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‘Celebrate Southern Illinois’ with us in three chapters ou are looking at a special report devoted to the unique people, places and things of Southern Illinois.

“Celebrate Southern Illinois” represents months of work by the staff of The Southern Illinoisan and special contributors who assisted in this project. It showcases the attributes of a region that is rich in history, cultural achievement and scenic beauty — FROM and is just plain interesting.

THE EDITOR This was no easy task to complete. And the GARY resulting “story” is too laden with details to be told METRO effectively in just one issue of the newspaper.

Celebrate Southern Illinois is a story told in three chapters — one devoted to “people,” a second devoted to “places” and a final chapter devoted to “things.”

The second portion of this sprawling report will be included in the Tuesday, Oct. 6 newspaper. The final section will be part of the Tuesday, Oct. 13 newspaper. You may wish to gather all three sections together as a collector’s piece. That’s what I will do.

You might be interested in learning the origin of this special report. Planning began months ago, as the recession deepened and our news columns included an alarming number of reports on layoffs, bail-outs and financial corruption probes. It is our job to report the news, but journalists are citizens, too, and we experience the same longings for good government and a sound economy.

We, too, grow weary of daily gloom and doom. Efforts were made daily to find positive news and views; those efforts continue today.

But we also focused on a plan to celebrate the many things that make Southern Illinois special — the attributes that are so well known as to be taken for granted.

This was a team effort in creating a special report, one we hope readers will keep for many years to come. It grew out of an idea suggested by Chuck Novara, our chief photographer, and was further developed by Cara Recine, our lifestyles and special projects editor.

We hope you enjoy the fruits of our labors. We hope you join us by taking time to “Celebrate Southern Illinois.”

CAROL BREHM

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GARY METRO is the editor of The Southern Illinoisan. He can be

reached at 618-351-5033 or gary.metro@thesouthern.com.

Sept. 29: Week 1 / People

Oct. 6: Week 2 / Places

Oct. 13: Week 3 / Things

Arts and entertainment: Jim Belushi, Shawn Colvin, John Medwedeff Athletics: SIUC stars Characters: Minnesota Fats Claims to fame: Gen. John A. Logan and Memorial Day Did you know? William Jennings Bryan Education: Delyte Morris Famous: Buckminster Fuller Good eats: Brian Kalata Government: Paul Simon Groundbreakers: Bill Norwood, Virginia Marmaduke, Dick Gregory History: Lewis and Clark Infamous: Charlie Birger, Paul Powell Named after: Ambrose Burnside Philanthrophy: Carol Brehm The law: Brockton Lockwood Unique: Wayman Presley

Arts and crafts: Cedarhurst and the Illinois Artisans Shop Characters: King Neptune Claims to fame: Ulysses Grant in Elkville Did you know?

Unusual museums Education: One-room schools Entertainment: Harrah’s Famous: The Shawnee National Forest Good eats: Vegetarian at the Longbranch Groundbreakers: Southern Illinois wineries History: The Civil War in Giant City State Park Homegrown: The Amish Infamous: Pirates on the Ohio Legends and lore: Native American history Natural treasures: Garden of the Gods and the Cache River Wetlands Sports: The World Shooting Complex The law: The Thebes Courthouse Unique: Kaskaskia Island

Athletics: Women’s gymnastics Coal mining: Resilience and strength Did you know: Beatles and radio history Education: The Achieve program at SIUC Entertainment: They filmed it here Famous: Barbecue Good eats: The Culinary Destination Project Government: Lincoln and Dougas in Jonesboro Groundbreakers: Railroad towns History: Historical markers Homegrown: Small starts, big finishes Homeruns: The Southern Illinois Miners Innfamous: The bootlegging trail Legends and lore: Wonder water in Creal Springs Named after: Egypt Philantrophy: Sesser-Valier’s Outdoorsmen Club Unique: The CCC

Production designer and copy editor: Rob Crow Cover and inside covers design: Rhonda Ethridge, graphic designer; Cara Recine, lifestyles/special projects editor Copy editing: Mark Fitton, managing editor; copy editors Meagan Lewis, Alison McCabe, Julie Engler, Jeff Wilson and Jens Deju

THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

Mother founded school for those with learning disabilities

BY MARILYN HALSTEAD THE SOUTHERN

Carol Brehm of Carbondale knew the difficulties of raising and educating children with learning disabilities. Her son, Tyson, struggled with dyslexia.

Stacy Tate, Brehm’s daughter, said choices for students with learning disabilities were limited to boarding schools in the east or on the West Coast. So her parents made the difficult decision to enroll Tyson in school in the east.

But Brehm was not happy with the schools, and, after her husband Brehm died in 1980, she decided to do something.

She was quoted in The Southern Illinois on Aug. 29, 1982: “It’s a very frustrating experience to see not only my son, but a lot of other students in an unhappy atmosphere.

He’s been in dorms (at other schools). They’ve all been very cold, very old, very dirty. I wanted them to have an atmosphere more like home, where they’d feel comfortable.”

“Mom really wanted to get a school started in the Midwest so other families wouldn’t have to go through that,” Tate said. “I remember a lot of phone calls around the kitchen table and paperwork and sketches.”

Her dream became Brehm Prepatory School, a boarding school for students with learning disabilities and ADHD. Richard Collins, executive director of Brehm Prepatory School in Carbondale, said Brehm felt the schools out east did not reflect Midwestern family values and were not convenient to resources to meet student needs. Most schools were in more remote areas, where students were isolated from society. Brehm wanted a school that would integrate students and have a different atmosphere.

She enlisted the help four professors at Southern Illinois University Carbondale: Barbara Cordoni, Robert Stoneburner, Lynn Rocklage and James A.

PROVIDED

Director of Psychological Services Robert Stoneburner (from left), Administrative Director Lynne Rocklage, Executive Director Barbara Cordoni, Director of Business Affairs James Teska and benefactor Carol Brehm are pictured during the groudbreaking ceremony for Brehm Preparatory School on May 11, 1982.

Teska. Brehm financed the operation, purchasing about 6.5 acres of land near SIUC. The groundbreaking ceremony was May 11, 1982. Brehm Prepatory School opened Aug. 30, 1982, with fewer than 30 students and six buildings.

Collins said the school now has 80 students with a capacity of around 100 students. The campus has grown to 80 acres and has substantially increased the number of buildings. There is a pond, paintball and soccer fields and an athletic complex.

“The fact that we’re a family model program is very different than other boarding schools, more nurturing,” Collins said.

“Also, the staff is separated out so that they each have their own professional status.

In other schools, the same staff members are the teachers, coaches and dorm parents.

Carol’s vision in having separate staff allows much more continuity and addresses student needs — educational, emotional and social — in a much more holistic manner.”

Collins said the stability of faculty and staff has allowed the school to develop and broaden the level and extent of curricula.

“Mom had a real passion for justice and saw what happened to our family as social injustice,” Tate explained.

Brehm continued to work at the school through the death of her son, Tyson, and her battle with cancer. She served on the school’s board, was active in parent groups and participated in strategic planning.

Brehm died Nov. 1, 1994.

Tate is also an advocate for special education services in private and public schools. She has a son with ADHD and dyslexia. She also serves as vice chairman of the Brehm school board.

“The torch has been passed,” she Tate said. “I hope one day to see her vision that all schools would teach in such a way to engage all students. We’ve still got a long way to go.”

Carol Brehm had a few other passions, too.

Tate said she was a supporter of Native Americans and wildlife conservation. After she had grandkids, she was passionate about all of them, too.

“She had been a teacher, so she was an educator at heart,” Tate said of her mother’s work with Native Americans and wildlife conservation.

“Carol was a real visionary.

She was able to envision what his (Tyson’s) needs were and was able to translate it into a program to help many families,” Collins said.

‘It’s a very frustrating experience to see not only my son, but a lot of other students in an unhappy atmosphere … I wanted them to have an atmosphere more like home, where they’d feel comfortable.’

CAROL BREHM, IN THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN, AUG. 29, 1982

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THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

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NEW BURNSIDE The story behind the town, the general and the sideburns

BY LES O’DELL FOR THE SOUTHERN

STEPHEN RICKERL / FOR THE SOUTHERN

The Pierre Menard Home in Randolph County was built circa 1815 by Illinois’ first lieutenant governor, Pierre Menard.

Other Southern Illinois sites named for prominent people Many local institutions and cities are named after prominent citizens. Here are a few: Ray Fosse Park, Marion: Named after a former Major League Baseball catcher. A two-time AllStar, Fosse played 12 major league seasons with the Cleveland Indians, Oakland Athletics, Seattle Mariners and Milwaukee Brewers. A two-time Gold Glove winner, he was a member of two World Series-winning teams while playing in Oakland and currently serves as a color commentator for Oakland baseball broadcasts.

Eurma C. Hayes Center, Carbondale: This community center, which includes meeting spaces and a public health clinic, is named in honor of a woman who worked as a community organizer many years before the term was popular. Hayes was active in neighborhood association meetings and city council gatherings.

She was hired by the city of Carbondale to conduct outreach efforts to the city’s African-American population. Hayes passed away before a community center that she championed could be built. Once it was constructed, it was named in her honor.

Choate Mental Health Center, Anna: Honors Clyde L. Choate, who served 30 years in the Illinois General Assembly after service as an army sergeant in World War II. Choate received the Medal of Honor for singlehandedly destroying a German tank during the war in France.

Attucks Park, Carbondale: Like the former Attucks school also in Carbondale, the park honors one of five people killed in the Boston Massacre, March 5, 1770.

As such, he is considered to be one of the first martyrs of the American Revolution. Believed to have been of AfricanAmerican ancestry, Crispus Attucks is considered as an important hero among African Americans.

West Frankfort: Francis Jordan and his brothers, all settlers from Tennessee, constructed a hilltop fort in 1810. Soon the structure was known as Frank’s Fort.

Residents of a nearby settlement shortened the name to just Frankfort.

Later, rail lines were laid in an area about four miles west, and commerce migrated to the new commercial center, which was dubbed West Frankfort.

Sallie Logan Library, Murphysboro: The library is named in honor of Sarah “Sallie” Oliver Logan, the sister-in-law of Civil War Gen. John A. Logan. The Logans were active in the community and were said to own more than 300 acres in the city and surrounding area. At her death, she bequeathed her home and four lots to the city of Murphysboro.

Pierre Menard Historical Site, Prairie du Rocher: Honors a fur traderturned-politician who was the first president of the Illinois Territorial Council in 1812. He also served as the state’s first lieutenant governor, elected in 1818, under Governor Shadrach Bond.

Imagine a town without a name. For a brief period, residents of a railroad community in northeast Johnson County found themselves living in a place in need of a name. Today, the town is known as New Burnside, but that was not always the case, according to local historian Gary Tanner.

Tanner said the original community sprang up as a result of construction of the Cairo-Vincennes Railroad. The rail line connected the two communities, transporting coal from Southern Illinois mines as well as passengers on several trains each day.

On Dec. 16, 1872, the town was dubbed Morrel, after the gentleman who was responsible for construction of the railroad.

