Obliged to Help
Adolphine Fletcher Terry and the Progressive South
Stephanie Bayless

Author Stephanie Bayless examines why this Southern aristocratic matron, the
daughter of a Confederate soldier, tirelessly devoted herself to improving the lives
of others and, in so doing, became a model for activism across the South. It is the
first work of its kind to consider Terry’s lifelong commitment to social causes and is
written for both traditional scholars and all those interested in history, civil rights,
and the ability of women to create change within the gender limits of the time. Adolphine
Fletcher Terry died in Little Rock, Arkansas, in July of 1976, at the age of ninety three.
Her life was a monument to progress in the South, particularly in her native
state of Arkansas, a place she once described as “holy ground.”

Stephanie Bayless holds a master’s degree in public history from the University of
Arkansas at Little Rock. She is a certified archivist and currently works in the
Manuscripts Division of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies. Bayless lives in Little
Rock, Arkansas, with her husband, daughter, and son.

September 2011
6 x 9, 168 pages,
18 photos, index
$22.50 cloth
ISBN 978-1-935106-32-6

Distributed for the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies.