Magnolia banker, historian, 105, dies

Thomas Archie Monroe urged his son, Ark Monroe, to remain at War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock for the end of the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville’s football game with Louisiana State University in 2002.

The Razorbacks were trailing 17-7 with less than eight minutes to go, and the two had stood for most of the game. Archie Monroe was 93, and his son was concerned that his father was becoming fatigued.

Instead, upon Archie Monroe’s request, the two remained to see Arkansas win 21-20 on a last-second p l ay in wha t ’ s referred to as the “Miracle on Markham Street” game.

“He told me after, ‘ See? If you stick with me, you won’t miss anything important,’” Ark Monroe said of his father.

It was an idea that Archie Monroe held onto for his entire life.

Monroe, 105, died in his home Tuesday. He had suffered from congestive heart failure, his son said.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 63 years, Elena Schley Monroe. He is survived by his son, Ark Monroe of Little Rock, and his daughter, Sarah Schley Jones of Batesville.

Monroe was born in Magnolia in 1909 — the same year Southern Arkansas University was founded as the Third District Agricultural School. He graduated from the school in 1929, the year it became accredited as Magnolia A&M, and was the oldest living graduate of the university at the time of his death.

In 1931, after earning another degree at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, he embarked on a banking career in Little Rock. But eight years later, he returned home to Magnolia to own and manage the Magnolia Insurance Agency, which was founded by his father.

Monroe also served as a trust officer and later as president for the First National Bank of Magnolia and was one of five founders of the First Federal Savings and Loan Association of Magnolia.

“He took me under his wing,” said Charles Tripp of Magnolia, who began working for Monroe in 1972 and eventually bought the insurance company from him years later. “He was like a father to me. He was a true Southern gentleman.”

Monroe became involved in the community, twice serving as president of the Magnolia Chamber of Commerce. He promoted the thriving cotton industry in the 1940s and then, when natural gas drilling became prevalent in the area in the 1950s and 1960s, he recruited businesses that would support that venture.

He passed community involvement on to others.

“When I began working for him, he said, ‘ Oh, you’ll be the chairman of the Magnolia United Way, too,’” Tripp said. “He said, ‘and you’ll raise $160,000 in your first year.’”

Magnolia Mayor Parnell Vann said he would visit Monroe and ask him questions about issues the Columbia County city was facing.

“If Archie didn’t know it, it didn’t happen,” Vann said. “He lived and breathed Magnolia, and he knew everything and everybody. Everybody strove to follow his footsteps. Every town needs more Archies.”

Vann said he last saw Monroe in October.

“People still went to him for information then,” he said.

Monroe was known as the town and county’s historian because of his wealth of knowledge of the area.

“Attorneys who were working on titles would call him up and ask him to make family links,” Ark Monroe said. “He knew everyone.”

When Ark Monroe went off to college, he and his father would write each other two or three times a week. In his letters, Archie Monroe would offer advice to his son.

“He didn’t live vicariously through me, but he gave us good guideposts to follow,” Ark Monroe said. “My roommate [at college] would see a letter from [Archie] and say, “What’s the coach telling you today?’”

Archie Monroe would spend mornings reading each story in three newspapers at his home, and then he’d head to his insurance company, where he’d read the Wall Street Journal daily.

He also read scores of books, and when his eyesight began failing him, he turned to audio books.

Ark Monroe remembered that one of the last books his father listened to was a biography on The Beatles.

“He cared about the community, and he instilled that in us,” Ark Monroe said. “He watched it grow, and he helped Magnolia become what it is.

“He was 105, but we thought he’d live forever.”