Willette Cartwright Lollar

Willette Cartwright Lollar (born Frances Willette Tackett) died Wednesday, April 26. She was 87 and full of life.

First child of Doyle and Verna Tackett, Willette was born July 7, 1935, in Russellville, Ark., and was an only child until her baby brother, Bill Tackett arrived 6 1/2 years later. During her youth in Russellville, Willette was a Rainbow Girl, a majorette, and homecoming queen of Russellville High School Class of 1953. She was well known as a class clown — and as a beautiful blonde who was friends with everyone.

Willette worked hard to graduate a semester early, and at 17, she married the love of her life,  Robert L. (Bob) Cartwright, two years older and designated “Dreamboat” by Willette in her sophomore yearbook. They moved into married student housing at the University of Arkansas, and Willette sold shoes in The Boston Store in Fayetteville, until her pregnancy with first daughter Laura became noticeable and she was forced out of her job. Fortunately, this was during Bob’s last semester of college, and they moved to Little Rock when he graduated.

Just over three years later, Cathy was born, and the family was complete. A classic and gifted stay-at-home mother for many years, Willette (and her mother) made most of her daughters’ clothes (and her own, including evening gowns). She made elaborate birthday cakes, took her daughters to piano and dance lessons, and made their dance costumes. She served as PTA president (and held other offices) several times, was a devoted and hardworking member of Park Hill Presbyterian Church for decades, and was a dedicated member of Beta Sigma Phi from her mid-20s on. She played bridge with the girls during the day, and sometimes couples bridge in the evenings. She and Bob also had a large group of friends who had frequent parties, often themed.

In her late 30s, she discovered and nursed a talent for art and became a prolific painter, and as her daughters got older, she worked a variety of part-time jobs, then helped her husband begin Cartwright Construction Company. After Bob was diagnosed with Stage IV cancer at 47, she learned to care for him at home as much as possible and rarely left his side when he was hospitalized. He died six weeks after their 29th wedding anniversary.

Thirteen months later, she married Bill Lollar, her beloved companion for the next 29 years, until he died unexpectedly in 2013. Bill became a comfortable member of the same friend group, and the parties continued for many more years.

Thinking back over her life in her later years, Willette said one of the things she was most proud of was having the courage to expose the “spoiled milk scandal” in the North Little Rock School District during the mid-1960s. You probably won’t find it in any historical records, but people lost jobs over it.

Willette was a survivor — as well as two husbands, she lost her health to almost 40 years of rheumatoid arthritis and 14 years of myelodysplastic syndrome, and gradually lost her vision to autoimmune retinopathy. Despite it all her spirit remained sunny.

In addition to her husbands and parents, Willette was preceded in death by her brother and his wife, Bob’s sisters and their husbands, Bill’s brothers and their wives, and a host of cousins, as well as her best friend Barbara Woodyear, whom Willette said she missed everyday.

She’s survived by her “girls” and their husbands, Laura and John Hardy and Cathy and Paul Carreras; her grandchildren, Ben Hall, Liz Hall (and her husband, Brent Stroud), Robert Crawford, and (step-granddaughter) Marie-Noelle Hardy; and her seven great-grandchildren.

She is also survived by her stepdaughter Lisa Lollar Anderson and sister-in-law Bettie Sleet, her brother Bill’s children and grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews from her two marriages.

Willette spent her last years as a happy resident of Presbyterian Village, which became home to her, and her family thanks everyone there for their care and love. Her daughters also thank Dr. Kamel Patel for giving her so many extra years of life.

Memorials may be made to Park Hill Presbyterian Church, Presbyterian Village, CARTI, or the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Visitation is Wednesday, May 3 from 5-7 p.m. at Smith North Little Rock Funeral Home, followed by the funeral Thursday, May 4, at 1 p.m. at Park Hill Presbyterian Church. Burial at Pinecrest is for family only.