Alton Howard

Howard came to hymnals by way of retail. After the war he and his brother Jack opened Howard Brothers Jewelers in 1946, added a discount-store chain in 1959, and founded Howard Publishing in 1969. Its hymnals, including Songs of the Church and Songs of Faith and Praise, sold more than three million copies. He also produced the Steffins Sisters, whose gospel, bluegrass and country records used Nashville session players, and made records with Ray Walker of the Jordanaires. He was an elder at West Monroe's White's Ferry Road Church of Christ from 1963 to 2004.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Biedenharn Museum and Gardens — 1.5 mi
  The 1913 Monroe home of the man the museum credits with first bottling Coca-Cola, with a Coca-Cola museum, his daughter's Bible collection and her gardens.
• Masur Museum of Art — 3.7 mi
  A 1929 limestone Tudor house on South Grand Street, built by a Monroe lumberman and given to the city in 1963 by the Masur family to become its art museum.
• Chennault Aviation and Military Museum — 5.6 mi
  A Monroe museum that began as a 1986 reunion of Selman Field airmen and now holds Flying Tigers displays, Delta's Monroe beginnings and a park of retired aircraft.
• Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge — 7.4 mi
  A cypress lake inside the city limits of Monroe, run by the Fish and Wildlife Service on a 99-year lease, with a boardwalk, a wildlife pier and a planter's house visitor center.

More markers nearby

• Doug Duffey — 0.8 mi
• The Twin City Jamboree — 1.0 mi
• Trenton — 1.4 mi
• Monroe Residential Historic District — 1.4 mi