It’s impossible to capture the essence of Charlotte Schexnayder in the space of an obituary. She was hard to contain in life, as well: Happy for you to join her, but if you couldn’t keep up, it was best to get out of her way.
Schexnayder died on Friday at the age of 96, and she left behind a legacy of goodness.
One need only look back to her college days to see that she was something special. She started college at age 16, which should tell you a lot about her. At LSU, she studied sociology and journalism, subjects that would define her entire life. She graduated in 1944 and then walked straight into the McGehee Times newspaper and went to work as editor.
That would be rather unheard of now, even with newspapers being shells of their former selves. But in 1944, a weekly newspaper was a juggernaut and would demand smarts and maturity and an ability to write an unpopular story about the mayor on Wednesday and go to church with him on Sunday. She was all of that and more, possessing the wherewithal to navigate both her newspaper to success and herself into a leadership role at the state Capitol where she served in the House of Representatives for 14 years.
Her accomplishments are many, with many of them firsts for women.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
According to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas: “She was the first woman elected to the Little Rock chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, and she became its first female president in 1973. She was elected president of the National Federation of Press Women in 1977, and she became the first female president of the Arkansas Press Association in 1981. She was elected treasurer of the National Newspaper Association in 1989 and became the association’s first female president in 1991.” It seems that any organization she joined, before long, she was its president.
Schexnayder was also courageous. Picture the South during the civil rights movement and being the editor of a weekly newspaper. Taking a stand in support of the desegregation of Little Rock Central High School would not have been popular, to say the least. But there was Schexnayder, a Yellow Dog Democrat, leading the charge.
A snippet of an exchange with a fellow lawmaker sized her up.
“During her first week in the House in 1985, a fellow legislator advised her that she would be fine if she just sat and listened,” according to the Encyclopedia of Arkansas. “She replied, ‘You obviously don’t know me very well. I’m not a sideline sitter, and I always have plans.'”
We seriously doubt that was the only time she put someone in their place — someone who made the mistake of looking down on this rather diminutive woman who would not take no for an answer and worked hard as a journalist and lawmaker to look after her beloved Dumas and the whole of southeast Arkansas.
Schexnayder has been out of the limelight for several years now, but she continued her support for many causes, and when she attended an Arkansas Press Association convention, she was always the belle of the ball.
Ashley Wimberley, executive director of the press association, may have summed up Schexnayder best: “I often say Charlotte was a major force in the newspaper industry, but really she was a major force in life.”