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Why was LR placed in the middle of the state?


bigboyz05

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Now if someone could just explain how and why Rodney Parham Road can make so many 90 degree turns and retain the same name, please do so. Also, who is or was Rodney Parham?

I have no idea who Rodney Parham was, although I've always wondered myself. As far as making as many turns as it does... I wonder if it was an existing rural road from back in the day. When St. Vincent Infirmary moved to it's current location in the 1950s, the Sisters of Charity complained that it was in the sticks and too far from town. Rodney Parham is even further west than. So my speculation has always been that it was an existing rural road that found itself absorbed into the city.

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  • 2 months later...

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Also, who is or was Rodney Parham?

No idea if this is accurate or not, but a pretty interesting story if it is:

Rodney Parham was a young mentally disabled Arkansas boy. When the Union army bivouacked near his home he was fascinated. He was caught watching them from a short distance and abducted. <br style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">An inexperienced Union officer hanged him for a spy. The inept soldiers failed to fashion a proper knot and the poor boy hung by his neck in agony for almost an hour before dying of exhaustion. <br style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Many landmarks in the area are named in honor of his tragic sacrifice.<br style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><br style="padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Who_was_Rodney_Parham_ave_named_for#ixzz1NFD8I9pg

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  • 2 years later...

I know this is an old post, but I wanted to clarify some wrong info.  I think the person on that Answers website is confusing Rodney Parham for David O. Dodd.  There is not much info on the web about Mr. Parham, but apparently he was a mover and shaker in LR in the 1950's.  There was a Rodney H. Parham who was a standard-bearer for public education in Arkansas in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but I assume the street is named for the 1950's Parham.

 

David O. Dodd was the "boy martyr of the Confederacy" who was ineptly hanged.  Although much of the detail in the above account is incorrect, too.   The Encyclopedia of Arkansas has an article about him:

 

http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2536

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