When John Cooper Sr. started Bella Vista Village in 1965, his vision was a "graduated retirement community." Over the years since then, we have become a bedroom community for employees of Walmart, vendor companies and other employers in nearby cities (retirees already in the minority in the 2010 census), but back in the late 1960s and for the next three decades or so, Bella Vista was focused on retirees.
Gil Fite, writing about Cooper in his book From Vision to Reality, said, "People, he believed, would first spend a weekend, then longer vacations and finally full retirement in a community that offered a beautiful environment and attractive facilities."
As more and more investors from surrounding states and further north became property owners with the idea of eventually living in Bella Vista, it became popular to form groups with other Bella Vista property owners living in the same city or same state so they could socialize with those with whom they had the common dream of moving to Bella Vista. Later, after moving to Bella Vista, they continued to enjoy socializing with others from the same city or the same state.
According to the Village Vista of April 1968, the first such group known to have formed was that of property owners in the Kansas City area. They gathered on March 2, 1968, at a Kansas City restaurant, with 65 people present, and decided their name would be the Missouri-Kansas Bella Vista Dreamers, shortened to the Mo-Ks BVD's. That meeting was arranged by Mr. and Mrs. Walt Ealey of Mission, Kan. (coincidentally her first name was "Welcome"). The Village Vista published her report on the meeting, and ended the article by saying, "For persons interested in forming such groups in other areas, the Village Vista will be happy to help all it can." (Note: The Village Vista had been established by Cooper in July 1965 as a monthly promotional publication.)
That publicity evidently gave Bella Vista property owners in Oklahoma City the idea, and they met the following month at a restaurant, on May 25, as reported in the June 1968 Village Vista. Pauline and Ernest Early formed that group, and Mrs. Early's report to the Village Vista stated, "In spite of heavy rains, 34 people were present." She said that they hadn't decided on a name but thought about calling themselves "The Lost Souls of Bella Vista" since so many of them had trouble locating their lots. Again, the Village Vista encouraged more property owners to form similar groups, saying "The Vista will be happy to help any group of property owners in any area form a social club...."
By 1971, several other cities had indeed formed clubs in their home cities. The October 1971 issue of the Village Vista reported a regular meeting of the Oklahoma City BVD's. The Vista also reported monthly meetings being held by a group of Wichita, Kan., property owners. They started out as the Bella Vista Shockers but changed their name to the Bella Vista Club of Wichita. Enid, Okla., had formed a group and traveled to Wichita for a joint meeting in September 1971. The Enid group named themselves the Bella Vista Gang.
Enough retirees were moving to Bella Vista by 1971 that some states had already formed groups of residents to meet in Bella Vista or nearby. South Dakota had a group that met in Bella Vista, and the Iowa Club of Northwest Arkansas held semi-annual meetings in the local area. They were first called the Iowa Club of Northwest Arkansas and Southwest Missouri but later changed their name to the Bella Vista Iowa Club.
The October 1973 issue of the Vista reported, "An organizational meeting for a new Bella Vista -- Bentonville Minnesota club would be Oct. 8 at Blowing Springs." And in 1978, a Greater Kansas City club for northwest Arkansas residents was organized.
There continued to be interest by property owners still living in other states to get together. By 1977, there were 810 Bella Vista property owners living in Minnesota, and the Aug. 2, 1977, issue of the Weekly Vista stated that Carol and Selmer Drolsum of Minneapolis had sent letters to all, inviting them to join a new statewide club for Bella Vista owners to meet in Minnesota.
Mr. Drolsum said, "Living 500 to 1,000 miles from their Arkansas property should not keep Minnesotans from getting acquainted, organizing and solving their mutual problems."
That fall, the Drolsums had a directory for members of the Bella Vista Club in Minnesota nearly ready to be sent to a publisher. (The Drolsums retired to Bella Vista in the late 1980s. Unfortunately, Mr. Drolsum passed away of cancer in 1993. His wife Carol, now 95, is still living in Bella Vista. In a recent conversation, she remembers all that work that she says her husband did. She modestly refuses to take any credit for it, saying, "That was Selmer's project. He was really into doing all that.")
The Jan. 31, 1978, the Weekly Vista reported that the Drolsums organized a meeting of Bella Vista officials to speak to a group of over 350 Minnesotans in Minneapolis on Jan. 21. At that meeting, the POA general manager, Don Carter, welcomed any constructive criticism or suggested improvements and said, "If we had a Selmer Drolsum in every state, we would be very pleased and probably have fewer problems."
The Dec. 6, 1977, issue of the Weekly Vista reported that the Drolsums continued efforts to establish groups in other states. In late 1977, they sent letters to property owners in North Dakota, South Dakota and Wisconsin, after receiving approval from Don Carter to proceed. They had obtained names and addresses from POA computer records and proceeded to publish directories for each state. Regardless of her recent disavowal of any role in the effort, the article stated, "Carol is the bookkeeper. She wants every member to get a directory. According to her figures, she will break even with a good response and a $3.50 donation from each respondent."
By 1978, Selmer Drolsum was writing long distance from Minneapolis a column for the Weekly Vista called "B.V.D's -- Lets Talk About Them." One such article stated that getting the property owners together helped them expose "their B.V.D.'s -- their Bella Vista Dreams, Bella Vista Dilemmas, Bella Vista Detours, Bella Vista Delights."
And the Drolsums continued to help property owners in other states form clubs. They started working on Nebraska in February and sent a directory to all 1,559 property owners there in April, along with an invitation to join. Carol Drolsum was quoted in the April 11, 1978, Weekly Vista, "Selmer, the eternal optimist, predicts that Nebraskans will soon pay for the directories and our printing, mailing, and postage bills." They organized the first meeting in Omaha held May 21 that year. Coincidentally, that was 13 years to the day since John Cooper Sr. had sold his first lot in Bella Vista.
Next, the Drolsums worked on property owners in Iowa, sending directories and invitations to 1,696 owners, with the first meeting held in Des Moines on June 4, 1978, again with Bella Vista officials, realtors and home builders on-site to answer questions. Altogether the Drolsums organized clubs of Bella Vista property owners in at least six states.
Today, some state and city clubs still meet locally, others have come and gone. The Nebraska Club is the only one currently listed on the Property Owners Association website under Clubs. With a large percentage of our population working full time, there is less time for club get-togethers than there was when Bella Vista was mostly retirees with plenty of free time on their hands.
Community on 05/13/2020