“He found out that they had named the town after him, and he didn’t want it having his name, so they had to change it,” Tanner said.

So, some five weeks after being named Morrel, the community was searching for a new name. Former civil war General Ambrose Burnside was serving as president of the railroad, so the name Burnside was suggested.

“They requested the name Burnside, but the postal department told them that the name was not available, so it became New Burnside,” Tanner said.

While it is believed the former general never

PROVIDED

The Southern Illinois town of New Burnside is named after famed Gen. Ambrose Burnside — as are sideburns, which he helped popularize.

visited the community, he did correspond via mail with residents. He also served three one-year terms as governor of Rhode Island and was elected to the U.S. Senate.

Beyond his wartime, railroad and governmental careers, Burnside was also known for his distinctive facial hair, which featured bushy strips of hair coming down from in front of his ears to join his mustache, while his chin and neck remained cleanshaven. The look became known as burnsides from his last name. Over the years, the description was changed to sideburns.

The new community with the new name flourished. By 1894, the population was 1,800.

The town boasted two hotels, a bank, the county jail, nine general stores, a stable and a photo studio.

“Then the coal mines shut down, the orchards closed and the railroads left,” Tanner said.

Today, New Burnside is considerably smaller, with a population of 242.

“We have a mini-mart, a post office, three churches, and that’s about it,” Tanner said.

The remnants of the

original railroad remain popular today, as part of the Tunnel Hill bicycle trail.

And what about the popularity of Burnside’s facial hair with residents?

“A lot of people used to grow their sideburns long, but no one has the full Burnside look that I know of,” Tanner said. “I don’t think it will catch on, unless maybe during our bicentennial celebration.”

‘A lot of people used to grow their sideburns long, but no one has the full Burnside look that I know of. I don’t think it will catch on, unless maybe during our bicentennial celebration.’

GARY TANNER, LOCAL HISTORIAN

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THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

WAYMAN PRESLEY Bald Knob Cross of Peace was local man’s vision

BY DEBBIE LUEBKE METRO

He was never content just to go from day to day like most people. He was always coming up with new Presley. ideas.

For most people, the “He was very sharp until name brings to mind a he passed away and worked dark-haired young man right up to the end.” who epitomizes the Presley loved nature and meaning of rock ‘n’ roll. the outdoors, and enjoyed For people in Southern Illinois, however, the name taking urban people into the woods and seeing their also stands for Wayman reactions, she said. He had Presley, the man best a good sense of humor and known for developing the loved telling funny stories.

111-foot Cross of Peace on A popular one was about Bald Knob Mountain in Boomer, the three-legged 1963 with his friend, the hound dog who died after Rev. William Lirely. he ran into a bridge The cross is a symbol of abutment while running to Christianity and a beacon rescue his master from a of peace for everyone. fire on a speeding train.

Wayman Presley’s life Presley erected a spanned most of the 20th monument to Boomer century. He was born in a along the railroad tracks in log cabin near Makanda, Makanda. the son of a sharecropper, Presley also did a lot for in 1896 and died at age 93 the community, Peterman in 1990. In addition to said, cleaning up the developing Bald Knob cemetery in Makanda, Cross, he founded Presley putting up a rock tower Tours, an international there and helping get city travel business, after he water into the town. retired as a rural mail “I’ve heard that the carrier when he was 62. smiley face on the water “His original idea (in starting the travel business) tower in Makanda faces was that people who might where his house was,” she said. not get to travel would get Lirely and Presley began to go outside of the region and see things,” said Janette talking in 1936 about a Peterman, general manager “united worship” on Bald Knob Mountain, which is of Presley Tours. the tallest peak in the area Peterman knew Presley and has a breathtaking as her postman when she was a girl in Makanda. She view of the surrounding began working for him as a land. The first crosses there were three simple wooden file clerk in his business in ones put together by 1968. members of the Civilian “I admired him very much,” Peterman said. “He Conservation Corps in 1937, the year the first had a very creative mind.

FOR THE SOUTHERN

Easter service occurred.

By the mid-1940s, about 10,000 people attended the Easter service. Farmers, schoolchildren and caravans of church members began raising money so a huge cross could be built on the mountain.

One woman who pledged money was Myrta Clutts, a poor widow with four children who said she’d contribute $100. People considered it a miracle when one of Clutts’ pigs gave birth to 21 piglets, three times the size of a normal litter. Offspring of the piglets were sold to raise hundreds for the cross fund.

The fund got a boost in 1955 when Presley was featured on the TV show, “This is Your Life,” hosted

by Ralph Edwards.

Construction on the cross began in 1959.

The late Ben Gelman, Sunday news editor and columnist for The Southern Illinoisan, lived in Makanda and knew Presley.

He went on Presley’s nature hikes and took several of his tours.

“The day I met Wayman Presley in 1957, he was already in his 60s, but as spry as a mountain goat as he scrambled up a hillside at Fountain Bluff to show me and a group of hikers a cliff painting drawn by one of the Native Americans who once called Southern Illinois home,” Gelman wrote a column in 2003.

“Presley loved to act as a

THE SOUTHERN FILE PHOTO

Wayman Presley poses for a portrait Feb. 10, 1980.

travel guide, showing people around the countryside he knew so well and regaling them with his endless supply of stories about the area.”

Gelman emphasized Presley’s ability to put a quality, low-cost excursion together so anyone could afford to go.

Presley’s first tour, Gelman wrote, was a oneday railroad trip along the Mississippi River to Grand Tower with an all-youcan-eat chicken dinner at a famous restaurant. The cost? $6.

“That trip set the tone for the hundreds of tours that were to follow, not just in Southern Illinois, but all across this country and eventually around the world — low cost, one price inclusive of all offerings, and an experienced and knowledgeable guide,” Gelman wrote.

Gelman also went on Presley’s trip to Miami Beach, a seven-day, sevennight vacation that included train fare, hotel, two full meals a day, free use of the hotel pool, free towels and free beach umbrellas, all for $99.

“There was even a

romantic sequel to the trip,” Gelman wrote. “One of Presley’s nieces and the Shore Club manager fell in love. I was best man at their Carbondale wedding.”

The Gelman family took a Presley bus tour to the World Fair in New York in 1965, and Gelman and his wife celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary steam boating down the Mississippi to New Orleans in 1972, when Presley rented the Delta Queen for a seven-day excursion.

Joyce Johnson of Anna remembers how Presley always gave her and her children a ride back into town after Easter services at Bald Knob.

“My kids and I walked up

to Bald Knob, camped overnight and stayed for Easter sunrise services,” Johnson said. “Wayman brought us back down in his Cadillac so we could get to services at our own church. And sometimes we weren’t too clean, either, because we’d camped overnight, but he didn’t care.”

As he drove, he told stories, she said, about witches who lived on the mountain and about how life used to be. Her fatherin-law, Logan Johnson, a farmer who owned a service station and feed store in Cobden, also was a friend of Presley’s.

“He (Presley) was a nice person,” Johnson said.

‘He had a very creative mind. He was never content just to go from day to day like most people. He was always coming up with new ideas. He was very sharp until he passed away and worked right up to the end.’

JANETTE PETERMAN THE SOUTHERN FILE PHOTO

GENERAL MANAGER, PRESLEY TOURS

THE SOUTHERN FILE PHOTO

Presley gestures to show the size of a tree in rural Union County.

Bald Knob Cross of Peace is seen Dec. 2. Presley helped develop the cross.

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THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

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LEWIS AND CLARK Explorers spent significant time in Southern Illinois; local re-enactors gather to pay tribute Camp Dubois, and he and his wife, Diana, participate in events at Fort de Chartres several times a Imagine climbing into year. an open boat with no “Once in awhile you motor on a river and look around and realize heading out, not knowing nothing’s changed in the what’s ahead, where the last 200 years,” he said. water will lead, or what “It’s a precious thing, one kind of obstacles or people of the things I love about might be encountered. living history and striving That essentially is what to get as close as you can. explorers Meriwether It’s a really wonderful Lewis and William Clark hobby.” did when they set out in Marion Mitchell, a 1804 on the Mississippi former teacher from River in Illinois, hoping to Carbondale who started find an all-water route to the first muzzleloading the Pacific Ocean. rifle club in Southern Southern Illinois was the Illinois, attended a 10-day takeoff point for their trip. encampment in May 2003 Lewis and Clark entered in St. Charles, Mo., with Illinois in Shawneetown in his wife, Polly.

1803, and spent six They participate as months here in the winter “sutlers,” merchants who of 1803 and spring of sold supplies to troops, 1804. like knives, forks, pewter They gathered crew plates, clay pipes, candy members and supplies at and liquor. The two also Fort Massac near now make their own wares Metropolis and Fort to sell — he, bentwood Kaskaskia near Chester, boxes, and she, German then trained and perfected paper cuttings. their navigational skills at The Mitchells also go to Camp River Dubois in the rendezvous at Fort de Hartford before setting Chartres and used to go to out to fulfill the mission Fort Massac. He formerly ordered by President participated as a French Thomas Jefferson. militia re-enactor during In 1803, Illinois was at the French and Indian War the farthest western and Revolutionary War. frontier of the United “I was always interested States. The Corps of in Lewis and Clark,” Discovery took three years Mitchell said. “They to explore uncharted lands brought back lots of of the Louisiana Purchase specimens and discovered and beyond. Most of the there was no easy passage 30 men in the expedition to the Pacific. They were from Illinois. discovered what tribes of Ted Mueller, a painting Indians lived in the west and decorating contractor and minerals and natural from Chester, is a reresources that were enactor who participated unknown until then. And in several events during they kept really fine the Bicentennial records of what they Commemoration of Lewis found.” and Clark’s journey in Interpreter George 2003.

Drouilliard, the son of a He was part of the French-Canadian father Detachment, the group and Shawnee mother, who that manned Camp Lewis and Clark recruited Dubois in the winter of at Fort Massac, “was the 1803-04, and also backbone of the belonged to the Corps of expedition,” Mitchell said.

“He spoke several languages and was good at sign language, which was important in the West.”

Lewis “was a manicdepressive who died not long after the expedition,” he said. “He was shot in the head in the room of an inn but made no mention of anyone doing it (or if he did it himself).”

Clark prospered as an Indian agent in St. Louis for many years and adopted Sacagawea’s son, who was born on the journey.

Mitchell said Stephen Ambrose’s book, “Undaunted Courage,” is the “best book on the expedition.”

The Lewis and Clark PROVIDED Visitor Center in Hartford Meriwether Lewis (left) and William Clark spent six months in is where Camp River Dubois once stood.

Southern Illinois before setting out on the Oregon Trail.

BY DEBBIE LUEBKE METRO FOR THE SOUTHERN

Discovery, men who built the boats Lewis and Clark used and then navigated the route they followed.

They built two 30-foot boats, called “pirogues,” and a 50-foot barge or canal boat, but included motors.

“Lewis and Clark really didn’t know what boats would be best,” Mueller said. “They pulled and rowed. Mainly we turned the motors on. It was a bunch of old, retired guys.”

