Will you serve?’ I was thrilled.”
She now represents the needs and hopes of 51 museums in the First Congressional District.
“I have a good life right now,” Gloria says. “My future is in the museum. Ben is chairman of our docent program. Eventually, we want to travel.”
Visit the museum and the café on Highway 5 at the White River in Calico Rock Tuesday through Saturday, 9–5. For more info, visit calicorockmuseum.com or call 870-297-6100. M! August/September 2015
Frank Ralph Williams
Mrs. Gloria Sanders,
My grandmother was Stella Sanders. She married Gibert Foster, who died early and I have no information as to his death. She then married Cleve McNeil of Calico Roch and they moved to Seminole, OK (not sure of the date). She had the following children: Lowell, Lorene (not the right spelling, but she was my mother), and Lois. I made one trip to Calico Rock, in 1955, with my uncle Lowell and his family. Lowell knew many of the Sanders family and I was introduced to them. For a number of years, I was in touch with Opal Sanders Hall. She was present at my mother’s birth in Calico Rock.
I would be so grateful to you if you would reply this post. I am searching for information on my family. I am now 77 years old and in bad health. I thought of moving to Calico Rock in 1978 and visited the area.
Yours, Frank Ralph Williams, Seminole, OK
Conniebaker97@gmail.com
My dad was hoyd sanders lived in calico rock Arkansas his father was Alfred sanders wife name was Ann sanders lived up hwy5 my father grew up in calico, hope this helps you some, there’s a lot of sanders that lives at sanders lane, sure hopes this helps you, my name is Connie baker sanders good luck to you