Posted by DEAN SKIP RUTHERFORD – These cartoon prints were originally displa
yed on the walls of the Farkleberry Restaurant which opened in 1975 in the Regions Bank Building in downtown Little Rock. Public relations executive Ron Robinson proposed the Farkleberry Restaurant theme to bank chairman B. Finley Vinson. The Farkleberry, a bush which grows in the wild, was made famous by the late George Fisher, an award winning Arkansas Gazette cartoonist. The legend of the Farkleberry is based on a story about Arkansas Governor Orval Faubus, who refused to let a Highway Department crew cut one down.
After the Farkleberry Restaurant closed in 1988, the late Jack Fleischauer of Regions Bank collected several of the prints and later donated them to the Clinton School. In tribute to Fisher, Farkleberry bushes are planted on the east side of the Clinton Presidential Park near the river. This rotating cartoon display honors Fisher, Fleischauer and the Farkleberry Restaurant (1975-1988).