Leslie Stewart-Abernathy

Dr. Leslie “Skip” C. Stewart-Abernathy (PhD), 77, of Dardanelle, died Tuesday, March 3, 2026, at Dardanelle Regional Medical Center. Following a private family committal in the Chapel of Light, cremation arrangements were entrusted to the J. Herman Humphrey Dignity Cremation Center under the direction of Humphrey Funeral Service. A formal memorial service is not planned, but an informal gathering will be considered by the family for a later date.

Skip was born May 11, 1948, in Memphis, Tennessee, to Leslie Clive Abernathy Junior and Marguerite (Orr) Abernathy, but spent most of his growing years in Jonesboro. He married Judith Carol Stewart-Abernathy, on January 5, 1980, in Ozark, Arkansas. He acquired the nickname, “Skip,” because that was what the third-generation child having the same first and middle name in the family was traditionally called. It was fitting to his great love for sailing which he did often across various Arkansas lakes in his beloved boat, the “Kingfish.”

He was preceded by his parents. He is survived by his wife of 46 years, Judith; two sons: Benjamin Guice Stewart-Abernathy (Charity) of Russellville, and Michael Leslie Stewart-Abernathy (Angel) of Fort Smith; a daughter: Elizabeth Gilbert (Troy) of Fort Smith; five grandchildren: Julia Abernathy, V. Lipe, Georgia Jayne Gilbert, Henry Gilbert, and Laurel “Lu” Gilbert; a great granddaughter: Gwen Abernathy; two sisters: Leigh Abernathy (David Howard) of Tumbling Shoals, Arkansas, and Karen Abernathy of Truman, Arkansas; and numerous nieces, nephews, cousins and extended family.

In 1977, Skip became Arkansas’ first professionally trained historical archeologist to be hired by the Arkansas Archeological Survey. He became the second head of the Arkansas Archeological Survey’s Research Station at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Reflecting on how he became so interested in his choice of work, Skip said, “(As a teenage), I spent weekends exploring the many abandoned farmsteads on Crowley’s Ridge north of my hometown in Jonesboro, in northeast Arkansas. I was intrigued by all the effort of so many families who ended up leaving their marks behind in the form of farmhouses, outbuildings, and fields that were disappearing under scrubby vegetation…as families moved to the suburbs.”

This interest carried Skip to Arkansas State University, where he earned his BA in history in 1970, and earned the Outstanding History Student Award. After college, he entered the U.S. Army and become a lieutenant, serving in the Strategic Intelligence office at Fort Bragg, and at the Military Assistance Command Headquarters in Saigon/Vietnam in 1971 and 1972.

Following his service in the Army, Skip entered Brown University in 1972 to continue his studies in historical archeology, where he completed an extensive research paper to earn his master’s degree in 1974. After completing his doctoral dissertation, Skip finished his PhD in 1981after he returned to Arkansas.

Skip and Judith moved to Russellville in 1989, where he took over the Survey Research Station at Arkansas Tech University for 18 years. In 2007 the Station moved to the Winthrop Rockefeller Institute campus atop Petit Jean Mountain. He was the only researcher to have served as the Research Station Archeologist for three different Arkansas Archeological Survey Stations.

Over the course of his Arkansas career, Skip participated in archeological projects all over Arkansas, including yearly research and training excavations with the Arkansas Archeological Society. Notable projects included: State Parks such as Historic Washington State Park and Old Davidsonville; excavations at the Moser farmstead in Northwest Arkansas; and salvage excavations at the Ashley Mansion in downtown Little Rock and wrecked steamboats on the banks of the Mississippi River in West Memphis. He also worked on French colonial sites in south Arkansas and on twentieth-century sites in the Delta and Ozarks. It is said that there is little in the archeology of historic sites in Arkansas that Skip has not touched.

When he retired in 2015, following 38 years of service to the passionate work of his life, Skip’s achievements had earned him the Arkansas Historical Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award (2011), the National Endowment for the Humanities Chairman’s Commendation (2012), and the Arkansas Archeological Society’s McGimsey Preservation Award (2014). He was also a charter member of the South-Central Historical Archeology Conference/SCHAC. He treasured highly his participation in Arkansas Archeological Society projects and the many lifelong friends he made there.

Memorial donations in Skip’s name may be made to Habitat for Humanity Pope County, PO Box 1863, Russellville, AR 72811-1863. Skip’s internet obituary and online guestbook can be accessed at www.humphreyfuneral.com.