Gary Elmore had the kind of voice that was always a pleasure to hear – even at 6 in the morning.

For more than 15 years, many of us in this area woke up to Gary’s popular “Arklahoma AM,” the live, news/talk show on radio station KWHN in Fort Smith. His sudden death last month from unexpected heart complications was a shock to his fans, friends and family. How can we not all miss his voice and his smile?

Gary had one of the world’s best smiles. It was a broad, sincere, open-hearted – sometimes mischievous – toothy grin that lit up his face and eyes. You could even “hear” that smile in his voice, many who knew him would say.

Gary’s voice was one of his biggest assets in his professional, personal and pastoral roles. In addition to being a talented radio personality and announcer, Gary was a beloved husband, father, grandfather and family man. He was also a gifted singer and pastor in the church he co-founded, God’s House of Prayer in Fort Smith.

Nearly 600 of his colleagues, fans, friends, family and church members attended his funeral at the Mansfield High School Gymnasium.

Gary graduated from Mansfield High School in 1972 and worked part time at a Van Buren radio station while attending college in Okmulgee, Okla. He quit college after six months to work in radio full time and went on to enjoy an award-winning, 30-year broadcasting career. Several of his industry awards were for play-by-play sports coverage of high school and college basketball.

Always a sports fan, Gary was never able to play school team sports because his left arm was paralyzed by polio when he was 2 years old. But he had the grit and ingenuity to learn how to play backyard “tackle” football. And he earned the nickname “Lefty” for the way he played in his early 20s on a men’s softball team, despite his handicap. Those experiences helped him develop his play-by-play broadcasting skills.

The only game I ever saw Gary “broadcast” should have won an award, even though it wasn’t ever aired on the radio.

The baseball game was the final one of the season between the Tiger Spurs, a scrappy team of kids with disabilities, and the Old Fort Dandies. The Dandies and the kids were playing their hearts out and everyone was yelling and cheering and Gary was sitting at the microphone in the announcer’s booth at Crowder Field calling the plays like it was the ninth inning of the final game of the World Series.

I wish you could have seen and heard that game. And its “broadcast” was just typical of the kind of heart and energy Gary seemed to put into every thing he did – from his regular morning shows and commercial spots on KWHN to his volunteer emcee duties for charitable events and fundraisers such as the Gridiron shows he and one of his former Arklahoma AM co-hosts, Daren Bobb, used to do together.

Bobb has long admired his friend’s professionalism.

“Within a couple of minutes, Gary could do his show prep for the entire morning and know exactly what was going on,” recalled Bobb, who is now a KFSM TV news anchor and was a pallbearer and speaker at the funeral of his friend and former radio partner. “He was the professional’s professional.”

“Watching Gary run the studio board was amazing – he could do with one arm what most of us couldn’t do with five,” says Claude Legris, another colleague, friend and frequent guest on Gary’s morning show. “And you could always hear that smile in his voice … .

Claude and Gary also worked together on the committee that produces the Mayor’s Annual Fourth of July Fireworks event each year. Gary enjoyed producing KWHN’s live broadcast of the fireworks and recorded the music selections timed to be broadcast during the fireworks, Gary’s widow, LaRhesa told me last month.

During that broadcast, listeners may get to hear the song “Heal Me,” a recording Gary and LaRhesa made last Christmas as a gift for family members.

Bryan Harris, Gary’s radio co-host, asked the family’s permission to include the song. Bryan says he still isn’t used to Gary not being in the studio with him any more. And many listeners say they miss him, too.

Hopefully, the fond memories of the popular broadcaster “with the smile in his voice” will endure for years to come.

 

Linda Seubold, editor of Entertainment Fort Smith Magazine, can be reached at lindaseubold@efortsmith.com. Read her archived columns and articles online.

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