Submitted by Jane E. Gregory (3550 E. View Dr., Lafayette, CA 94549)
From Centennial History of Arkansas, Volume 2 - 1922, pp. 966-967:
Clyde E. Pettit, a representative member of the Arkansas county bar, practicing at Stuttgart since 1902, was born in Mount Sterling, Iowa, in 1881. His parents were Edwin and Annie B. (Means) Pettit. The father, a native of Iowa, was a son of Jesse Pettit, a member of one of the old pioneer families of that state. Edwin Pettit, who for almost forty years has been and still is in the active practice of law, following a most successful legal career, removed to Arkansas with the family in 1883 and took up his abode at De Witt, while subsequently he became a resident of Stuttgart. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Annie B. Means, was a native of Missouri and by her marriage she became the mother of four children: Clyde E., Lela Maude, Ethel and Arthur. The elder daughter is now the wife of Floyd Wingo, now state commander of the American Legion, Department of Arkansas, and a brother of Congressman Otis G. Wingo. Mrs. Floyd Wingo is a graduate of Columbia University, New York, also of the Woman's College of Frederick, Maryland, and she devoted time to sociological work in New York City. The second daughter, Ethel, attended the Belmont and Columbia universities and became an accomplished vocalist, winning fame as a prima donna in several noted musical productions. She is now the wife of Arthur Somers Roche, a distinguished novelist living in New York.
The younger son, Arthur, is a graduate of the University of Illinois and also of Columbia University of New York and is now engaged in the practice of law in New York City. He served as a naval aviator during the World war.
Reared in a family of innate culture and refinement, where education is valued at its true worth, Clyde E. Pettit was accorded liberal advantages along educational lines and supplemented his early training by study in Yale University at New Haven, where he received his B. A. degree in 1901, and in the law department of the State University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
His thorough preparation for the bar well qualified him for the onerous duties of the profession and in 1902 he opened an office in Stuttgart, where he has remained. He has long been recognized as one of the leading lawyers of the state with an extensive and important practice.
Mr. Pettit was united in marriage to Miss Minnie Oberly of Stuttgart. Fraternally Mr. Pettit is a Mason of high rank, having become a member of the lodge, chapter, council, Knights Templars Commandery and Scottish Rite Consistory, as well as of the Mystic Shrine, and he likewise belongs to the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks.