Marion's Lucky Strike Man

Before he was a familiar face back home in Marion, Aubrey “Buster” Shaver was riding horses, playing western villains and sharing the screen with some of Hollywood’s biggest names.

The former Marion High School graduate appeared in films and television shows alongside stars like Ronald Reagan and Bill Cosby, and many may remember him best as the rugged cowboy from Lucky Strike cigarette commercials in the early 1960s.

After years in Arizona working in law enforcement and acting, Shaver eventually returned home to Crittenden County in retirement.

Read local historian Brenda Underdown's interesting piece on Shaver in this week’s edition of The Crittenden Press as she revisits the fascinating life of the hometown cowboy who went from western movie sets to national television, and finally back to Marion.