Blessing New Boston

2025 Doyle Corley Humanitarian of the Year Beth Little is recognized for her compassion toward people and animals in need
By Alex Hartline

photo by shane darby.

From a young age, Beth Little has been passionate about caring for living creatures. As a young person, she took care of friends’ pets in her parents garage and then spent time before and after school working at a veterinary office. After high school, Beth began working with Dr. Randall Murray, a local veterinarian. When he decided to open his own practice in 1989, he took Beth with him, and together they opened Westridge Animal Hospital. She’s worked alongside him ever since, although in recent years, she’s scaled back her hours there to focus on her role as resource coordinator at Rock Solid Resource Center, the community nonprofit that she cofounded with her husband in 2018.

When her partner, Robert Little, became the pastor at Plentiful Harvest in New Boston, Beth realized that the community in West Bowie County was in need of resources that could only be acquired by taking the trip to Texarkana. “Together, we started just loving on the community,” Beth said. “We were doing outreaches through the church every week. Robert even proposed to me at an outreach.” They got the idea for Rock Solid after visiting a similar community resource center. Beth and Robert initially opened the resource center and thrift store in Hooks, but after about a year, they relocated to New Boston, where the center remains today.

Rock Solid Resource Center comprises a food pantry, thrift store, and countless community partnerships. They work with many local churches and businesses to hold diaper, blanket, and fan drives for the community. RSRC is operated by a few employees, several regular volunteers, and many people earning community-service hours. Rock Solid works with the elderly population, pregnant women, domestic violence survivors, people who are just getting out of incarceration or rehab, and anyone else who needs support, no matter what their situation is. They help beneficiaries access various resources, depending on individual needs. “All these people that come in—they have a story, and you might not know a hundred percent of it,” Beth said, “but we don’t look down on them. We just try to help them—because there have been certain times where, if I’d missed one paycheck, I could be them.”

Beth and her team set up a booth for Rock Solid Resource Center at a National Night Out event in New Boston. submitted photo.

Beth ensures that her employees and volunteers receive just as much love and support as the community members they help. From letting some of her community-service volunteers use her car to take their driving tests to helping one of her employees afford much-needed dental work, Beth is devoted to taking care of the people who make the work she does possible. 

Earlier this year, Beth was awarded the Doyle Corley Humanitarian Award by the New Boston Chamber of Commerce for her selfless contributions to the community. “Usually somebody’s going to get around to telling the person [being honored], but Robert made sure that nobody knew,” Beth said. “I remember I was going up there [to accept the award], and my hands were shaking, and I thought, ‘How in the world did I get to be Humanitarian of West Bowie County?’ I just had no idea. It was such an honor.”

Over the years, the RSRC team has worked to improve their facilities, and Beth has plans to keep growing. Several rooms are currently in the process of renovation and are intended to house offices for partner organizations, such as the workforce agency or Agency for the Aging.

Outside of Rock Solid, Beth does ministry work at the Telford penitentiary, where she facilitates a class called Bridges to Life. She also helps out at God’s Closet, the clothing closet at her church. Beth still works with Westridge to make sure owners always have food available for their pets, and, on rare occasions, to help rehome pets. Altogether, this often means she’s working 12–16 hours per day. 

“Sometimes I do get so tired, but God’s just helping me along,” she said. “He’s like, ‘You got this. I’m right here, and you can do this, and I’m going to send people in to help you.’” The people she has met and the real change she has made in her community make those long days worth it, and she doesn’t plan on slowing down any time soon.