He portrayed a recruit who was “the most obscure of all — Ebenezer Tuttle, a private in the Corps of Artillery at Fort Kaskaskia.”

Tuttle was with the Corps until they arrived at Fort Mandan in South Dakota. By then, they had collected many samples of items they wanted to send back to St. Louis, and Tuttle’s job was to take the barge there with the items.

Mueller traveled on the river as far as Atchison, Kan., because he had to return to work.

The re-enactors also wore the uniform clothing of the period. Mueller hand sews most of his clothes.

“Just being out on the river in the cold and rain and getting soaked — it was miserable,” Mueller said. “When they (the original corps) took off, they were in army clothes.

After Fort Mandan, their clothing started to wear out. All the army clothes were gone by the time they got back, and all of them were in buckskins. The first thing they wanted when they got back (to Camp Dubois) was a clean white shirt. They hated the buckskin clothes— they were hot and heavy and hard to dry out.”

A re-enactor for 30 years, Mueller still portrays Ebenezer at

PROVIDED

A boat used in Lewis and Clark re-enactments is shown above. Marion Mitchell (far right), a former teacher from Carbondale who started the first muzzleloading rifle club in Southern Illinois, attended a 10-day encampment in May 2003 in St. Charles, Mo., with his wife, Polly.

‘I was always interested in Lewis and Clark. They brought back lots of specimens and discovered there was no easy passage to the Pacific. They discovered what tribes of Indians lived in the west and minerals and natural resources that were unkown until then.

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THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

VIRGINIA MARMADUKE ‘Duchess’ broke boundaries in journalism

BY CODELL RODRIGUEZ THE SOUTHERN

When Pinckneyville native Virginia Marmaduke got a job with The Chicago Sun in 1943, she wasn’t about to spend her career covering society banquets and writing personality pieces.

Instead, Marmaduke, who died in November 2001, went for hardhitting news and investigative journalism at a time when such stories were not thought appropriate for a female journalist.

“Virginia was one of the first women to cross boundaries as far as covering general assignment and crime news,” said Jak Tichenor, who created and produced a WSIU documentary about Marmaduke in 1996 and spent a great deal of time with her.

Marmaduke began writing for the Herrin Daily Journal, which her husband’s family owned, in 1930. After separating from her husband, she moved to Chicago and landed a job at the Sun, where she earned the nickname, “The Duchess.”

Tichenor said that in Chicago, Marmaduke tackled some of the most famous stories for the time, including the 1940s murders that led to the arrest of William Heirens.

ALAN ROGERS / THE SOUTHERN

Bill Norwood, a 1959 graduate of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, was the school’s first black quarterback and went on to become the first black pilot for United Airlines.

PROVIDED

Virginia Marmaduke is shown as a Chicago Sun reporter (left) and during a WSIU-TV fundraiser in February 1996.

Between Fences exhibition in Pinckneyville. Tibretta Reiman, general manager of the Foundation for Pinckneyville, said she was honored to host an exhibit on Marmaduke.

“Virginia was one of the JAK TICHENOR WSIU-TV PRODUCER first people we thought of,” Reiman said.

After her death, Among those cases was the Southern Illinois high-profile brutal murder University’s College of of 6-year-old Suzanne Mass Communication and Degnan.

Media Arts received $1.22 Tichenor said she also million from Marmaduke’s did investigative pieces, estate. She previously such as a story where she donated $70,000 to the spent time with a family on university for scholarships welfare at a time when the and guest lecturers. state was threatening to Tichenor said cut public aid. And she Marmaduke will be wrote lighter stories, remembered as a including a series where groundbreaker because she she spent time doing went out and worked her random jobs throughout way into the respect of her the city. coworkers.

“She was really kind of a “She basically went out remarkable person,” and did all the things the Tichenor said. guys did, and they In 2008, Marmaduke respected her for it,” was the subject of the Tichenor said.

‘She basically went out and did all the things the guys did, and they respected her for it.’

BILL NORWOOD Blazed trails on the gridiron and in the air

BY CODELL RODRIGUEZ THE SOUTHERN

Carbondale’s Bill Norwood has a heck of résumé.

He was the first black pilot for United Airlines and was one of only two black quarterbacks in the country when he played for the Salukis. And that doesn’t mention his time in the U.S. Air Force and his contributions to SIUC post-graduation, including serving more than 27 years on the Board of Trustees.

But despite these accomplishments, Norwood isn’t one to put himself on a pedestal.

“One of the things that I prided as a quarterback

‘White pilots wanted to watch me more ... It just spurred me to become more qualified.’

BILL NORWOOD SIUC’S FIRST BLACK QUARTERBACK, UNITED AIRLINES’ FIRST BLACK PILOT

and a pilot is that we’re all one team,” Norwood said.

“No one is more important than anyone else on a team.”

The Centralia native attended Southern Illinois University Carbondale from 1955 to 1959, majoring in chemistry. He said he enjoyed his time at SIUC because of the education and support he received from faculty and staff.

“SIU was very good for me,” Bill said.

While at SIUC, Norwood became the university’s first black quarterback and one of only two in the country. In addition to playing quarterback, he spent time on defense as well.

Norwood gained a passion for flying under the mentorship of William Walker, a Tuskegee Airman. That passion for flying led him to join the U.S. Air Force.

SEE NORWOOD / PAGE 7

DICK GREGORY SIUC alum is a celebrated comedian, activist brother to Gregory. He said he remembers Gregory’s time emceeing their fraternity’s variety hour Before Dick Gregory and spending time saying became a celebrated outrageous things to comedian and activist, his people he knew in the friends from Southern HARVEY WELCH Student Center. Holmes GREGORY’S FORMER ROOMMATE AT SIUC said Gregory also had a Illinois good relationship with University then-president Delyte Carbondale Morris. remember his the Carbondale Park “One of the things time at the District and former SIUC (Gregory) did was that he university. professor, was Gregory’s Gregory would go out on Saturday Gregory roommate at SIUC. He spent two years at SIUC said Gregory, whom he has morning and run the track and then go over to Morris’ before being drafted into kept in touch with house for breakfast,” the military in 1954. After somewhat, was wellHolmes said. being discharged, he known for abilities as an Gregory will return to returned to the university athlete and his fun Carbondale in October, briefly before leaving for personality.

Chicago to begin his career “He was quite talented in when Varsity Center for the as a comedian. He ranked the entertainment area, an Arts inducts him as the 81st on Comedy Central’s excellent track star and fun first member of its hall of fame. Gregory’s activism 100 greatest standup to be with,” Welch said. comedians of all time. He John Holmes, director of helped integrate the oncesegregated theater. has released many albums the Build Homes, and books dealing with Rebuilding Lives program comedy and activism. at Lutheran Social Services codell.rodriguez@thesouthern.com Harvey Welch, chair of in Marion, was a fraternity 618-351-5804

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THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

7

NORWOOD: SIUC grad was United Airlines’ first black pilot FROM PAGE 6

WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN ‘Silver-Tounged Orator’ from Scopes trial grew up in Salem

BY DEBBIE LUEBKE METRO FOR THE SOUTHERN

William Jennings Bryan, the “Silver-Tongued Orator” best known as the prosecuting attorney in the famous Scopes Monkey Trial, was born and spent his childhood in Salem.

A statue of Bryan (who also ran for president three times and lost), the home where he was born (which is on the National Register of Historic Places) and a mural of his Bryan life in the Marion County Courthouse all honor this nationally known native son.

Frank Brinkerhoff, Salem historian and retired teacher, and Robert Raver, chairman of the Salem Historical Commission and retired high school superintendent, both agree Bryan’s greatest legacy in Salem is the Bryan-Bennett Library. It was originally next to Bryan’s home but is now situated in a former school building.

Unlike the film portrayal of the Scopes trial, Bryan and John Thomas Scopes actually were friends, Brinkerhoff and Raver said.

Bryan gave the keynote speech at Scopes’ high school graduation in Salem in 1919, and Scopes and Bryan’s son were friends.

During the 1925 trial in Dayton, Tenn., Bryan supposedly offered to pay Scopes’ fine if he was found guilty.

Also unlike the film version, Clarence Darrow did not succeed in making Bryan look foolish in the courtroom, Brinkerhoff said.

“This debate (about evolution) was going on throughout the United States,” he said. “Bryan held very fundamentalist beliefs. It was a dichotomy that, in his political life, Bryan was a liberal thinking person, but he was conservative in his private life. He was a product of his upbringing.

“The debate is still on,” Brinkerhoff said. “Now it’s about whether creationism should be taught in the schools. There are those who take the Bible literally and those who don’t. Bryan took it literally.”

Scopes was found guilty and fined $100. Five days after the trial ended, Bryan died in Dayton during an afternoon nap. He was 65 years old.

The socially conservative Bryan also supported Prohibition, Brinkerhoff said. “His religious outlook mirrored what is found in most churches in Southern Illinois.”

Born March 19, 1860, in Salem, Bryan was the son of Silas Lillard Bryan, a judge and former state senator who was a delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1869, and his wife Mariah.

By the time young Billy was 6, he reportedly told his friends he had three ambitions — to be a Baptist minister, a pumpkin farmer and a lawyer. He would sit on the steps of the courthouse and listen to his father conduct trials.

Taught by his mother until he was 10, Billy then

‘This debate (about evolution) was going on throughout the United States. Bryan held very fundamentalist beliefs.

It was a dichotomy that, in his political life, Bryan was a liberalthinking person, but he was conservative in his private life. He was a product of his upbringing.’

FRANK BRINKERHOFF SALEM HISTORIAN, RETIRED TEACHER

attended Salem Academy, where one of his favorite teachers, Mary Rand Lemen, was a friend of Abraham Lincoln. At age 15, he entered Whipple Academy in Jacksonville, a prep school for Illinois College in Jacksonville.

He delivered the valedictory speech when he graduated from Illinois College in 1881. After his graduation from Union College of Law in Chicago, Bryan returned to Jacksonville to practice law.

He married Mary Elizabeth Baird there in 1884. After their daughter, Ruth, was born they moved to Lincoln, Neb., where they lived the rest of their lives.

Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1890, Bryan lost a bid for a Senate seat in 1894. After that defeat, he became editor in chief of The Omaha World Herald.

He was progressive in his early political life, Brinkerhoff said, helping establish new laws for public election of senators and creating the income tax.

During the 1896 Democratic Convention in Chicago, he delivered his famous “Cross of Gold” speech and was nominated for president the next day.

At 36, he was the youngest man ever nominated for the highest office in the country. He was defeated

by Republican William McKinley in the general election. McKinley beat him again in the 1900 presidential election.

As the Democratic candidate for president once more in 1908, Bryan was defeated by Republican William Howard Taft.

During the Spanish American War in 1898. he volunteered as a colonel of the Third Nebraska Volunteer Infantry. In 1901. he established his own newspaper, The Commoner, to publicize his political views.

In 1912, after Bryan worked to get Woodrow Wilson elected president, Wilson appointed him secretary of state. During his tenure, he negotiated treaties with 30 countries.

Bryan resigned in 1915 in protest to Wilson’s actions after the Germans sank the Lusitania.

