Obituary: Bobby Don Shores (1935-2025)
Bobby Don Shores of Waldron, Arkansas went to be with his Lord and Savior, Thursday, April 10, 2025 in Waldron, Arkansas with his family by his side.Bob was born September 22, 1935 in Waldron, Arkansas to Samuel Shores and Vonnie Mae (Cook) Shores. He was 89 years old.
Bobby Don grew up in and around Waldron. He left Waldron and went to Missouri where he met and married the love of his life, Peggie Sue. He worked for 40 plus years for Continental Baking Company. Together they lived and made life for 67 years. After retirement they relocated to Waldron and made many wonderful friends and made the music circuit. Bobby and Peggie were notorious for their love of music. Sharing their talents by playing in many churches, senior centers and nursing homes across this part of Arkansas and beyond. Bobby played by ear. He could remember lyrics from his childhood. Bobby was a kind and warm person. He had a gift for being a people person. Throughout the years, he helped many family members who continued to check in, stop by and call on a regular basis just because. Bobby enjoyed having fun, laughing and spending time with his loved ones.
Bobby Don leaves behind to cherish his memory, one son, Larry Don Shores and wife Cindy, grandsons: Trenton Don Shores (Christy) and Jacob Lee (Angel) and great grandchildren: Logan, Evan, Riley, Brendan, Emily, James and Kylee and great great grandchildren, Adeline and Nevaeh. Bobby Don will be missed by all that knew him and the many whose lives he impacted including a host of extended family, friends and loved ones.
Bobby Don was preceded in death by his loving wife of 67 years, his parents, Samuel and Vonnie, and all his siblings.
Bobby Don’s life celebration will be 2:00 p.m. Saturday, April 19, 2025 at the Heritage Memorial Funeral Home in Waldron, Arkansas with Rev. Doyle Reynolds officiating. Interment will follow in the Pilot Prairie Cemetery near Waldron, Arkansas. Arrangements are being entrusted to the Heritage Memorial Funeral Home in Waldron, Arkansas.
Bobby Don’s visitation will be Saturday, April 19, 2025 from 1:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m. at the Heritage Memorial Funeral Home in Waldron, Arkansas.
Church Makes Donation to Local Emergency Services Provider
A church’s mission to carry the gospel outside their four walls proved to be a blessing to a local EMS provider.
On Saturday, April 12, the pastor, his wife and several congregational members of the Family Worship Center in Van Buren presented Southwest EMS with a check for $4,000.
“We have a lot of givers in our church, and we want to be a blessing to our community,” shared the pastor’s wife, Penny Ring. Pastor Terry Ring agreed, stating, “We are blessed to be a blessing. Not a handout to just receive, but to reach out and be a blessing.”
A blessing it was, as Mike Hines, SWEMS Director of Operations, accepted the donation. “This money will be used to equip our trucks with ultrasound equipment.”
Members of the congregation were not only generous to donate financially, but they also catered a meal to crew members. Two SWEMS alumni and members of the church, Tommy Gregory and Ronnie Schader, enjoyed reminiscing about their days of service.
With sincere appreciation for the service the men and women of SWEMS provide on a daily basis, the church extended a prayer of gratitude. That same expression and ministry in action that they have, in the past, extended to the Crawford County Sheriff’s Department, and King’s Elementary School.
“We are so grateful for this church,” commented SWEMS Education Director Ryan Rowe. “We are humbled that they choose us, and we want to continue to provide the very best service we can to our community… This donation will certainly help us do that.”
Benefits of using natural dyes, plastic dyeable eggs this Easter
By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture
Dyeing and decorating eggs is a longstanding part of Easter celebrations for many families, but for people concerned about egg prices and food allergies, Cooperative Extension Service experts suggest giving natural dyes and dyeable plastic eggs a try this year.
Angie Freel, Howard County extension family and consumer sciences agent for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said high egg prices due to highly pathogenic avian influenza may have some families reconsidering using real eggs for Easter decorating.
