Dale Ross’s A Voice for Ira

One of Carroll County’s claims to fame is being the birthplace of iconic long-time Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown. Born in Green Forest in 1922, Helen left the county as a child. As an adult, her career path included work as a secretary, ad copywriter, and author before reinventing Cosmopolitan in the 1960s as a magazine for modern single women. After her death in 2012 at the age of 90, she and her husband David Brown–a noted movie producer in his own right who worked on Jaws, among other films–were buried in Sisco Cemetery here in Carroll County at her mother’s family’s plot.

However, as local historian Dale Ross explains in his book A Voice for Ira, Helen’s father Ira is an interesting figure in his own right. Both of Helen’s parents were schoolteachers, but Ira also pursued a successful political career in the 1920s and 1930s. He served multiple terms as a state representative before being appointed Game and Fish Commissioner. He had signaled an interest in running for Secretary of State before he was killed in a bizarre elevator accident in the summer of 1932.

Arkansas was deep in the grip of the Great Depression at the time, and nobody really questioned the details of the fatal accident. Ross, though, systematically pokes holes in that original narrative. As Ross himself notes, he’s not accusing anyone of murder or any other crime, but the “investigation” was so badly botched that it is hard not to see it as anything but a coverup, which makes the entire story suspect.

A Voice for Ira is a quick read–it’s only 100 pages long and easily read in a single setting–but it packs a lot into its pages. The main focus is the fishiness around Ira’s death. Without going into too many spoilers, the fact that the incumbent for the position Ira planned to run for conducted the investigation himself, refusing to call in authorities and wrapping up the case within hours, is a pretty good indication of the problems with the prevailing narrative. But Ross also profiles Ira’s life, his daughter’s career, and the general context of what life in Arkansas was like in 1932.

If you’re interested in local history and/or like a good real-life mystery, definitely check out Dale Ross’s A Voice for Ira. And now is the perfect time to do so to prepare for the Friends of the Berryville Library’s next local author talk, “Telling Your Story”! On Saturday, November 4, from 10 am to 11:30 am at the Berryville Community Center, we’ll be chatting with Dale about his book and also talking about how you can start recording your own stories. We’d love to see you there!

Have you read A Voice for Ira? What local history story intrigues you the most? Tell us in the comments! As always, please follow this link to our online library catalog for more information on any of these items or to place them on hold.