“He was almost a pacifist,” Brinkerhoff said.

“He took a stand on world peace and got countries to sign non-aggressive pacts.

He didn’t approve of Wilson wanting to go to war.”

United was considering hiring him. Even after he Norwood said he didn’t was hired, some pilots see any conflict, but came didn’t fully trust him pretty close with the behind the yoke.

Cuban Missile Crisis. He “White pilots wanted to said at the time, he was watch me more than other flying a B-52 bomber with pilots,” Norwood said. “It a nuclear payload near the just spurred me to become former Soviet Union. more qualified.”

Norwood served in the Norwood said when he Air Force until 1965 and first started, not every joined United Airlines in passenger trusted him 1966. Norwood said he either. He said early in his could not have even career, he remembers a applied for a pilot position passenger seeing him, and at United until 1964. after realizing he would be “The reason I didn’t the pilot, the passenger have the opportunity to go immediately turned to United Airlines until around and headed back 1964 is because they to the terminal. Norwood didn’t hire black pilots,” said such incidents didn’t Norwood said. “The really bother him. reason I had the “They missed an opportunity was because opportunity to fly with a of the civil rights law of mighty good pilot,” 1964.”

Norwood said.

Norwood said some Norwood worked for pilots threatened to quit United Airlines for 31 when they found out years, achieving the rank

of captain before retiring in 1996. His wife, Molly, said that when he retired, high-profile officials such as Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and former U.S. senator and ambassador Carol Moseley Braun attended his retirement dinner.

“Bill had an outstanding career at United,” Molly said. “When he retired, 836 people had come to his retirement dinner.”

He was honored with a United Airlines Boeing

727 bearing his name in an exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. He was also awarded the Lincoln Academy Laureate in 2008, the highest award an Illinois civilian can obtain.

“When you think of a little poor boy from Centralia to receive such an award, it’s very humbling,” Molly said. codell.rodriguez@thesouthern.com 618-351-5804

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THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

SIUC’S SPORTS STARS From Frazier to Price-Smith to Jacobs, plenty of Salukis have succeeded on big stages

BY PETE SPITLER

While former running back and Super Bowl champion Brandon Jacobs and 2006 Pro Bowl selection Bart Scott are among the more recent SIU success stories, the list goes on.

THE SOUTHERN

Southern Illinois University Carbondale has gone through several incarnations. First it was known as a teacher’s college, then a small school, then a mid-major. But the Salukis have always made their presence known on the field of athletic excellence.

But it is not so much how SIUC has excelled, but rather why.

“I always want this place to kind of reflect the region and be blue collar,” said Mario Moccia, SIU athletic director. “Blue collar, roll up your sleeves, let’s grind it out, and if we come up on the short end of the stick, it’s not that we didn’t spill our guts on the field of play.”

While former running back and Super Bowl champion Brandon Jacobs and 2006 Pro Bowl selection Bart Scott are among the more recent SIU success stories, the list goes further back than that.

Walt “Clyde” Frazier graduated from SIU in 1967 after leading the Salukis to the National Invitational Tournament championship with a 71-56 win Frazier over Marquette in the title game.

Frazier was named MVP of the tournament and went on to become the fifth overall selection by the New York Knicks that year.

Frazier was an NBA allstar seven times and a key part of the Knicks’ 1970 and ’73 championship teams.

“We have been successful in placing people in professional ranks or playing internationally,” Moccia said. “By going to tournaments, or going to the playoffs in basketball, I think we’re poised to get that high-level athlete.”

SIU currently has five former men’s basketball players playing overseas.

Jermaine Dearman is in China, Matt Shaw is in Spain, and while Randal Falker and Bryan Mullins are in France. Darren Brooks, a two-time Missouri Valley

U.S. female athlete to have a top 10 world ranking in the shot put for five consecutive years.

“You can be from anywhere you want to be,” Price-Smith said. “As long as you put the work in to get the job done, you can go as far as you want to go.”

One of the prominent athletes Price-Smith has coached is SIU graduate Brittany Riley. Riley made her Olympic debut in Beijing in 2008, and the thrower broke the world record in the women’s weight throw in 2007 with a toss of 80 feet, 7 1/2 inches, surpassing Erin Gilreath’s mark of 79 feet, 6 inches that was set in 2005.

“Brittany was a very talented athlete,” Price-Smith said. “She had a lot of potential and Riley capabilities, and it was nice to see her achieve the things that she did.”

Two other areas that involve international athletes are tennis and swimming. SIU women’s tennis boasts Zimbabwe native Fadzai Mawisire, who is a former NAIA AllAmerican and a former THE SOUTHERN FILE PHOTO silver medalist in the 2003 SIU’s Brandon Jacobs stares upfield during a run early in 2004 against Southeast Missouri State. All-African Games. The senior transfer posted a 42-5 record in singles and a when asked what the year as head Conference player of the 55-6 record in doubles at biggest difference was coach for year, is in Australia after a Lindsey Wilson College. between being a first-time both the stint with the Albuquerque “She’s so consistent,” said Olympian and a fourthmen’s and Thunderbirds of the NBA SIU women’s tennis coach time Olympian. “The first women’s Development League.

Audra Nothwehr. “She’s time, I was just in awe of programs.

Jamaal Tatum, another not the person you see in After a career everything and not sure I accomplished athlete, is the weight room and say, was necessarily ready to with the Idaho Stampede of Price-Smith in basketball ‘Man, that’s a hardcore compete as much as I was at SIU, she the NBDL. athlete.’ Some tennis But the accomplishments turned her attention to track spectating.” players are just not like that Price-Smith became the and field and is currently go beyond basketball. One and she hits the ball so only has to walk the corridor fifth all-time in the outdoor first female athlete in 32 naturally.” shot put, third in the discus years to win both the shot of Lingle Hall to meet Nothwehr has two other put and discus at the 1992 and one of the most another example of Saluki decorated athletes in Saluki Olympic Trials. She missed international athletes. greatness — track and field Vishakha Sheoran is from the bronze medal by four coach Connie Price-Smith. history. inches at the 1996 Olympics India and Martina Vianna “You know what to A four-time Olympian, Ce is from Brazil. Together, in Atlanta and was the first Price-Smith is in her eighth expect,” said Price-Smith,

all three help add a world flavor to the Salukis.

“We’re getting some recruits in here that we’ve never had before,” Nothwehr said. “It’s exciting.”

The men’s side of tennis is no different. The Salukis posted an 18-7 record in 2008 and earned their first NCAA tournament appearance since 1991, ending the season with a first-round loss to UCLA in May. SIU returns three players (Pavlo Buryi, Lucas Waked, Anton Leonenko and Sebastian Rubiano), which means big things could happen once again for the Salukis in 2009.

“It’s definitely helped in recruiting,” said SIU men’s tennis coach Dann Nelson on the team’s NCAA bid. “I always call it ‘recruiting fuel’ when you can win your conference and go to the NCAAs and get flown out to California and play UCLA like we did.

“It was a great experience, and I use that all the time now to recruit athletes to come and play tennis for us.”

With the $83 million Saluki Way project under construction, Moccia hopes that the new facilities will not only help to continue SIU’s trend of success but also foster a new era of greatness and memories.

“As the high-level kids look at facility projects more and more in the decisionmaking process, I think you’re going to slide back if you don’t show you’re trying to improve the facilities from a recruiting standpoint,” Moccia said. “I think (Saluki Way) allows us to get the next high-level recruit that might be considering a program with a more money and a little more bells and whistles.” pete.spitler@thesouthern.com 618-351-5073

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11

Highlights from some of Southern Illinois’ best sportsmen and sportswomen Walt ‘Clyde’ Frazier: A 1967 SIU graduate, Frazier led the Salukis to the NIT championship his senior year and was selected as the MVP of the tournament.

After the season, he was the fifth pick in the NBA draft by the New York Knicks, and went on to become a seven-time allstar and two-time NBA champion.

He ended his NBA career with 15,581 points, 4,380 rebounds, 681 steals and 59 blocks. Frazier is a commentator for Madison Square Garden Network, with which he covers Knicks games.

Brandon Jacobs: Jacobs transferred to SIU from Auburn University for his senior year in 2005. He led the Salukis with 992 yards and 19 touchdowns and was selected by the New York Giants in the fourth round of the 2005 NFL draft.

With the retirement of Tiki Barber, Jacobs took over the running back role fulltime for the Giants in 2007 and rushed for 1,011 yards and four touchdowns in an injury-plagued season for the 2008 Super Bowl Champions.

New York put the franchise player tag on Jacobs and signed him to a four-year, $25 million contract in February.

Brittany Riley: A 2008 graduate of SIU, Riley broke the world record in the women’s weight throw in 2007 with a toss of 80 feet, 7 1/2 inches. She made her Olympic debut in 2008 in the Beijing games.

The hammer thrower had an eventful 2007 season, finishing runner-up in the NCAA Championships, winning the U.S. Outdoor Championships and recording a personal best toss of 237 feet, 3 inches at the Drake Relays.

Riley also won the 2005 World Junior title as well as a silver medal at the Pan Am Juniors.

Connie Price-Smith: A four-time Olympian, PriceSmith is in her eighth season as head coach of both men’s and women’s track at SIU. A former Saluki basketball player who converted to track after her eligibility was over, she missed the bronze medal in the shot put by four inches at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta.

As one of the most decorated athletes in Saluki history, Price-Smith became the first woman in 32 years to win both the shot put and discus at the 1992 Olympic Trials. Not only that, but she became the first U.S. athlete to have a top 10 world ranking in the shot put for five consecutive years.

Mike Glenn: After graduating from SIU in 1977, Glenn was drafted 23rd overall by the Chicago Bulls. However, he was released from the team after breaking his neck in an offseason car accident.

Starting over with the Buffalo Braves, he would later sign with the New York Knicks and shot an average of 54 percent from the field as a 6-foot-3 guard during the course of his career.

He currently runs the Mike Glenn All-Star Basketball Camp for the Hearing Impaired, which is the nation’s first such camp of its kind, and is an accomplished author and speaker. Glenn is also the commissioner of the World Basketball Association.

Steve Finley: Finley played for SIU’s baseball team from 1984-87 and was selected by the Atlanta Braves in the 11th round of the 1986 Major League draft.

However, he decided to return to the Salukis and was a two-time AllMissouri Valley Conference selection and a third-team All-American.

After winning a bronze medal with Team USA in 1986, he was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles the following year. An 18-year career followed, during

which he was a World Series Champion in 2001 and a five-time Gold Glove Award-winner. The center fielder was released by the Colorado Rockies in 2007.

At the time of his release, Finley was fourth in hits among active players with 2,548.

Joe C. Meriweather: A 6-foot-10 center who graduated from SIU in 1975, Meriweather still ranks eighth among the school’s all-time career scoring leaders with 1,536 points.

Meriweather was drafted 11th overall by the Houston Rockets in 1975 and played 10 seasons in the NBA for five different teams. He also won a bronze medal with the U.S. national team in the 1974 FIBA World Championships.

