Here’s sad news for the old-timers, like me:

Former Little Rock Mayor and City Director A. M. “Sandy” Keith died Wednesday at 84. He was a character.

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My neighbor Sandy’s death prompts me to take a point of personal privilege. Pauline Lindsey Davis Watson, widow of Dr. Robert Watson (who pioneered neurosurgery in Arkansas), also died yesterday in Little Rock, at her home on Edgehill. Known to one and all as PLD, Mrs. Watson wasn’t a public figure. But she certainly was well-known at the local institutions she cherished — among them the Aesthetic Club, First United Methodist Church and Mount Holly Cemetery. She was, as the obituaries used to say, from an old Little Rock family. She was also my friend. I came to Little Rock for the first time in 1970, to visit her daughter Olivia, a college pal. Mrs. Watson’s hospitality then and later — along with the Arkansas Gazette I read alongside Dr. Bob in the morning — were no small factors in my decision to settle here. Her warmth never diminished, nor mine for her.

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