You may already be aware of the trivia fact that there is in only one cemetery in the United States that is divided by a US Highway.
Coop Prairie Cemetery, located just one mile due east of the Sebastian-Scott county line in Mansfield is bisected by US Highway 71 South. It is the final resting place of farmers, bankers, miners, children who died too young, housewives, and a few scofflaws.
It's also where an Academy Award-nominated actor, who was born and raised in nearby Yell County, has been buried since 1979.
Arthur Hunnicutt may not be a household name now but from early 1940;s through the mid-1970s Hunnicutt was one of the most respected and frequently employed "character actors" in cinematic history.
It was a career that him nomination for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1952 for this portrayal of "Uncle Zeb" in "The Big Sky", a Howard Hanks directed western that starred Kirk Douglas. (Karl Malden won the statue that year for a little film called "A Streetcar Named Desire".)
Hunnicutt is mostly remembered for portraying of wise, grizzled, old rural characters in films and on Broadway.
Born in 1910, Hunnicutt graduated from high school in Yell County in 1928, and then attended Arkansas State Teachers College (now the University of Central Arkansas), in Conway.
The lack of money for books, board and tuition forced him to drop out in his junior year and he moved to Martha's Vineyard, Massachusetts, where he joined up with a theater company.
He then moved to New York City and soon found himself landing roles in Broadway productions.
While touring as the lead actor in "Tobacco Road," he developed the country character he would later be typecast as throughout his career.
He moved to Hollywood in the early 1940s and appeared in 14 B-Western films, from 1942 until 1944, including "Silver Queen" (1942), "Frontier Fury" (1943), "Johnny Come Lately" (1943), and "The Chance of a Lifetime' (1944).
In 1945 he returned to the stage but in 1949 he moved back to Hollywood in 1949 and resumed his film career. He played a long string of supporting role characters who were sympathetic, wise rural types, as in "Lust For Gold" (1949), "The Great Dan Patch" (1949), "Broken Arrow' (1950), "Stars in My Crown" (1950), "The Red Badge of Courage" (1951), "Sugarfoot" (1951), his role in "The Big Sky" (1952), "The Lusty Men" (1952), "The Kettles in the Ozarks" (1955), "The Last Command" (1955, as 'Davy Crockett'), "The Tall T" (1957), "Cat Ballou" (1965, as 'Butch Cassidy') and "El Dorado" (1966, as John Wayne's sidekick 'Bull Harris').
From the 1950s through the 1970s, he made nearly 40 guest appearances on American television programs, including "Bonanza," "Gunsmoke," "The Outer Limits," "The Rifleman," "The Andy Griffith Show," and "The Twilight Zone."
In 1963 he made two memorable appearances on the television show "Perry Mason," as orange grower 'Amos Kennesaw Mountain Keller' in "The Case of the Golden Oranges," and prospector 'Sandy Bowen' in "The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito."
His last film was "Moonrunners" (1975, as 'Uncle Jesse'), that was the precursor to the television show "The Dukes of Hazzard."
During his career, he appeared in over 35 films.
Hunnicutt died of tongue cancer at the age of 69 in Woodland Hills, California on September 26, 1979.
His widow, Pauline “Pebbles” Lile Hunnicutt, never remarried and lived until March 6, 2010 when she died in Little Rock at the age of 97.
Her body was buried next to Arthur's in a simple, common plot at Coop Prairie.
