Obscured in history by her internationally renowned son, Sen. J. William Fulbright, Roberta Waugh Fulbright was, nonetheless, an extraordinary person deserving of tribute. Here, finally and fittingly, is her biography-a sensitive portrait of a complex woman who was one Arkansas’s dominant figures.
Traditional mother of six children, gardener, thinker, and provocative conversationalist, Roberta Fulbright became a sudden widow at age forty-nine. She eventually took charge of the inherited, fragmented, business holdings, originally assembled by her husband, Jay, and molded them into a multi-enterprise family firm. As such, she emerged as an influential newspaper publisher and columnist, bank president, savvy business owner, and conscientious civic crusader. Through her own self-confidence and canny business sense, she became a formidable competitor in Fayetteville’s male-dominated business establishment. Her resolve was reflected in her signature column in the Northwest Arkansas Times, “As I See It”:
So long as a woman does poorly and the lords of creation can say, “Oh, it’s nothing but a fool woman,” they are fairly content, for they must, every mother’s son of them, have a woman to do much of the work. But let a woman do WELL and she is all but burned at the stake. I will say for the benefit of those who may be interested, I did not choose business as a career, it was thrust upon me. I did choose it in preference to going broke or dissipating my heritage and that of my children.
Intensely interested in politics, Fulbright challenged a corrupt local political machine and, later took on governor, producing a chain of events leading to he4r son’s election to Congress. In her column, she extolled the virtues of women’s talents, and she campaigned for an equal right for women in public life. In doing so, she was a moving force for acknowledgement of women in nontraditional roles, long before feminism became a movement.
Stuck and Snow have produced a brisk, lively story, drawing from a genealogical records, numerous interviews of family members, business associates, and friends, and the almost two million words written by Fulbright in her column. Renowned southern historian Willard B. Gatewood Jr. has said of this work: “I really appreciate [the authors’] treatment of [Roberta] as a person— inquisitive, assertive, benevolent, etc. They have captured superbly the family matriarch, incessant thinker and talker, the indulgent grandmother, and gifted gardener. This is truly a good ‘read’ and represents a highly significant achievement.”
Dorothy D. Stuck (1921-2021) was a journalist and publisher of three eastern Arkansas newspapers. She was awarded the Press Woman of the Year Award in both 1964 and 1969.
Nan Snow worked as a newspaper reporter and as the Federal Women’s Program Coordinator for Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. She served on the Arkansas Governor’s Commission on the Status of Women during the 1970s. She is also the author of Letters Home.
“As the study of women’s history has burgeoned over the last 25 years, the discovery—or the rediscovery—of remarkable women of the past has been a revelation. For those of us who grew up learning little about women’s achievements and contributions, it is a joy to hear the voices of women once silenced, to reopen the record of lives largely forgotten. Dorothy Stuck and Nan Snow add to our growing, though still too small, repository of information about memorable women who received little notice or credit for the roles they played in the larger world.”
—Ruth B. Mandel, Professor and Director, Eagleton Institute of Politics
“As this biography so vividly conveys, Roberta understood our need to be world citizens long before the ‘global economy’ was recognized, and she believed with equal passion in her community and her globe. She had a unique down-to-earth way of urging involvement and citizen action. We need her talents today! So much that Roberta Fulbright said back before World War II remains uncomfortably apt that this book is quite contemporary, not only historical, in its impact. I admire how deftly Stuck and Snow have framed this biography to let Roberta Fulbright speak for herself. I find myself bringing this ‘remarkable Fulbright’ into conversation frequently since I read it. She comes alive in these pages and I catch myself quoting her tart observation often.”
—Jan Piercy, U.S. Executive Director, The World Bank
“Authors Stuck and Snow, while obviously great admirers of the woman, are objective and tireless enough to sort out all the intricacies of her life story and give the lucky reader a portrait of her that is endearing, illuminating, and unforgettable.”
—Donald Harington, The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, February 1997
“This book is dedicated to the scores of Arkansas women whose gifts of self and service have helped shape Arkansas history and whose stories have never been told. Now Roberta Fulbright’s story is told. In an era when women were expected to stay in the background, out of the public eye, Dorothy Stuck’s and Nan Snow’s excellently written and researched book portrays Roberta as a fearless woman ahead of her time, a remarkable Fulbright.”
—Ruth Marie Dildy, Arkansas Historical Quarterly, Winter 1997
