As the school year winds down, seniors reflect on their past, say their goodbyes, finish classes, and prepare themselves for whatever the future may hold. For Liberty Eylau’s Brailey Stewart, there’s one additional task: finishing her last season with the track team.

Brailey has been a member of Liberty Eylau’s track team since middle school. “When I was younger, I played softball, but then when middle school came around, I was really into a bunch of other stuff,” she said. “So I started running summer track, but ninth grade was when I really started to take it seriously.”

Dr. James Morris brings a wealth of experience and knowledge to his work in Texarkana, and his financial expertise serves him and the community well. However, James said that his foundational ethic does not require an MBA to understand.

“I live by what I call ‘the anti-poverty program,’” he said. “‘I was hungry, and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me something to drink. I was naked, and you gave me some clothes.’”

Texarkana USA is on the move, and it’s a sight to behold. A gleaming new airport terminal welcomes newcomers, a fiber optic network will soon pulse underground, and three megasites stand ready to redefine the future. In 2024, the Arkansas Manufacturing Center earned a rare Silver Grade from the Site Selectors Guild, the East Texas Logistics Center landed a $1.5 billion data center prospect, and the TexAmericas Center was ranked third nationally by Business Facilities Magazine. This isn’t just progress—it’s transformation, and Texarkana’s people are driving it.

In a cozy office in Texarkana, a unique insurance agency thrives—not just on policies and premiums but on trust, loyalty, and a deep-rooted sense of family. For Teresa Smith and her son, Malachi, partners at Higginbotham Insurance and Financial Services (formerly known as Barry Insurance Agency), running a business together has been more than a professional journey. It’s been a personal one, strengthening their bond while serving their community.

Friends Jasmine Cree and Madeline Haak are both proud to call Texarkana their hometown. Their bond blossomed on the volleyball court at Pleasant Grove High School, where they quickly became inseparable. Over the years, their connection has only deepened. 

Jasmine and Madeline, who both hold master’s degrees in communication, now work together at a local business. When Jasmine had the idea for a pro-Texarkana social media page, she asked Madeline to help.

For decades, the sports complexes of Texarkana, Texas, have been more than just ball fields—they’ve been beloved spaces where friendships are forged, rivalries take shape, and generations of athletes create lifelong memories. From the excitement of youth league games to the roar of regional tournaments, these facilities have shaped generations of athletes and fans alike. Now, after years of dreaming, planning, and securing the necessary funding, the City of Texarkana, Texas, is in the final stages of a long-anticipated transformation of two of its well-loved sports facilities: the Swanger Baseball and Grady T. Wallace Soccer Complexes.

Jo Ann Rice’s family moved to Texarkana when she was just 2 years old. She graduated from Dunbar High School, earned her associate’s degree from Texarkana College, and later obtained both a bachelor of science and a master of science from East Texas State University, now known as Texas A&M University–Texarkana. Jo Ann has been lending her strength and energy to the Texarkana community her entire adult life. 

After 15 years as the executive director of Leadership Texarkana (LT), I will be stepping away from that position on June 1st. It’s time, and I’m excited to begin the next chapter of my life. At the same time, I’m extremely proud of the tenfold transformational growth Leadership Texarkana has experienced since 2010.

American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, “Music is the universal language of mankind.” No matter what language you speak or where you come from, music can resonate with any soul. This concept has driven Texas High School senior Ryker Meadows to become a bassoonist and aspiring professional musician.

The Sullifarm Chateau, a charming home and part-time AirBnB, boasts a backstory steeped in simplicity. Annemarie Sullivan, the owner, transformed her grandfather’s old dairy barn into a peaceful retreat set amidst the serene Piney Woods of East Texas. After a decade of dairy farming, James Davis, Annemarie’s grandfather, retired the barn from its agricultural duties, and it sat unused for the next 35 years. Annemarie saw something greater for the barn.

Claude Marshall Freeman served in the United States Army on the frontlines of World War I in France and Germany. After all he endured and experienced during the war, Claude was grateful to return home to his hometown of Simms, Texas, with a plan. After seeing beautiful gardens in Europe, Claude felt inspired to start grafting fruit trees and growing different varieties of plants back home in Texas. So, in 1925, Freeman Nursery launched, and 100 years later, the family business is still blooming.

The yearly Home & Garden Show brings together builders, remodelers, suppliers, and various companies from the home and garden industry in the Texarkana area. If you’re looking for inspiration and guidance for your home improvement endeavors, this is an event you won’t want to miss. Open to the public at no cost, this year’s show is scheduled for Saturday, March 22nd, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Crossties Event Venue.

Growing up in Louisiana, Clare Oliver was always surrounded by animals and spent much of her time outdoors. Her family members grew gardens, and those early years helped her see agriculture as a labor of love. Today, she and her family have built Vesta Homestead, a small working farm in Genoa. Through this growing business, Clare takes pride in her work and in the community she serves.

Sometimes challenges can help a family find its purpose. This was the case for one Texarkana family whose health issues sparked lifestyle changes that ultimately led to the creation of a small business. Back to Roots, a health and wellness market, is a family-owned business that strives to offer options that are not available in larger retail stores.

Most people who know Gay Vaughan know her as “Miss Gay.” As a preschool teacher at First Baptist Church for over 20 years, Gay taught hundreds of Texarkana-area children until her retirement two years ago. Prior to her career in early childhood education, she had been a stay-at-home mom to her own three kids, one of whom just became a parent himself.

Growing up, 37-year-old Doug Mann accredited his social discomfort to his status as a white English-speaking person in a predominantly Hispanic community.

“I grew up about a mile from Mexico, and so almost everyone I went to school with was Hispanic, spoke Spanish at home, and was very culturally different from me,” he reflected. “I was the minority. I didn’t fit in for obvious reasons.”

Humility is an essential quality for any basketball player. It allows them to recognize their strengths and areas for growth, both on and off the court. For Lily Armstrong, a ninth-grade basketball and track athlete at Albert J. Murphy Junior High in Genoa, humility is a core value that has fueled her journey from rookie to leader.

When asked about our days, many of us might reply that “work was a zoo.” Dr. Zachary Legan, an oral surgeon at Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery of Northeast Texas, takes pride in his office’s calm atmosphere, where he can help patients “in a way that is not anxiety-provoking,” he said. But, some days, Zachary’s passion pulls him to work at a literal zoo—specifically the Little Rock Zoo, where he treats animals experiencing dental pain or disease.

In 2003, when Derek Matthews was just 5 years old, he was injured in a serious ATV accident. Once he recovered, his father, Shon, felt inspired to change careers: after nearly two decades working at Alumax Mill Products, Shon began pursuing a new vocation as a first responder. He joined a volunteer firefighter department as well as the first-responder team at the mill. He went on to attend EMS school, and in 2007, he joined LifeNet part-time and concurrently pursued paramedic education. In 2009, he was hired full-time.

Local paint contractor Gary Williams began the year on a kidney transplant list and ended it with a new kidney, donated by his son-in-law Jimmy Sorenson.