He is now in his 13th season as the head women’s basketball coach at Park University in Parkville, Mo. Jerry Sloan: A McLeansboro native, Sloan was an all-state basketball player at McLeansboro High School (now Hamilton County) in 1960. He went on to play college ball at the University of Evansville before being drafted by the Baltimore Bullets fourth overall in 1965.

Sloan finished his NBA career with 10,751 career points and 5,615 rebounds,

and the 6-foot-5 guard was hired as a scout for the Chicago Bulls before quickly becoming an assistant coach with the team.

After becoming head coach of the Bulls in 1979, he led Chicago to the playoffs in his second year at the helm before getting fired after a bad start to his third season.

Undeterred, Sloan was chosen as the Utah Jazz’s head coach in 1988, a position he continues to serve to this day. The 67-year-old was named to the Basketball Hall of Fame in April.

Doug Collins: Collins enjoyed a successful career at Benton High School playing for coach Rich Herrin, after which he went on to Illinois State University before becoming the No. 1 overall pick by Philadelphia in the 1973 NBA draft.

A four time all-star, Collins scored 7,427 points in 415 NBA games. The 6-foot-6 shooting guard turned to coaching after his career, with head-coaching stops in Chicago, Detroit and Washington en route to recording a 332-287 record in eight seasons.

Collins served as NBC’s sports analyst for the basketball competition during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.

Rich Herrin: Herrin is one

of the most renowned coaches in Southern Illinois history. After coaching stints with Okawville and Benton, he coached Southern Illinois University men’s basketball team for 13 seasons.

Herrin’s Rockets and Rangers teams were a combined 616-209, and he led the Salukis to a 225-174 record during his tenure, including seven straight postseason appearances between 1989 and 1995.

Among those who played for Herrin is current SIU head coach Chris Lowery.

Including a brief period with Marion High School earlier this decade, Herrin has amassed 902 career wins.

Jim Hart: As both a former SIU graduate and athletic director, Hart was also quite an accomplished quarterback for the Salukis, passing for 3,779 yards and 34 touchdowns.

Signed as a free agent in 1966 by the St. Louis Cardinals, he became the 1974 NFL Player of the Year for leading the Cardinals to the Eastern Division championship.

In 19 professional seasons, Hart threw for 34,665 yards on 2,593 passes with 209 touchdowns. He also ran for 16 touchdowns and served as the school’s athletic director from 1988 to 2000.

Charles ‘Chico’Vaughn: Vaughn is the highest scorer in Illinois boys basketball history, with 3,358 points accumulated during a fouryear career at Tamms High School from 1954-58.

After a career at SIU, he played five seasons in the NBA with the St. Louis Hawks and the Detroit Pistons. He then joined the American Basketball Association for three seasons and won the 1968 ABA championship with the Pittsburgh Pipers.

Troy Hudson: A graduate of Carbondale Community High School who would later play college basketball at Missouri and SIU, Troy Hudson’s route to the NBA was a hard-fought one.

After a brief two-month stint with the Utah Jazz in 1997, he broke into the league permanently with the Los Angeles Clippers in 1999 and started earning praise while with the Orlando Magic from 200002.

Hudson’s best seasons came with the Minnesota Timberwolves, with whom he averaged a career-best 14.2 points-per-game in 2003. Unfortunately, nagging injuries derailed his career and his contract was bought out by the Timberwolves in 2007.

Hudson played nine

games for the Golden State Warriors in 2007-08.

Ashraf Amaya: A SIU graduate with 85 games of NBA experience, Amaya won a bronze medal with the U.S. National Team in the 1998 FIBA World Championships.

The 6-foot-8 forward played for the Washington Bullets and Vancouver Grizzlies during his career, starting 34 of his 85 games.

He finished his career with 379 points, 355 rebounds and 36 assists.

Amaya last played professionally in Greece in 2004.

Ivory Crockett: Crockett brought his running shoes to SIU in 1968 and in time became known as the world’s fastest man after running the 100-meter dash in nine seconds flat, breaking the world record in 1974.

The Los Angeles Times would later immortalize Crockett with the headline “Immortality in 9 seconds flat.” In 1969, as a freshman with the Salukis, Crockett won the 100-meter dash in the National AAU championships. He won the AAU championship again in 1970 and was clocked at 9.6 in the 100 meters at the NCAA championships in 1972.

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MINNESOTA FATS World’s most famous pool shark eventually settled in Dowell

BY BLACKWELL THOMAS THE SOUTHERN

He was born Rudolph Wanderone Jr., and while his talent for pool was as rare as his moniker, he took another one.

Instead of Mr. Wanderone, the world knew him as Minnesota Fats, and he remains perhaps the best known pool player of all time.

Beginning in New York City shortly after his birth in 1913, Fats discovered his talent for pool, which took him across the nation before he eventually settled in Dowell, about 15 miles north of Carbondale.

Next-door neighbor and friend Gordon Williams said Fats knew early on what he was meant to do.

“He told me he started playing pool when he was 3 years old, and he’d play standing on a milk crate,” Williams said. “He did that, and he was hustling when he was five.”

Williams, who now lives in Sparta, added that pool was the only job Fats ever knew.

“That’s all he ever did,” he said. “He never did a day’s work in his life, and he was proud of it. That was his claim to fame.”

Williams said Fats traveled pool halls across the country, taking on the best the locals had to offer before moving on to the next town.

“That’s how he got his start, but once he made a name for himself he could no longer do that,” he said.

“He made all his money, according to him, not in the

THE SOUTHERN FILE PHOTO

Popeye still casts a large shadow over Chester.

Region became a comic haven

BY BLACKWELL THOMAS THE SOUTHERN

PROVIDED

Rudolph Waderone Jr., better known as Minnesota Fats, spent much of his life in Dowell.

televised or sanctioned tourneys but, after the tourneys, on guys who thought they could beat him.”

But it wasn’t just being great that allowed Fats to make his name legend. He did it with flair.

“He would be compared to Muhammad Ali, in that he would intimidate his opponents,” Williams said.

“He’d have them so upset and nervous and rattled, that’s how he’d beat them sometimes.”

With the fame that followed him from his depiction in the Paul Newman film “The Hustler,” Fats’ name grew larger through tournaments and exhibitions, and even in some of the billiard books that claimed to help teach readers all of his tricks.

During his travels, Fats met his wife to be, Evelyn,

‘That’s all he ever did. He never did a day’s work in his life, and he was proud of it. That was his claim to fame.’

GORDON WILLIAMS, FRIEND AND NEIGHBOR

at the St. Nicholas hotel in Du Quoin, where she worked. From there, he moved to Dowell, where he lived with Evelyn and her mother until their divorce, which Williams said came in the early 1980s.

But before then, he became a fixture in Dowell.

He was known for a New York accent, generosity with his money and being a devoted animal lover.

“He was quite a character, very loud, boisterous and he loved animals,” said Regina Jansen, who said she was a neighbor. “He would go get Kentucky Fried

Chicken, whatever didn’t sell there, and he’d bring that over and feed his dogs. Sometimes he’d used some (bad) language while he was doing it. But I’ve seen him outside, early in the morning, feeding the dogs in his underwear.”

Eccentricities aside, Fats was respected and revered in town, Jansen said.

“Everybody was very proud of the fact that he was from Dowell,” she said.

“He was a legend.”

Fats died in 1994 in Nashville, Tenn., at age 83. blackwell.thomas@thesouthern.com 618-351-5823

It’s been 37 years since a group of businessmen and residents made Metropolis the home of Superman.

At the time, hopes ran high that the association with the world famous comic book character would bring a windfall of publicity and, eventually, business to the depressed river town. Plans for a theme park on the level of Disneyworld were even discussed.

The rush of publicity came and went, but the association with the fictional and identicallynamed town Clark Kent called home, lives on.

A 15-foot bronze Superman statue that stands in the town square and an annual Superman Celebration that attracts thousands serve as the most visible reminders of Metropolis’ association with the Man of Steel.

A similar association between character and town exists about 100 miles north of Metropolis, in Chester, where a former resident is responsible for creating one of the most enduring animated characters of all time.

Cartoonist Elzie Crisler Sigar was born in 1894 in Chester, on the banks of the Mississippi. The son of

THE SOUTHERN FILE PHOTO

A statue of Superman stands tall over Metropolis.

a local handyman, he took up cartooning when he was 18. After leaving Chester, he would go on to cartooning jobs for newspapers in Chicago and New York and, along the way, create Popeye.

The spinach-guzzling sailor has spawned an industry of toys, video games and films that have helped sustain a legacy that began with a simple comic strip.

Sigar never forgot about his hometown, basing many of the main characters, such as Bluto, Wimpy and Olive Oyl, on acquaintances from Chester.

Southern Illinois found itself represented on the comic pages again thanks to Frank Willard, a native of Anna.

Born in 1893, Willard created Moon Mullins, which graced comic pages from coast to coast for nearly seven decades, ending in the early ’90s. blackwell.thomas@thesouthern.com 618-351-5823

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THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

CHARLIE BIRGER

13

PAUL POWELL

Bootlegger loved his time in the spotlight Powerful public servant left mixed legacy

BY BLACKWELL THOMAS

BY BLACKWELL THOMAS

THE SOUTHERN

THE SOUTHERN

While prohibition ruled the land in the 1920s, bootlegging criminal Charlie Birger and his gang helped form part of a pipeline of booze that kept speakeasies in the Midwest busy. A lover of the limelight, Birger led a dual life — part Robin Hood, part murderous crime boss.

Near his Saline County home in Harrisburg, Birger was known as a genial gentleman who spread his wealth generously. Across the Williamson County line, he waged wars with the lethal Shelton gang, the Ku Birger Klux Klan and anyone else who stood in his way.

He ended his life as the last man publicly hanged in Illinois, a smile on his face as he stood atop the gallows at the County Jail in Benton before remarking with his last words that, “It’s a beautiful world.”

With a chiseled jaw and piercing eyes, Birger made himself notorious by ruthlessly expanding a bootlegging operation on the one hand and keeping coal and food in the homes of his neighbors on the other.

He intended to be a legend, said Robert Rea of the Historic Jail Museum in Benton, which is lined with Birger memorabilia, including his guns and bulletproof vest, which Birger once tested on one of his gang members. Rea did not say if the gang member survived the quality inspection.

Looking at a picture of Birger seated atop an old car, clasping a Tommy gun and surrounded by about 20 of his fellow gun-bearing gang members, Rea said Birger’s brashness was matched by a formidable ego.

“How many gangsters would have their gang photographed like this with their guns?” he said. “He was a publicity seeker.”

Born Shachna Itzik in 1880, Birger was a Jewish Lithuanian whose parents immigrated to New York City when he was 8, though he spent most of his childhood in St. Louis. He grew up in a hardscrabble life, working as a delivery boy for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch before eventually signing up for military duty in the 13th Calvary, where he earned

PROVIDED

Charlie Birger’s gang waged many wars throughout Southern Illinois.

a reputation as an accomplished horseman.

Birger eventually opened a bar in Harrisburg, and when prohibition became law, he saw an opportunity for hocking underground booze.

