As he escorts a community group through the striking new Jim Yates terminal at the Texarkana Regional Airport, Executive Director Paul Mehrlich expresses pride at the fact that his name, along with other airport and city officials, will be permanently displayed on a bronze plaque in the terminal lobby. However, he quickly points out that he is only a piece of the vision established many years ago to build a unique and beautiful terminal in Texarkana, USA.
Maria Sanson’s Journey from Romania to Texarkana … Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” —Mark Twain … Maria Sanson’s journey exemplifies this truth, proving that with kindness, determination, and an open heart, we can overcome any obstacle. Born to deaf parents during the waning years of communism in Romania, her childhood was a blend of hardship and adversity mixed with innocence and joy. “The first six years of my life were lived during the communism era,” she recalls.
Margaret McCoy is a Texarkana native who was transplanted to New Orleans after her time at LSU in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. She spent 11 years in hospitality and hotel sales in downtown New Orleans. Once the pandemic hit in 2020, she and her husband, Bradley McCoy, purchased a 1973 houseboat in Minnesota and boated it down the Mississippi River to their home in New Orleans.
