He has a long and upstanding reputation as a leader and great role model in the community, and Johnny White is no stranger to the residents of Cabot, Arkansas. He grew up in Lonoke, Arkansas. He graduated high school in 1969 and entered Southern Arkansas Magnolia College on a basketball scholarship.
Labeled a Jack-of-all-trades by some, White admits he has a long roster of achievements. “I’ve done a lot of things.”
White spent 38 years in education. Thirty-six of those years were served here in Cabot, where he was the Athletic Director and Transportation Director for 26 years, coached basket ball for 12 years, golf for over 30 years, and volunteered for the Parks and Recreation for 3 years.
White notes, while Cabot is a great place to live, he has seen it change over the years. “When I first came here, Cabot was a small community, and now we are the second largest high school in Arkansas. I’ve seen so much growth. Our school system is still a great school system.”
White was instrumental in implementing several facilities in the school system at a time when the district was struggling financially. “We were very poor when I first came here, but we have taken and done the most with our money,” acknowledged White. “We didn’t have much money in our athletic department but the kids never lacked for anything, because we did fundraisers and raised money all the time for them.”
After serving over three decades in the school system, White says he still has the energy to do it, but he knew it was time to make a change. “It was time, I felt. I needed to do something else. They needed some new blood in there, and I wanted to go out on top,” said White.
As a young boy growing up, White’s family owned a truck stop, before his mother became the owner of the Corner Café in, Lonoke, where she was known for making the best burgers and homemade pies in town. White admits, that had a lot to do with his decision to purchase the old, Grand Pa’s BBQ, on Pine Street, in Cabot. You might say, he was in the right place, at the right time.
“I went in one day to have lunch and the restaurant was closing,” said White. “That was on a Thursday, and they were closing on Sunday, so Monday I owned the place.”
Since their opening day in January, White renamed the restaurant, Pa Pa’s Place, and has relocated to a larger building located at, 2798 S 2nd Street, in Cabot. White admits having the restaurant is fun, but it has been challenging and time consuming.
“The biggest challenge is making ends meet. You are making pennies on the dollar, and then trying to pay your taxes. Taxes eat up most of the profit in small businesses.” White expressed, he is optimistic that his business will be a success. “We have really good food, and there’s a lot of good people here in this community that will come in and support us.”
Before opening his new restaurant, White started a turf cleaning business to clean artificial football fields. In addition, he recently patented a disinfectant that cleans 99.9 percent of the germs on the fields. “I feel like these fields have a lot of bacteria on them. Most people don’t believe there is, but I know there is.” White notes, if he could keep one child from getting an infection caused by bacteria on the field, then he know he has done well.
Although White’s favorite sport to play is Golf, he admits, there is something most people do not know about him. “I like to mess with plants, landscaping and stuff like that. I have a knack for that. I knew when I took a class in college that I liked plants, and I don’t know why but it just kind of hit me up, so I’ve enjoyed it.” White revealed, he landscaped for more than 25 years, which helped him pay his children’s college tuition.
In his spare time, he enjoys traveling to places like Europe and Greece. He admits one of his favorite places to visit is, Prague, Capital of the Czech Republic. “Prague is a very safe city. It was never bombed during the war. There are hundreds of old churches there. The architectural is just beautiful. You can go anywhere from Prague.”
White has also traveled to Austria, and toured Salzburg, where they filmed the famous musical production, The Sound of Music. “That was one awesome trip. I felt like I was a part of The Sound of Music,” said White. He adds his next goal is to go back to Prague and catch a train to Rome.
White has two daughters, Kelly and Amy. Kelly is a Marketing Director, while Amy is the Women’s Golf Coach at Arkansas Tech University. “I knew that Amy would make a great coach because she is very compassionate about what she does,” said White. White also has one grandson, 12, year-old Hayden, and one granddaughter 5 year old Kinley who he is very proud of.