Rea said that while there is no firm count on how many murders can be attributed to Birger and his gang, there is no doubt the number is in the dozens.

Birger is said to have admitted, “Yes,

I’ve killed men, but never a good one.”

Much of the murder took place between Birger’s gang and the Shelton Gang as the two sides battled for bootlegging supremacy. The war between the two gangs escalated and even included an aerial bombing in which the Sheltons hired a pilot to lob nitroglycerin bombs at Birger’s hideout. No one was killed in the attack.

Amid the escalating violence, Birger eventually was charged with the murder of Mayor Joe Adams of West City, when two of his allies took life sentences for the crime and testified to Birger’s involvement.

Birger denied his involvement until the end.

“They’ve accused me of a lot of things I was never guilty of,” he said. “But I was guilty of a lot of things of which they never accused me. So I guess we’re about even.”

After almost a year in Franklin County Jail, Birger was hanged April 19, 1928, before a crowd estimated at about 5,000 people.

It is said he refused morphine to ease the experience but, that said, he smiled until the end.

Powell appointees, and with 2,000 Known as the Grey Fox of patronage Vienna, former Illinois jobs at his Secretary of State Paul disposal Powell was the ultimate sly during his political insider.

Powell five-year Wielding power term as secretary of state, disproportionate to the he was able to enforce his small Southern Illinois oft-stated fondness for town he called home, doling out jobs and Powell became a man respected, feared and, upon commanding loyalty.”

In his book, “Paul Powell his death, reviled in Illinois. of Illinois: A Lifelong After working his entire Democrat,” author Robert life in public service and E. Hartley estimated that never earning a salary greater than $30,000 in one when Powell’s estate was settled in 1978, it was year, Powell’s reputation worth $4.6 million. was of a lifelong, albeit According to Hartley, the powerful, public servant.

And it might have stayed money also was stuffed in that way, were it not for the metal boxes, briefcases and $800,000 in cash stuffed in envelopes. Powell also left behind 49 cases of whiskey. shoeboxes he left behind Today, Powell is upon his death of a heart considered part of Illinois’ attack at age 68. rich history of political In the months after he died, more details emerged corruption. But, if not for the money, Powell’s legacy about Powell. could just as easily have A Time Magazine story been defined by his efforts published in January 1971 to enrich Southern Illinois. described Powell as “an Born in 1902 in Vienna, orator given to ungrammatical homespun Powell spent 30 years representing the area in anecdotes and a the state legislature. campaigner whose babyHe also served two kissing forays through terms as secretary of county fairs belied his state, the post he held statehouse reputation as a when he was found dead master of patronage. His in 1970 annual ‘flower fund’ was in his Rochester, Minn., required charity for all

hotel room.

While in the General Assembly, Powell served three terms as speaker of the house and four terms as minority leader.

Throughout his time in Springfield, Powell was instrumental in securing funding for Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

John Jackson, an expert in Illinois politics and professor at the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at SIUC, said Powell’s reputation was one of pure political heft.

“I met him at events when he’d come to the university on occasion,” said Jackson. “I must say, the feeling I had was that everyone on the campus stepped back in some awe because he was such a powerful person and had such a reputation of power in those days. But, clearly, he helped build this place, and, certainly, he was critical in building SIU Edwardsville.”

While acknowledging his contributions, Jackson said Powell’s legacy is not black and white.

“He was a very mixed bag of both corruption and accomplishment,” he said. blackwell.thomas@thesouthern.com 618-351-5823

Many infamous criminals were locked up in region Here are a few criminals who have been housed in Southern Illinois: John Wayne Gacy, serial killer, Menard Pete Rose, baseball player and gambler, Marion

John Gotti, organized crime boss, Marion Charlie Birger, gangster, Franklin County Jail Leonard Peltier, convicted of murdering two FBI agents, Marion

Gary Gilmore, convicted murderer who asked for and was granted execution in Utah, Marion John Anthony Walker, convicted of spying for the Soviets, Marion

blackwell.thomas@thesouthern.com 618-351-5823

Shelton Gang, Birger rarely saw eye-to-eye

BY BLACKWELL THOMAS

Charlie Birger’s gang as the two fought for control of bootlegging in the region.

But the two groups Mention of the name weren’t always at odds.

Charlie Birger is often Together they helped send quickly followed with acknowledgement of one of the Ku Klux Klan packing his biggest foes, the Shelton out of Southern Illinois, although the fight was Gang.

Comprised of five Shelton primarily a business move as the Klan opposed alcohol. brothers, the gang worked But the war against the by its own set of ruthless rules as they ran bootlegging Klan was quickly replaced with a war between the operations throughout gangs. Violence between the Illinois. With a reach that two sides saw dozens extended from their murdered, and that didn’t hometown of Fairfield in end with Birger’s execution Wayne County north to in 1928.

Peoria and deep into the Ambush-style shootings, southern part of the state, attacks and assassinations the gang was both feared continued to haunt the and loved.

Described in a 1951 article Sheltons and former gang in The Southern Illinoisan as members into the 1950s, when Roy Shelton was “prohibition-era rulers of gunned down. the Southern Illinois In all, three of the five underworld,” the Sheltons Shelton brothers were killed were the prime foe to

THE SOUTHERN

amid a streak of violence they helped bring through both bullets and silence.

A June 12, 1950, article in The Southern describes the aftermath of a shooting in which none of the Sheltons would cooperate with police, and provides a glimpse into the cultural climate of the time.

“True to their own peculiar code, none of the Sheltons has named their assailants. Nor have city or county police been able to ascertain them,” the article reads. “In fact, police authorities apparently aren’t interested. Not in action at least. They have permitted to unfold in Downstate Illinois a saga of blood that has attracted nationwide attention.” blackwell.thomas@thesouthern.com 618-351-5823

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THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

BROCTON LOCKWOOD Retired judge now lives a calm, simple life in Saline County

BY SCOTT FITZGERALD

‘Judge Lockwood’s account of Greylord not only informs us about public corruption, it inspires us as well. The public owes Judge Lockwood a debt of gratitute that cannot easily be repaid.’

THE SOUTHERN

Former Williamson County Judge Brocton Lockwood, who gained notoriety as a whistleblower to brazen judicial corruption in Chicago more than 30 years earlier, isn’t one to seek exposure today.

He doesn’t journey to the Southern Illinois University Carbondale School of Law to guest lecture.

He’s not writing books or blogging for that matter.

He enjoys the quiet rural life on his farm in Saline County and visits from friends and family members.

When judicial and political corruption surface, however, such as the recent downfall and indictments against former Gov. Rod Blagojevich in 2008, journalists come calling.

They know what Lockwood did in setting a precedent against corruption. And his words echo true today as his actions did back then.

“People involved with illegal cases have more money than they know what to do with. They don’t know how to get rid of it,” he said about payoffs to people with authority and other sleazy practices.

Lockwood, now in his mid-60s, arrived in Chicago in 1978 and reported to housing court, fulfilling the obligation of all Southern Illinois judges to serve six weeks each year to reduce the backlog in the Cook County system.

According to “Operation Greylord: Brocton Lockwood’s Story,” by

PETER M. MANIKAS THE SOUTHERN FILE PHOTO

Judge William A. Lewis (from left), Brocton Lockwood and Robert Howerton listen during a news conference in 1983.

Lockwood with Harlan H. Mendenhall, published by Southern Illinois University Press in 1989, the young judge was immediately shown what hustle was in the judicial system.

“My first day in housing court, I was baffled by what went on. We handled more than 250 cases in an hour and a half — an average of 22 seconds per case,” he wrote.

He soon learned hustle was more than something associated with a time element as he talked recently about Chicago, where he said, “Something is always done for a price.”

Soon after being reassigned to hear traffic court cases, Lockwood approached the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office with the need to unload what he was seeing — visible signs of bribery in the open. He saw judicial decisions bought and sold like commodity futures, according to his book.

Upon his contact with the county state’s attorney’s office, he

learned the U.S. Attorney’s office was already working with the office on an investigation into the system. He was asked to help by those authorities and consented.

It was a dangerous assignment, as Lockwood was wired to help gain evidence. He wore tape recorders in his cowboy boots and microphones under his judicial robes. He helped the FBI get its evidence to begin indictments, and eventual federal convictions, of more than 90 people, including judges, lawyers, police officers, deputy sheriffs, deputy clerks and a court receiver.

Lockwood helped authorities over an approximate three-year period. In addition to fearing for his family’s and his own safety, he didn’t exactly have the greatest of relationships with the people he assisted.

There were times he felt clearly alone, as he wrote of driving home one weekend after completing another week of

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IN FOREWORD OF ‘OPERATION GREYLORD: BROCKTON LOCKWOOD’S STORY’

harrowing work.

“On my way home that weekend I felt angry and isolated. No one in the Washington FBI hierarchy seemed to give a damn about the help I was giving them. There was no one I could trust anymore,” he wrote.

Lockwood confided in a few friends in Southern Illinois, including a friend with the Carbondale Police Department, who was the only person with access to the judge’s notes during the probe.

Eventually, Lockwood began to see the tide turn and authorities began their numerous convictions. He returned home In an earlier article by The Southern Illinoisan, Lockwood said he was grateful to return in one piece.

“I’m elated I got out of the thing and didn’t get killed,” he said with a chuckle.

He doesn’t mind playing armchair quarterback today at events that continue to unfold in Chicago.

STEPHEN RICKERL / FOR THE SOUTHERN

Retired Judge Brocton Lockwood poses for a portrait at his home in Saline County.

Lockwood still sees the brazen attitudes and the hustle he assisted in getting earlier convictions, in stories such as former Gov. Rod Blagojevich scheming to auction off President-elect Barack Obama’s open Senate seat in 2008.

“It’s a tradition in Chicago. He (Blagojevich) played the game,” Lockwood said, noting the former governor’s reaction to launch a mass public appeals campaign shortly after his indictments were announced by prosecutor Pat Fitzgerald is par for the course.

“First you have denial.

And then you attack the person. You’ve got to do this to keep your followers in line,” Lockwood said.

He foresees the Blagojevich strategy backfiring, however.

“I wouldn’t challenge Fitzgerald at this stage of his career. He (Fitzgerald) is

not going to be impressed.

He (Fitzgerald) maintains he doesn’t mess around,” Lockwood said.

Whatever happens in the future of Illinois politics is anyone’s guess. Lockwood did justice a great service with Operation Greylord, and his legendary actions are best described in his book’s foreword, written by Peter M. Manikas, who was executive director of the Special Commission on the Administration of Justice in Cook County.

“He (Lockwood) had the courage and conviction to come forward, but the price he paid has been high.

Judge Lockwood’s account of Greylord not only informs us about public corruption, it inspires us as well. The public owes Judge Lockwood a debt of gratitude that cannot easily be repaid.” scott.fitzgerald@thesouthern.com 618-351-5076

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THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

15

JOHN A. LOGAN AND MEMORIAL DAY Civil War general’s vision became a historic reality near downtown Carbondale

BY DEBBIE LUEBKE METRO FOR THE SOUTHERN

As traffic rushes past the tombstones on a small hill along busy Illinois 13 near downtown Carbondale, many drivers probably don’t realize they are passing a prominent spot in our nation’s history.

