Nova Backus Teeter, pianist for the Northwest Arkansas Gridiron from its first performance in 1978 to 1983, died July 6, 1998. She was 84.
Nova was born Jan. 13, 1914, and married Clarence Teeter in 1934 in Madison County. She wrote for newspapers in the region, providing news specials from the Gravette area to the Northwest Arkansas Times during the 1950s and 1960s, and then working for The Springdale News, where she wrote obituaries and news briefs for many years. She also volunteered her time for civic organizations, helping with publicity for the Gravette Hospital Auxiliary and the Gravette PTA. She said she also had the opportunity to baby-sit an infant named Asa Hutchinson in the early 1950s.
She is buried at Bethel Cemetery at Gravette.