Thanks to Clinton School Dean Skip Rutherford for this news:

Vada Sheid of Mountain Home, the first woman in her own right elected to the both the Arkansas House of Representatives and Arkansas State Senate, died this morning at her home. She had been ill with Alzheimer’s. Funeral services will be Thursday at 2 p.m. at Mountain Home’s First Methodist Church. Senator Sheid led the local campaign for the bridge over Lake Norfork (replacing a ferry) and also was instrumental in securing appropriations for Arkansas State University-Mountain Home.  A close ally of the late Highway Director Henry Gray, Sheid helped secure significant road improvements for North Central Arkansas. Her autobiography “Nothing Personal—Just Politics” is scheduled to be published later this year.

She was elected to the House in 1966 and then to the Senate in 1976. She lost a Senate race in 1984, then ran again for the House in 1992 and served until 1995. (An earlier recitation was incorrect on several counts.)

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