10 May 2026 The smile at the front door

Posted at 11:01 PMh in Features by

By Vivian Lawson Hogue

Mary Louise Jumper was a woman after my own heart, partly because of her great knowledge of Old Conway’s history and people.

From 1996 to 2021, I had an extensive personal project through the Log Cabin Democrat for which I toured and wrote about Conway’s historic homes. My 103 columns were bi-weekly, full pages of homeowner interviews and researching their home histories and descriptions. One of the most enjoyable interviews was with Mary.

She was born in Okolona, Ark., in 1915. She passed away in 2010 at age 94, taking her remembrances and congeniality with her. Her children have both passed but surviving are Jack Jr.’s wife, Karen, his son, Jack III, and one grandson. Through our long conversation and a family compilation of her stories, we have much to know about her. She was one of our experts on Conway history and we owe her much for that.

Her impressive home at 1011 Mitchell St. was convenient to everything that was Old Conway – schools, neighborhood groceries and her church. It was built by her father-in-law, W. E. Jumper, in 1927. “Conway had no natural gas at the time, so there was one fireplace and several wood heaters and a wood cookstove in the kitchen,” Mary said. Well-known architect William Van Valkenburg designed it and included his favorite feature of arched doors and entrances.

Mary and her family, which included her husband, Jack Sr., and children, Mary Ann (Jumper) Hauschild and Jack Jr., moved to Conway in 1949 from Morrilton, where Jack Sr. owned and operated a shoe store. He also owned the Conway Shoe Store. It was there where kids would hop onto the X-ray machine that was intended to better assess what kind of shoes customers needed. Obviously, no one considered then the dangers of using X-rays for entertainment. 

Mary had earlier attended Columbia University in New York and had additional training at Arkansas State Teachers College (now University of Central Arkansas), where she studied for a teaching career. However, her attention would become devoted to her home and children. She served as secretary at Conway High School for more than 20 years and is remembered as calm, helpful and efficient, but mostly for her amiable manner and ever-present smile. High school students during her time served still have her in their pleasant-memory cache. Upon her retirement, she began valuable articles for the Log Cabin Democrat about Conway’s history and people.

As we visited, she stroked her blue-collared tabby cat. She said quietly, as if she had not thought of it before, “You know, there are three wedding dresses in the attic. Four generations of Jumpers have lived in this house.” To the Jumpers, the house was part of their family. To the city, it was part of its landscape. To many Conway residents, it is still part of a collection of landmarks as well as memory sources of family and friend gatherings. 

But the truth is, it was The Smile greeting a visitor at the arched front door that disclosed its full value.

The late Mary Louise Jumper lived at 1011 Mitchell St. Four generations of Jumpers lived in the home.

The original pages of Vivian’s Conway house histories may be accessed at the University of Central Arkansas archives in the Vivian Lawson Hogue collection. The collection is titled “Time Passages.” 

Vivian Lawson Hogue
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