Effie Jean Porter

Jean Porter was born to Arch and Jura Hamilton on January 7, 1928, in Poteau Oklahoma, and died at age 96 on August 28, 2024, in Little Rock’s Home Hospice Care Facility. 

Most of her childhood was spent in Eastern Oklahoma, her teenage and young adult years in California’s San Joaquin Valley, and the last 50 years of her life in Central Arkansas. She married at age 16 in 1944 and became a mother at 17. Her first daughter, Linda White, died at age 19 of diabetes. A second daughter, Laurie Kirby, was born with a severe neurodevelopmental disorder in 1963. Jean devoted the rest of life to helping Laurie and similarly challenged children. Working with governmental officials and private sector companies Jean founded the North Hills Community Home for developmentally disabled children in Sherwood Arkansas in 1974. However, the profound nature of Laurie’s disability prevented her residency. Laurie was admitted to Conway’s Human Development Center in 1972, where she Jean volunteered for many years, and Laurie still lives today. Jean began work as a hairdresser in her twenties, owning her first shop at age 28. She excelled as a businessperson. She worked hard, had an attractive sales personality, was frugal, and loved her job. She did hair for sixty years, finishing her career in her mid-eighties working in residential rehabilitation facilities. She also loved team bowling (as a young adult), team pool shooting, and slot machines! At age 87, her local eight-member pool shooting team qualified for a national tournament in Las Vegas where they competed among hundreds of other teams, lasted for four days in the elimination competition, won many games, and did well enough to take home $300 each and huge trophies. Jean played pool locally three nights a week as an individual shooter, often beating men less than half her age. She did even better at the slots, several times hitting big jackpots at her favorite Mississippi casino just across the river. Once, her picture appeared on a freeway billboard after cashing in for $30,000. On her 90th birthday, she drove alone across the river to celebrate by playing the slots one last time. Jean didn’t attend Sunday church services but was a devout believer in the Divine. For many years, she played piano and sang the old gospel hymns at gatherings throughout the state. Although some of her favorite activities took her to bars, pool halls, and casinos, she wouldn’t touch alcohol, drugs, or tobacco. She felt God had kept her alive so long to extend her time watching over Laurie. 

Jean is survived by her daughter Laurie Kirby, her brother Lynn Hamilton of Little Rock, her nephew Clay Hamilton of Sherwood who provided devoted care for many years, and 10 other nephews and nieces living throughout the country. A brief graveside service will be held at Arkansas Memorial Gardens in North Little Rock, on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, at 11:00 am.