CLARKSVILLE, Ark. — Marvin Levon Bean died on April 29 after being hit by a car while crossing the road in his hometown of Clarksville, Arkansas. He was 86, and judging from the outpouring of respect and grief from Clarksville residents who knew him, he was a very special man.
Born in March of 1938, Bean spent his life working to support those around him through his job as an engineer, his position on the Clarksville-Johnson Chamber of Commerce, and establishing his own business that—according to his obituary—was passed down to his grandson in 2010.
"Bean's a pretty well-known name in the community because there's a lot of them and they kind of established this town," Pastor Troy George said.
Bean also gave his time and energy to his local church, where he served as a Sunday school teacher and singer. East Mount Zion Trinity Baptist Church, where George is pastor, is Bean's home church. He would help run the music ministry on Wednesdays.
"At least 50 years he was a part of this church," George said. "He knew a lot and he had the ability to talk to anybody at any time. And that's what's great about him is that he was the kindest man I think I've ever met."
Yet, many churches knew of Bean. Bean has sung and played piano for churches all across the area. Most recently he's played for a church in Pottsville where he would play the piano after meeting his second wife.
"If you think of singers [in the county], then Levon Bean always comes up," Kenny Sexton said.
Sexton met Bean at the age of 14 when the musician came to play for Sexton's small country church.
"I was kind of in awe, I thought he was the biggest star I'd ever seen at that time at the little country church where we were," Sexton said.
Sexton played piano during his youth alongside Bean in the Singing Rangers. As Sexton left the band and went to study at the University of the Ozarks, Levon started the Southern Flames. He would soon ask Sexton to join the country group where "our largest accolade was we were representatives of the state of Arkansas for the World's Fair and we went to Knoxville, Tennessee and performed there."
Bean would continue his Southern Flame group by buying the Strand Theater and renovating it into the Southern Flame Theater. It would be a music show with musicians based solely at the theater, similar to shows in Branson. Sexton joined Bean's shows as a guest from time to time until he bought the Ozark Mountain Hoedown. Bean later joined Sexton in a quartet called the Kings River Boys.
In all those years of singing, each musician created their career in Sexton's CPA business and Bean's Tool and Die. They would eventually play at funerals, weddings, and churches as they reached retirement age.
One of the many things Sexton learned from Levon was "to dream big."
"He definitely did that when he started the project at the Strand Theater to remodel that thing," Levon said. "I thought and probably told him straight to his face, 'Man, you're crazy. This won't work, or this is gonna be really hard.' And he could not be deterred. He would just keep on going."
"The measure of a person's life is how much they're missed once they're gone, and we will truly miss him," George said. "And it's not just the music, but it's everything. It's a life that's well lived. As I come to the end of my life someday, I hope that I'm thought of as well as he's been thought of by the people here and even the Lord."
Anyone interested in attending Bean's visitation, funeral service, or sending flowers, can visit Bean's obituary page on the Roller-Cox Funeral Home website for more information.
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