“Many people may be wondering if it’s worth the current investment to dye ‘real’ eggs for Easter this year, at nearly $6 to $7 per dozen at some stores,” Freel said. “Fortunately, there is an alternative to using real eggs to dye. Dyeable plastic Easter eggs are available online for $1 to $3 per dozen and may even be available at local discount stores.”
Plastic dyeable eggs often come with a dyeing kit and instructions for use. In addition to being cost-effective, using plastic eggs also eliminates the food safety element that comes with using real eggs.
“With a plastic egg, if it’s been hidden outside and you don’t find it for a few weeks, you won’t have a terrible smell,” Freel said. “And if you do choose to use real eggs for dyeing, do not eat them if they have been out of the refrigerator for more than two hours. If the temperature is above 90 degrees, leave them out no longer than one hour.
“Realistically, it’s not a very safe option on the chance someone eats an egg that has been out of the refrigerator for more than two hours,” Freel said. “There is also a risk of bacterial contamination while dying the eggs.”
Natural dyes
Freel said families may also want to consider using natural ingredients to create dyes for their eggs.
“If people choose not to use natural dyes, the artificial ingredients used to make some dyes could produce an allergic reaction in some people,” Freel said. “Some food dyes have been banned, but people might use one kit for several years before using it up.”
Natural dyes also allow families to experiment with many different colors, and Freel said the natural dyes produce deeper, richer colors.
“Using natural dyes on your eggs gives them a subtle yet gorgeous color, and the longer you leave them in the dye, the darker they become,” Freel said. “You may want to experiment with color variations by combining one or more of the dyes and leaving them in the refrigerator overnight in the dye bath to darken the color.
“You can add designs to the eggs by wetting and sticking small leaves and flowers to the egg, wrapping them tightly in a strip of pantyhose and securing the top with a string or rubber band before submerging in the dye,” Freel said. “And once the eggs are dyed and dried, I like to rub the eggs with a coat of vegetable oil for a beautiful sheen.”
Freel said families should use the following method to dye real or plastic eggs with natural ingredients:
Combine one quart of water with two teaspoons of vinegar, doubling or tripling this recipe as necessary. Submerge either hard-boiled eggs or your dyeable plastic eggs. You can even hard boil the real eggs in the dye for a brighter outcome. Bring the water to a boil, then add your natural ingredients:
- Red onion skins create an orange/red color
- Turmeric creates a bright yellow color
- Beets create a pink color with white eggs or maroon color with brown eggs
- Red cabbage creates a blue color
- White onion skins or leftover coffee create a tan color
The heat from boiling helps to release the color from the item into the water, and the vinegar helps the dye adhere to the egg. If using real eggs, boil the eggs as usual, then add the vinegar and dye item after boiling, although doing it all at once speeds up the process.
For more information on eggs, substitutions in cooking, or natural egg dyes, visit the Life Skills and Wellness Resources page on the Cooperative Extension Service Website.
To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three campuses.
Pursuant to 7 CFR § 15.3, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services (including employment) without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, sexual preference, pregnancy or any other legally protected status, and is an equal opportunity institution.
CBD Oils: Do you know what’s inside?
By Maddie Johnson
University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture
Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station
Since the 2018 Farm Bill effectively legalized hemp-derived cannabidiol — better known as CBD — there’s been an exponential growth in products hitting the market, but a newly published study suggests consumer understanding of the products has not kept pace.
“You’ve now got new products on the market that have never been there before, and so there’s a pretty long learning curve for the average consumer,” said Brandon McFadden, professor and researcher of agricultural economics and agribusiness in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences and for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
CBD oils go by many names and contain a variety of ingredients. For example, “CBD isolate” only contains CBD, but “full-spectrum CBD” contains other compounds such as terpenes and flavonoids, which can contribute to aroma, flavor and overall therapeutic effects.
Full-spectrum CBD also can contain up to up to 0.3 percent delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, by weight — the legal threshold set by the federal government for hemp-derived CBD products.
