Betty T. Sloan

Betty Sloan spearheaded the efforts of one ofNortheast Arkansas’ largest farming operations as president and manager of E. Sloan Farms and B&G Land Co., both family-owned corporations. The late Eugene Sloan founded E. Sloan Farms and put together 15,000 acres that stretched over four counties. His son James assumed control upon his father’s death, and he and Betty, married in 1946, leased land to progressive young farmers. James Sloan passed away in 1979, and Betty Sloan and oldest son John took control of the operation. When John returned to college to pursue a Ph.D. in 1990, Betty took over and served as president of the corporations. Born inPrescott(NevadaCounty), Betty earned a bachelor’s degree at theUniversityofArkansasin 1945. She worked as a home economics teacher for one year, and then spent three years working for theNashville(Tenn.) Dairy Council while James was in law school at Vanderbilt. Long active as an advocate in social and agricultural endeavors, Betty received the McGimsey Preservation Award from the Arkansas Archeological Society in 1998 and was named one of the Top 100 Women in Arkansasin both 1996 and 1997 by Arkansas Business. Additionally, in 1996 she was inducted into Gamma Sigma Delta, the Honor Society of Agriculture; earned a Distinguished Service Award from the Arkansas State University College of Agriculture in 1992; and received the Roy H. Jolley Leadership Award from the Jonesboro Chamber of Commerce in 1993. In 1992, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission and theUniversity ofArkansas Cooperative Extension Services recognized her for her contributions to the Acres for Wildlife program. She worked with the Good Earth Association’s nonprofit organization inRandolphCountyto establish the Sloan Heritage Farm on land adjacent toOldDavidsonvilleState Park. The group restored old farm machinery and organized field days where they demonstrated heritage farming practices and sorghum molasses production. Betty Sloan remains interested in issues affecting agriculture, including water quality and quantity, and the development of biofuels markets.