SEARCY, ARK. — Deana Hamby Nall and Mike S. Allen tell the comprehensive story of a Harding University professor’s disappearance in October 1963 in “The Abduction of Mrs. Ruby Lowery Stapleton.” Stapleton disappeared from a laundromat, and her body was found 11 days later.
Sadly, the case remains unsolved after 63 years.
Deana Hamby Nall and Mike S. Allen. “The Abduction of Mrs. Ruby Lowery Stapleton.” Independently published. 2025. 264 pages. $14.95.
The prologue starts with a beautiful description of central Arkansas’ woods in October, with just enough suspense to encourage the reader to turn the page.
The picture was clear for me, a current Harding student, and elicited memories of fall days spent hiking at Petit Jean State Park or Sugarloaf Mountain 100 miles southwest of campus.
Nall and Allen’s storytelling immediately drew me in. As I dove further into the English teacher’s story, there were moments I forgot I was reading.
I researched the Stapleton case for Harding’s student newspaper, The Bison, in October 2025. But I was pleasantly surprised to read anecdotes in Nall and Allen’s book that I hadn’t discovered.
The authors did an excellent job of incorporating stories that described various aspects of all the characters in Stapleton’s story.
Two stories in particular were new to me: one about Ruby’s memories from Mother’s Day in 1963 and another about E.R. Stapleton, Ruby’s husband, during the 1942 cotton harvest.
I found the story about E.R. interesting because it revealed a lighthearted and competitive side of his character — depth that I had not seen during my own research.
Interview transcripts and comments from others in the book portray E.R. in a different manner — as a suspect.
Nall and Allen’s book is a thoroughly researched and extremely detailed account of Stapleton’s case.
They present a comprehensive timeline of the events connected with the abduction and investigation. One aspect I particularly appreciate about the timeline is the context for the time of Ruby Stapleton’s disappearance outside of the “Harding bubble.”
It’s easy to forget sometimes, but life goes on outside of campus. Big events were happening in 1963. Earlier in the fall semester, Harding President George Benson announced the school was desegregating.
Shortly after Stapleton’s body was found, local and national media focused on another tragedy: President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963. The news and federal law enforcement, as Nall and Allen describe, shifted their efforts away from the Stapleton case and toward the assassination.
There are two memorials for Stapleton on Harding’s campus: a portrait on the second floor of the Brackett Library and an engraved brick on the front lawn. The Writing Center inside the university’s library will also be renamed to honor Stapleton in August.
“The Abduction of Mrs. Ruby Lowery Stapleton” is a factual, engaging presentation of the Stapleton case.
All who read it — whether they are familiar with the story, are true crime fans or are reading Stapleton’s story for the first time — will close the book with a thorough knowledge of this complex case and the impact it still has today.
KENZIE JAMES is a senior multimedia journalism major at Harding University in Searcy, Ark. and returning Christian Chronicle intern. James grew up in Tallahassee, Fla., where she attended the Timberlane Church of Christ.
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