LeAnn Underwood met her late husband, Bill, when they were college students. Finding each other was an indirect path forged by fortuitous timing and old-fashioned persistence.
Many people may remember Bill Underwood’s distinctive voice from commercials for Underwoods Fine Jewelers, the business he founded while pursuing his business degree at the University of Arkansas. LeAnn typically operated behind the scenes in the business. Together, they built a supportive marriage, active family life and successful local business, sharing decades of love and adventures.
For LeAnn’s 40th birthday, Bill designed a diamond pendant that cleverly represents both her initials “LU” and 40. He called it her “signature piece,” and she’s worn it every day since.
While Bill was the outgoing one of the couple, LeAnn noted her strengths are her steadiness and the stability she’s provided her family over
the years. Since Bill’s death in 2023, LeAnn has made her home at Butterfield Trail Village, in the company of many longtime friends and frequent visits with family.
FROM SMALL-TOWN BEGINNINGS
LeAnn and her older sister were born in the family farmhouse in Elm Springs — which they called “Elam” — which had no electricity or indoor plumbing. When she was 4, the family moved to a house on Shiloh Street in Springdale, then a town of around 5,000, and attended the Methodist church on Johnson Avenue. LeAnn and her two sisters, Kay and Ginny, stayed outside until dark, never locked their doors, caught crawdads and played in Spring Creek near Bluff Cemetery.
Their mother, Alberta, was a schoolteacher, and each Saturday they all helped her with chores.
They often walked downtown to Emma Avenue and paid a dime or nickel to see the afternoon double feature at the Concord theater, typically a western in those days.
Their dad, Roy Ritter, raised broiler chickens and turkeys at his Arkansas Quality farm, and also had a vineyard and apple orchard. He paid the girls a penny per quart to pick strawberries. He founded AQ Chicken House in 1947 when LeAnn was 12. At 16, she began waitressing there. Roy later served as mayor of Springdale from 1975-1979 and on the University of Arkansas System Board of Trustees from 1955-1974.
LeAnn’s smart and ambitious parents expected their daughters would go to college, which they did. LeAnn had played the snare drum in high school band. At the U of A, she was the sole female drummer, and the band director got her a red drum, while all the guys had white drums. At the U of A, she went through rush and pledged a sorority her sophomore year. She still talks regularly with three sorority sisters now living in Florida and Texas.
With no previous foreign language education, LeAnn had decided to major in Spanish. Then, the only professor who taught Spanish got another job in South America. The U of A president suggested to her dad that LeAnn attend the National Autonomous University of Mexico and then another American university that offered Spanish. Her dad insisted she stay within the Southwestern Conference, so she picked the University of Texas.
Her summer trip to Mexico City was her first time on a plane. There, she stayed with a host family alongside students from Texas, Colorado and Kansas. Unable to reach her daughter by phone, her mother got on a plane to visit and make sure she was safe. LeAnn attended UT Austin her junior year.
MEETING HER LIFE PARTNER
LeAnn worked at AQ Chicken in the summers throughout college, and she met Bill the summer after her junior year. A 24-year-old freshman from Oklahoma, Bill was attending a rush party with several fraternity brothers she knew from her early college years. He had gone to horology school for two years to learn watchmaking, before serving four years in the Navy. He’d started college at the University of Oklahoma and also worked for the John Roberts Company there. They said he could manage their Fayetteville store if he moved here.
Once when LeAnn was on a date at the Bubble Club, Bill cut in to dance. When he gave her his card, “I thought, ‘Who is this?’” Bill started calling her for dates, but she always had to work. When they finally set a date, he broke it because his family visited unexpectedly. Bill wasn’t discouraged though. When she decided to return to the U of A for her senior year, she moved into her sorority house, and they began dating. LeAnn took shorthand and several accounting classes her last semester to make herself more employable.
LeAnn had a job interview set with Pan American Airlines, but canceled it after Bill proposed. They married the summer after she graduated in 1958. A photo of them, her at 22 and him at 26, is among a collection of family photos in her office.
The John Roberts Company offered to sell their store to Bill for $1,000. When he couldn’t get a bank loan, he borrowed the money from his parents, who operated a gas station in Mountain View, Oklahoma. At first, he mainly sold collegiate jewelry and trophies. But early on, a steadfast guide that led to enduring success was to never compromise on quality. Bill became the first Certified Gemologist in Arkansas, and he focused on creating pieces that would last for generations.
