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Arkansans world-class.

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Editor's Note: Arkansas shows up at the bottom of so many surveys and rankings and lists that its sometimes easy to forget that she also produces and attracts talent that is second to none. While we were looking back over the decade that has passed since the death of Arkansas' most famous adopted son, Sam Walton, the Arkansas Business staff decided to spend a few pages profiling a handful of Arkansans -- by birth or choice -- who have competed at the highest levels of their chosen fields and proven themselves to be world-class. There are, of course, many others who would be right at home in this company.

John Grisham

Jonesboro native John Grisham didn't invent the legal thriller, but the genre has made him a publishing phenomenon.

The lawyer whom Publisher's Weekly called the best-selling novelist of the '90s now lives in Oxford, Miss., but his ties with his native state remain strong, and several of his books have events that take place in Arkansas. In a departure from the legal thrillers that made him famous, A Painted House, one of his more recent efforts, is the story of a young boy growing up on a farm in the 1950s in northeast Arkansas.

Grisham often returns to his native state, and his frequent book signings at That Bookstore in Blytheville have helped make Mary Gay Shipley's shop a local landmark.

Born Feb. 8, 1955, to a construction worker and a homemaker, Grisham moved with his family to the Memphis suburb of Southhaven, Miss., in 1967. Early on, he wanted to be a professional baseball player. Like most boys who dream of that career, he didn't have the talent.

Grisham never took a creative writing course in school. He attended Mississippi State University, graduating in 1977 with an accounting degree. Then he went to law school at the University of Mississippi, graduating in 1981. Grisham married Renee Jones that same year.

He practiced law for nearly a decade in Southhaven, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. He was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1983 and continued to serve, there until 1990.

Few read his first novel, A Time to Kill, until it was reissued after the runaway success of The Firm, his second novel. It was the top selling book of 1991, spending 47 weeks on The New York Times list, and was made into an A-list film starring Tom Cruise.

With the success of The Firm, Grisham resigned from the Mississippi legislature. His most recent book, The Summons, marked a return to the legal thriller and debuted in February as No. 1 on the best-seller lists.

Grisham cranks out about one novel a year. More than 60 million copies of his books are in print worldwide in 29 languages.

In 1994, Grisham bailed out The Oxford American, a struggling literary magazine based in his town. A Painted House ran as a serial in the magazine before it was published as a novel in 2001.

Grisham lives with his wife and two children on a farm at Oxford, and he also has a plantation near Charlottesville, Va. Renee Grisham edits her husband's manuscripts.

Grisham is known for his charitable work and has taken mission trips with his church. His involvement in Little League baseball is well known. Besides serving as the local Little League commissioner, he had six ball fields built on his property for 26 Little League teams to have a place to play.

JOHN HENRY

Dr. Jonathan J.

Drummond--Webb

Jonathan J. Drummond-Webb is an Arkansan by choice, having arrived in Little Rock from South Africa by way of Salt Lake City and Cleveland just 18 months ago.

He is chief of pediatric and congenital...

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