I'm far from an IT god but I have been a sysadmin in a number of areas, systems analyst, I currently do SQL reporting. I worked for Baptist Health for a long time. They were a great company, a great environment, and they pay what you'd expect to get paid in my experience. Starting salary for a System's Analyst/Network Analyst is somewhere in the neighborhood of 43k. Typically if you have any experience it will be more. Great gig.

There's also tons of schools and colleges, but some pay for shit. Bryant pays well, though it's not exactly nearby. OP is right about the "no in house IT" though. I worked as an MSP for a while. That was a fun gig. If only I could have made it profitable. They only called if shit was burning down.

Source: Been working in IT in Arkansas for 10 years, constantly perusing my options, have interviewed and worked at numerous places. It's not as bad as OP says, but you gotta look a bit harder than you would most places, and you need to consider self employment.