“What intrigued me about him, he was a hard worker, ambitious, and very kind,” LeAnn said.
GROWING A LOVING FAMILY
In their first year of marriage, they welcomed their oldest daughter, Michelle. When LeAnn had to quit her job at Arkansas Western Gas because she was pregnant, her dad offered her an office job at his restaurant. She took the bus to and from work in Springdale each day until Michelle was born.
Bill was taking business classes at the U of A in the mornings and opening the store at 10 a.m. His professors liked that he was directly, immediately using what he was learning in school. He often came home for dinner, then returned to the store for a few more hours.
Craig was born three years after Michelle, and then Vicki arrived 10 years later. With only one car, LeAnn stayed home to raise the kids and save on childcare. They outgrew houses on Treadwell and Broadview, eventually settling into their home on Rockwood Trail, where they spent 37 years.
Through the jewelry business, LeAnn and Bill traveled around the world – sourcing pearls in Japan and other gems at fairs in Italy. Bill, who’d once
considered Navy flight school, was an instrument-trained pilot and often flew the family to ski trips to Colorado and beach vacations in Florida. He was in a flying club and had started with a small plane, then bought a twin-engine when their family grew to five.
BUILDING AN ENDURING FAMILY BUSINESS
Bill rented a store space from Emil Sonneman, whose father had built the UARK Theater, among other buildings on Dickson Street. Bill soon met the local architect Fay Jones, who was interested in opening his own office. Fay and Bill worked through the design of their new building located right next door, built in 1966, which houses the jewelry store on the ground level and the architecture firm on the second floor. Bill insisted on an interior with clean, elegant spaces for displaying jewelry and providing customer service – so the jewelry wasn’t overshadowed by the store design.
With their youngest in kindergarten, LeAnn went to work at the store, handling the merchandise and doing paperwork in the back office. She preferred to stay out of the spotlight. “When they called me to come up front, I knew they were desperate for help because that was not my thing,” she said. Craig’s wife, Laura, later started managing the office once their youngest was in school.
Craig, now president, had joined the store in 1987; in 1991, it was named the Best Single-Store Jeweler in America and inducted into the National Jeweler Hall of Fame in New York. Craig’s middle son, Troy, is now vice president and the third generation in the family business.
LeAnn became good friends with the former Diane Kincaid, and their daughters were in school together. The women regularly took a midday break to play a few sets of tennis. Diane also introduced LeAnn to the Modern Literature Club, in which she’s read many great books she probably wouldn’t have chosen herself.
MAKING A HOME AT BTV
Bill and LeAnn were familiar with BTV for years – his mom, her aunt and sister, their friends’ parents had all lived there. After several good friends also moved in, Bill and LeAnn accepted an offer of a ground-floor apartment in 2018. Daughter Vicki decorated it with new furniture, several large prints of nature photographs by Craig, a simple watercolor of the Underwood Building and many family photos.
Bill and LeAnn still lived in their house for a few more years. During the COVID pandemic, the jewelry store stayed open, and Bill continued to work there. After dealing with memory problems for a while and a brief illness, Bill died in April 2023. LeAnn moved to BTV full time that summer.
Over the past few years in her new home at BTV, LeAnn has enjoyed the fitness activities, talks on various subjects, and classes for nearly any interest. Most days, she walks 6,000 steps or more around the campus and eats meals in the dining room.
“You can go and you can always find somebody to eat with. You can always find something to do. But if you don’t want to be with people, you can come in and close your door,” she said.
LeAnn starts each morning with a cup of coffee from her automatic coffee machine. She reads The Wall Street Journal that’s delivered to her door, as well as the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette online. She has also learned to play Mahjong, which she plays with others on Thursdays.
She is an avid reader, mostly consuming books on her Kindle and iPad. She likes all of Louise Penny’s books, and she tries to read the books that win the Pulitzer Prize and the Booker Prize. Vicki recommended a favorite recent read, The Correspondent.
LeAnn treasures her family above all and is incredibly proud of her eight grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Once the grandchildren came along, the entire family started vacationing together at a beach house every other year. A wall of family photos reminds her of their times together on the beach, on a cruise and in many other adventures and special moments.