Woodlawn Cemetery, which is on the National Register of Historic Places, was the site of a memorial service honoring Civil War Logan veterans April 29, 1866. The event prompted Gen. John A. Logan, a national war hero from Murphysboro who was commander of the Grand Army of the Republic, to issue General Order No. 11, establishing May 30 as Memorial Day. He called it “the proudest act of my life.”

Mike Jones, director of Gen. John A. Logan Museum in Murphysboro, said “few sources are available about that ceremony at Woodlawn.”

But he recently discovered a detailed description of the event in a children’s book, “Vinnie and the Flag Tree,” by Mabel Thompson Rauch, published in 1959.

In an author’s note in the book, Rauch says the chapter about Memorial Day is “exact and authentic,” based on information she learned from her father, Theodore Thompson, a provost marshal for Logan during the war, and her aunt,

Jeanette Ward Thompson, who was an official flower girl in the parade.

Reunions for Civil War veterans were hosted until 1905 at the Thompson farm, where Thompson Woods and Campus Lake are today on the SIUC campus. Rauch said she sat around many campfires listening to the stories of soldiers who served under “Black Jack” Logan. (His nickname because of his dark hair and eyes.)

“This really personalizes it,” Jones said of Rauch’s depiction of the first Memorial Day here.

In the book, Rauch said her father saw Logan a week before the event at the train station, and Logan asked him to spread the word about the service planned for soldiers of both the North and the South.

“He said folks were still so bitter that he hoped to heal the ill feeling thus, among old friends and neighbors,” Rauch wrote.

“They wanted as many veterans and their families as was possible to come and join in this tribute.”

That Sunday, her father put on his faded and worn soldier’s uniform and the family headed to downtown Carbondale, where all the buildings around town square were decorated with flags. Long tables were being set up in one of the parks in the square shaded by black oak trees for a dinner and barbecue scheduled to follow the services.

“The parade was forming along up West Main Street,” Rauch wrote. “General Logan was on his horse, here,

‘... (Logan) had planned this memorial service, not only to honor our dead, but also to help bind up the wounds of the living.’

MABEL TOMPSON RAUCH AUTHOR, ‘VINNIE AND THE FLAG TREE’

remember our fallen heroes, no matter where our paths might lead us in future years. That he had planned this memorial service, not only to honor our dead, but also to help bind up the wounds of the living.”

The war had changed THE SOUTHERN FILE PHOTO Logan. Before it, he Woodlawn Cemetery in Carbondale was the site of a memorial service which prompted entered politics as a proGen. John A. Logan to issue General Order No. 11, which established May 30 as Memorial Day. Southern Democrat and served as a state flags near the head of the came the veterans. there, and everywhere, representative and then a grave of Captain Bowyer “Folks said there were stopping to greet old U.S. Congressman. After and began his speech. more than two hundred friends and shake hands the war, he reentered the “Soon, there was not a already lined up to march, with folks who wanted to political arena as a a splendid remnant of the dry eye in the entire meet him.

Republican who fought for “It was such a beautiful many thousands who had crowd; the war had African-American rights spring morning it was just passed in that great review touched our lives too and was elected to a seat in poignantly; each had lost in their nation’s capital a pleasure to stand and the U.S. House of less than a year before. All some close relation or watch all that was going Representatives and then were in uniform, or at least friend — some fighting for to the U.S. Senate. on.” the Northern cause, some part of one.”

A band gathered at the In 1884, he narrowly lost for the South,” Rauch Bringing up the rear of front, led by Col. E.J. a bid for vice president. wrote.

Ingersoll, parade marshall. the parade were several Before his sudden death in “General Logan, buggies, wagons and Next came an open 1886, he was considered a speaking of the supreme carriages of those who carriage with six young strong contender for wanted to ride rather than sacrifice made by the women in it, the official president. In addition to soldiers sleeping so walk to the cemetery. flower girls. They wore the museum in peacefully in this little Logan took his place sheer white dresses with Murphysboro, Logan is graveyard, said, ‘Every full skirts and wide ribbon behind the flower girls’ memorialized in man’s life belongs to his carriage, the band began sashes in pale colors. At numerous statues country, and no man has “sweetly and sadly” to their feet were piles of throughout the country, the right to refuse it when including Grant Park in wreaths of flowers, one for play “Tenting Tonight on his country calls.’ the Old Camp Ground,” each soldier’s grave.

Chicago, Washington “He went on to say he Behind them was a large and the march to the D.C., and Springfield. hoped that each year when cemetery began. hay wagon decorated in He’s named in the the springtime came with Illinois state song, along After a prayer, Logan red, white and blue, its abundance of flowers carrying little girls holding stood up on a small with Abraham Lincoln and that we would all platform decorated with baskets of flowers. Next Ulysses S. Grant.

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THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

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THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

R. BUCKMINSTER FULLER Creator of geodesic dome helped make SIUC nationally known books and was the subject of many others. He even recorded a song he had written about his most R. (for Richard) famous structure, “Roam Buckminster Fuller once Home to a Dome.” said, “I am not a thing — a Ralph Becker, a 1955 noun. I seem to be a verb, radio-television graduate of an evolutionary process — SIUC, was working on an integral function of the campus as a radio-TV universe.” lecturer and for the SIU The nearly blind, 5-footBroadcasting Service when 3-inch Harvard dropout, “Bucky” called him and once reviled as a crackpot, asked for a favor. He wanted came to be regarded as one Becker to tape him singing of the most brilliant men of the song, to the tune of the 20th century, “Home on the Range.” They particularly after he recorded three takes and introduced his geodesic Fuller picked the one he dome in 1949 and patented it in 1954. The structure PROVIDED liked best. Becker cut a linked a system of triangles R. Buckminster Fuller (right) is interviewed by Walter Cronkite. record for him and kept one for himself. Years later, into a dome that boasted with his nonstop stream of Becker presented his copy to Cherry streets in remarkable strength. ideas and inventions.

Carbondale, and moved in SIUC’s Morris Library for its Suddenly, Fuller had In 1964, Fuller was with his wife, Anne. The collection of Fuller material. credibility as architects featured in 1964 on the couple spent some time in In 1972 Fuller, the hailed his design. the structure, though both cover of Time magazine, in footloose verb of a man, And in 1959, Southern an illustration that moved his offices to Illinois University President traveled frequently, combined his trademark according to newspaper Philadelphia, where he Delyte W. Morris lured structure with his bald, accounts. Fuller often became “a world fellow in Fuller to the Carbondale domelike head. That same traveled as much as 10 residence” for a consortium campus as a research image later was used on a months a year on speaking of colleges and universities. professor. He earlier had U.S. postage stamp engagements.

He did return to campus as visited campus as an celebrating Fuller and his But, as Morris hoped, a lecturer, for Sun Day in occasional lecturer, at the ideas.

1978 and Earth Week invitation of Harold Cohen, Bucky Fuller also helped Students marveled at activities in 1980. a former Fuller student who put SIU on the map.

Fuller’s ability to lecture for By the time he arrived in By 1980, more than headed the SIUC design eight hours nonstop, Carbondale, Fuller had 200,000 geodesic domes department. though some said they had had been built, ranging become a cult figure to Fuller built a geodesic trouble following his from military shelters in dome 39 feet in diameter at some of his followers. And he was always good for copy narratives. A 1982 article in Okinawa, Japan, to the the corner of Forest and the Wall Street Journal American Pavilion at Expo describes a session seven 67 in Montreal. One nearby years earlier when, on a In 1959, Southern Illinois University President example is the Climatron in dare, Fuller spent 43 hours St. Louis, a giant dome that Delyte W. Morris lured Fuller to the Carbondale over a two-week period houses a collection of “thinking out loud.” tropical plants at the campus as a research professor. Fuller built a Without text or outline, he Missouri Botanical Garden, geodesic dome 39 feet in diameter at the corner just talked until he had told better known as Shaw’s the audience everything he Garden. of Forest and Cherry streets in Carbondale, and knew, he told the And Bucky’s followers moved in with his wife, Anne. As Morris hoped, interviewer. He added that continued to come to he never repeated himself.

Carbondale for museum Bucky Fuller also helped put SIUC on the map.

Fuller also produced 24 exhibits on his work, even a

BY LINDA RUSH THE SOUTHERN

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R. Buckminster Fuller poses with a model of a geometric construction. The system of triangles boasted great strength.

“World Game” staged on Super Bowl Sunday of 1987.

Fuller had designed the game to find real solutions to problems like hunger, sickness, pollution, poverty and other turmoil around the world.

And though he was best known for the domes, Fuller also had worked for the government during World War II, converting grain silos into military housing units. And he invented the Dymaxion map, which visually unfolded the Earth’s surface in a process much like peeling an orange. One of Bucky’s strangest inventions was the Dymaxion car, a threewheeled vehicle designed in 1933 for speed, maximum fuel efficiency and easy handling.

Fuller coined the term “Spaceship Earth” to describe the interrelated nature of our planet. One of his books was entitled “Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth.” Bucky and Anne Fuller both died

in 1983 at age 87.

When the Fullers left Carbondale, their dome home was sold to Mike Mitchell, a Fuller follower.

When Mitchell moved to California, the dome became a rental property and deteriorated over the years. Bill Perk, who had been a colleague of Fuller at SIUC, bought the dome and now a not-for-profit organization, RBF Dome NFP, is working to raise funds to renovate the property. It’s now covered by an outer dome of plastic to protect it from the elements. They envision it as one day becoming a tourist attraction, a museum devoted to preserving Fuller’s legacy.

The group maintains a Web site, buckysdome.org, with photos of the dome in its glory days, as well as the Fullers. The president of RBF Dome NFP is Brent Ritzel of Carbondale. linda.rush@thesouthern.com 618-351-5079

SIUC journalism grads make their voices heard Marcia Bullard, a 1974 journalism graduate of Southern Illinois University Carbondale, is publisher, president and editor of USA Weekend magazine. The magazine has 120 employees and a circulation of 22.8 million.

A native of Springfield, Bullard worked eight years as a reporter and Sunday magazine editor in Rochester, N.Y. She moved to Washington to work as an editor on the prototypes for USA Today.

In 1985, when Gannett, USA Today’s parent company, acquired USA Weekend, Bullard became its managing editor.

FINISHES:

Jackie Spinner, a Decatur native and Washington Post staff writer since 1995, received an Alumna Achievement Award during last year’s Inspiring Women gala at SIUC. After graduating from SIUC, Spinner earned a master’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley. In 2004, Spinner was sent to Iraq, where she headed the newspaper’s Baghdad bureau. She turned her experiences into a book, “Tell Them I Didn’t Cry.” Spinner also has formed an organization to collect books at airports in

several countries and distribute them to children.

Judith Roales, a 1965 graduate of the Southern Illinois University Carbondale School of Journalism, is the former publisher and executive vice president of the St. Petersburg Times who stepped down in 2000 to write books and pursue other interests. She traveled to southern Asia in 2002 with a group of fellow SIUC journalists to serve as a mentor. She began her career as a reporter in Delaware and now is writing travel and other books.