Products with THC levels above this threshold would be classified as marijuana and considered illegal under federal law. THC is known for its psychoactive properties, but there is debate on whether any psychotropic or intoxicating effects are felt for THC levels below 1 percent, McFadden noted.
Considering the many types of CBD products and their distinctions, McFadden led a study surveying consumers to gauge their confusion when it came to product names. Those surveyed completed two product selection tasks. In both selection tasks, consumers chose between CBD isolate, hemp oil, full-spectrum CBD and broad-spectrum CBD, which is a middle ground between the isolate and full-spectrum choices and contains no THC.
In one task, respondents were provided the common name of three CBD oil products, as well as hemp oil, and were asked to imagine they were purchasing 1000-mg CBD oil for themselves or a loved one. In the other task, they were faced with the same choice but were given more information about the products’ contents. The content information included concentration levels of CBD and THC, as well as the presence of additional compounds.
The consumers surveyed included those who had reported previous CBD purchases and those who had not.
The study, “Consumer Confusion About Product Names Commonly Used to Describe Hemp-Based Oils,” was published in the Journal of Consumer Affairs in February.
McFadden said he was surprised by the study’s finding that there was significant interest in CBD isolate among those surveyed who had not previously used CBD products.
“It did seem like there were consumers who were potentially interested in purchasing CBD, but because there was such a learning curve and a lack of knowledge, they wouldn’t participate in the market,” McFadden said.
The findings also showed that for consumers with a strong preference, it was not easy to identify their preferred product based on product name alone. In fact, some consumers who reported previously purchasing CBD products had difficulty distinguishing between CBD oil types.
Co-authors of the study included Kawsheha Muraleetharan, University of Arkansas graduate research assistant studying food science and technology; Benjamin Campbell, University of Georgia professor of agricultural and applied economics; Adam Rabinowitz, Auburn University professor of agricultural economics and rural sociology; Tyler Mark, University of Kentucky associate professor of production economics; and Michael Popp, Harold F. Ohlendorf Professor of agricultural economics and agribusiness with the Division of Agriculture. Popp is also a Bumpers College faculty member.
The work was supported in part by a grant from the Federal-State Marketing Improvement Program from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service, project USDA-AMS-TM-FSMIP-G-20-0004.
Labeling made modern
To combat consumer misconceptions, McFadden pointed to the use of “smart labeling,” which uses technologies such as QR codes on product labels to allow consumers to gain more information than would fit on a printed label, especially the small bottles and containers in which CBD products are often packaged.
“It’s a very powerful tool across all products to provide more consumers with more information, fostering consumer education, which is particularly important for things like new products like CBD,” McFadden said.
McFadden added that these QR codes can take consumers not just to text on product information but to other media, such as videos, to aid in educating those who may not have done prior research.
“So that’s why providing them information at the point of purchase can be very important because they’re unlikely to spend much time before going to a store selling it,” he said.
Mention or depiction of product names does not imply endorsement by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.
To learn more about the Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website. Follow us on X at @ArkAgResearch, subscribe to the Food, Farms and Forests podcast and sign up for our monthly newsletter, the Arkansas Agricultural Research Report. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit uada.edu. Follow us on X at @AgInArk. To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit uaex.uada.edu.
About the Division of Agriculture
The University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture’s mission is to strengthen agriculture, communities, and families by connecting trusted research to the adoption of best practices. Through the Agricultural Experiment Station and the Cooperative Extension Service, the Division of Agriculture conducts research and extension work within the nation’s historic land grant education system.
The Division of Agriculture is one of 20 entities within the University of Arkansas System. It has offices in all 75 counties in Arkansas and faculty on three system campuses.
Pursuant to 7 CFR § 15.3, the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture offers all its Extension and Research programs and services (including employment) without regard to race, color, sex, national origin, religion, age, disability, marital or veteran status, genetic information, sexual preference, pregnancy or any other legally protected status, and is an equal opportunity institution.
