Note from John Vinson:

Mr. Huddleston was on the trivia quiz at our 30th year reunion. 

Who walked the halls of BHS saying "Fine Day".

Coincidentally this article by Wilson Powell came out on Monday following our reunion.   Thanks to the Batesville Guard for permission to reproduce this article on our website.

July 26, 1999
Batesville Guard

Remembering Huddelston
Wilson Powell, Then and Now

Philip James of Batesville has written the following short tribute to the late Harold Duane Huddleston:
"The first time I ever saw him he was coming onto the grounds of old Batesville High School. He said to me, 'Hello, old lad. It's a lovely day in Chicago.'
"He had come to teach vocational agriculture. He got along well with the boys and young men and taught it well for a number of years.
"Soon after he came to Batesville he courted and married Miss Mary Carpenter, daughter of Horatio "Rash" Carpenter and sister of Wesley, Alvis and six other brothers of basketball fame.
"Years later I would hear from him, by now calling himself 'the old sodbuster.'
"I can imagine him saying to his keeper of the pearly gates: 'Hello, Pete, old lad. Down on earth, it's a lovely day in Chicago.'"
Huddleston did indeed teach vocational agriculture and serve as principal at Batesville High School. I think I can account for his seeming preoccupation with the weather in Chicago.
During his military career, he served in an agriculturally related capacity, attaining the rank of major. His tour of duty included stops in Chicago, and eventually Japan. No doubt Chicago's lake-generated weather impressed him.
From Batesville he went on to serve as assistant principal at North Little Rock Ole Main and died in 1982 at the age of 62. His widow, Mary Carpenter Huddleston, was a native of Batesville and died in 1998.