— Linda Rush

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19

Southern Illinois: A popular place for famous people to stop

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Higginbotham: Out of this world Joan Higginbotham, 44, a Chicago native, logged more than 308 hours in space in 2007 as an astronaut on the space shuttle Discovery. That same year, she served as grand marshal in the Southern Illinois University Carbondale homecoming parade. She also received an SIUC Distinguished Alumni award.

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Famous visitors to Southern Illinois include: Abraham Lincoln visited Union County for one of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates.

The debate was in 1858 in Jonesboro. Lincoln spent two nights at the home of his friend, D.L. Phillips, at 511 S. Main St. in Anna.

Gen. Andrew Jackson visited Cairo in January 1813.

President Zachary Taylor visited Cairo in February of 1849.

Vice President John C. Breckinridge visited Cairo in April 1858.

President James A. Garfield visited Cairo in October 1868.

Gen. Ulysses Grant visited Cairo in 1861 and again in 1880.

Jefferson Davis, former president of the Confederacy, visited Cairo on June 8, 1881.

Davis President Theodore Roosevelt visited Cairo in October 1907, and returned to Southern Illinois on Sept.

25, 1914, as head of the independent Progressive Party, speaking in Marion.

He also rode the Coal Belt Railway to a Herrin mine.

President William H. Taft visited Cairo in October 1909.

President Harry Truman arrived in Mount Vernon by special train Sept. 30, 1948.

He traveled 140 miles around the region, making stops and speeches in Carbondale, Benton, West Frankfort, Marion, Herrin, Harrisburg and Eldorado.

His main speech was in Carbondale at SIU’s Shryock Auditorium, but he drew a Truman crowd of 18,000 or more in Herrin.

Presidential candidate John F. Kennedy visited Oct. 3, 1960, speaking at McAndrew Stadium at SIUC, visiting VA Medical Center in Marion, speaking to 4,000 people on the Marion square and stopping in Harrisburg.

Former President Dwight Eisenhower visited Oct. 27, 1962, on behalf on Illinois’ U.S. Sen. Everett Dirksen, who was seeking reelection. A crowd of 6,000 to 7,000 people heard him speak at the Williamson County Regional Airport terminal.

Richard M. Nixon visited Williamson County as a vice presidential candidate in 1952, and returned on Oct. 30, 1968, with his wife, Pat. About 10,000 people gathered at Williamson County Regional Airport to greet Nixon and his wife.

President Gerald R. Ford visited March 6, 1976. He spoke to 9,000 people at the airport and 1,500 at John A. Logan College.

President Jimmy Carter made his third visit to Williamson County on Oct. 13, 1980. His first was March 10, 1976, as a primary candidate; he returned on Oct. 26 of that year after winning the Democratic nomination. He also toured Old Ben Mine 25 near West Frankfort.

On Oct. 21, 1980,

presidential candidate Ronald Reagan landed at Williamson County Regional Airport, then went to Herrin. During his second term, on July 14, 1988, he visited the Herman Krone Farm near Du Quoin and spoke at the Du Quoin State Fairground.

On Sept. 11, 1995, President Bill Clinton spoke at SIUC on funding for higher education. A crowd of around 16,000 or more packed into an area near Pulliam Clinton Hall at SIUC to hear him. He returned to the area Aug. 30, 1996, making a brief stop in Olive Branch and then speaking in Cairo to a crowd estimated at more than 5,000. He was accompanied by Vice President Al Gore, as well as Hillary Clinton and Tipper Gore.

Elizabeth Dole, whose grandfather, John W. Hanford, and his family lived at 502 W. Walnut St. in Carbondale, visited Carbondale often over the years.

Sen. Bob Dole stopped in Carbondale with his wife for a reception during his first run for the White House in 1976.

John L. Lewis, legendary president of the United Mine Workers of America, was on the scene when an explosion rocked the Orient 2 Mine in West Frankfort just before Christmas 1951. Lewis spent nearly the entire night in the mine, trying to lead rescuers.

Charles Lindbergh, as a young aviator, performed in an air show May 9 and 10, 1925, near Carterville.

And about a week after the March 18, 1925, tornado in Murphysboro, Lindbergh Lindbergh flew in a group of reporters and writers from the Chicago Daily News.

Aviator Amelia Earhart appeared before the Marion Business and Professional Women’s Club on March 23, 1935. Earhart told an audience of about 500 people that she flew simply because she loved it.

Billy Sunday, the famed baseball player turned evangelist, had revival in Murphysboro in February 1907.

Interdenominational services were held in a large Sunday tabernacle that was set up in the 800 block of Walnut Street.

Beatle George Harrison visited his sister, Louise Caldwell, in Benton in 1963, just as the group was reaching popularity in England. He and his sister took copies of “She Harrison Loves You” and “From Me to You” to radio station WFRX in hopes of having it played on the air; Harrison also sat in with a local band, the Four Vests.

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Making their mark in school

DELYTE MORRIS Former SIU president was largely responsible for school’s rapid growth that caused it to come to the fore; Morris and no one else.”

Wendler said that every two years, Morris developed a new master plan for the campus, The late evening sun casts a long shadow from outlining future expansion and new buildings. the statue of Delyte Morris on the Southern Kroening added that he noticed the campus Illinois University Carbondale campus. Even at looked somewhat different when he returned in its greatest length, however, the shadow is much 1969. less impressive than the shadow the man himself “From when I was a freshman to coming back left on the University and all of Southern Illinois. in 1969, the campus still had all of the natural Despite the fact many current SIUC students beauty that I remembered, but the number of know Morris only as the name of the campus facilities that had been built was overwhelming,” library, his legacy continues, affecting every Kroening explained. “This campus went through student who walks the campus. a dramatic change, primarily with buildings and Named president of Southern Illinois structures.”

University in 1948, Morris ushered in two All of the construction and expansion of decades of unmatched expansion and programs led some to call Morris an empiredevelopment for the university. Using a builder, yet the development benefitted not just handwritten, long-term plan for the institution the university, but the region as a whole. Area and region which he constantly carried in his real estate developer Dick Hunter of Cobden, wallet, the Xenia native took Southern from a who often piloted Morris in charter flights to small teacher’s college to an internationallyrecognized research institution. The THE SOUTHERN FILE PHOTO Springfield to meet with state officials, said when the university grew, so did the surrounding accomplishment was by design. Shortly after his Delyte Morris, shown in June 1979, was communities. arrival on campus, Morris wrote to the editor of instrumental in the growth of SIUC. “From my perspective, Southern Illinois would the Chicago Sun-Times, “I am the new president of SIU, and I am trying to turn this into and the surrounding area in his office, he worked still be full of sleepy little towns if it weren’t for a university of which the entire state will be to benefit all of Southern Illinois. He established Delyte Morris. As he brought more students, more population was a result,” Hunter said. proud.” programs at Little Grassy Lake, developed The growth was staggering: Operating budgets Gilbert Kroening of Carbondale had a unique international outreach and directed outdoor grew from $2.7 million in 1948 to $112 million in perspective on Morris. Kroening was a student education become part of the curriculum years 1969, degrees conferred mushroomed from 609 at the university from 1955 to 1960, earning a before learning about the environment was in bachelor’s and master’s degree at Southern. In vogue. Morris called the institution a “university to 5,900 annually, and the number of academic programs more than doubled under Morris’ 1969, he returned as a faculty member, later of the people.” watch. serving as dean of what is now the College of “He was a visionary,” Kroening said. “He Times were not always easy, however, during Agricultural Sciences. challenged us and always looked to the future. I Morris’ presidency. Student unrest affected “As a student, I remember him as quite an think his aim was to build up Southern Illinois imposing fellow. I recall that when he walked on and the university as a source of information and campuses nationwide throughout the late 1960s, including the Carbondale campus. stage at required convocations, just his presence education for the people of the area.” was quite impressive, as was the way he carried Morris was instrumental in the establishment Controversy surrounded the construction of a residence for the president, now called Stone himself and the way he spoke,” Kroening said. of academic programs in technical fields, Center; and Old Main, a centerpiece for the Within his first year as president, Morris was business, agriculture, engineering, home university, was destroyed by fire June 8, 1969. able to convince the state Legislature that the economics and communications, as well as Some have said that as Morris watched the Carbondale campus should be governed by its numerous other fields of study. flames, he cried. own board of trustees, instead of oversight by “He set the framework for the institution One year later, Delyte Morris requested leave, the Teachers College Board. This move gave today. He was successful in starting a lot of Morris, and the university, greater latitude in programs, primarily in teaching, instruction and followed by retirement. He had served Southern Illinois University for 22 years. Morris died April working toward the listed goals in Morris’ service,” Kroening said. pocket. One result was a boom in student Former SIUC Chancellor Walter Wendler said 10, 1982. One year later, a bronze statue of Morris was dedicated in the mail lobby of the numbers and campus construction.

Morris was key to the development of the campus library which also bears his name.

Enrollment was just more than 3,000 when university.

Sometime later, the sculpture was moved and Morris became president. By 1970, it had grown “He was always willing to take a chance,” placed on a base constructed of blocks from Old to nearly 24,000. A majority of the buildings on Wendler said. “He had tremendous support in the campus were constructed during Morris’ the statehouse, probably more than anyone else Main in front of Shryock Auditorium. The statue tenure. However, Morris’ perspective went in Southern Illinois, and he wasn’t afraid to look is larger than life, but Hunter said it still pales in beyond the campus. Dwarfed by a floor-toahead. He made SIU a research university. While scope to Morris’ legacy.

“I think the statue is not nearly big enough.” ceiling aerial photograph of campus, Carbondale he didn’t do it by himself, he was the leadership

BY LES O’DELL

FOR THE SOUTHERN

Other Southern Illinoisans have made their mark in education. Among them: Kathryn Harris, a native of Carbondale, is Director of Library Services for Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield. She earned a bachelor’s degree in French from SIUC and a master’s in library science for the University of Illinois.

In her current role, she is responsible for all of the day-to-day operations of the Lincoln library.

Glenn Poshard, president of the Southern Illinois University system, which Poshard includes the campuses in Carbondale and Edwardsville, as well as the School of Medicine in Springfield, is a threedegree graduate of SIUC. A former teacher and coach at Galatia and Thompsonville high schools, Poshard served in both the Illinois State Senate and the U.S. Congress, representing Southern Illinois. After an unsuccessful bid for governor in 1998, he was named vice chancellor for administration at SIUC the following year and became SIU president in 2006.

Ella Lacey is a retired professor from the SIU School of Medicine. She has traveled the world doing global studies on AIDS , worked to eradicate polio internationally and served for two years in the Peace Corps, working in Malawi, Africa as a child survival specialist. She was recognized in 2007 with the President’s Volunteer Service Award.

— Les O’Dell

What’s in a name? Many influential people have been honored with buildings at SIUC A number of buildings on the Southern Illinois University Carbondale campus are named after individuals instrumental in the history of the institution. Among them: Allyn Hall — Named after Robert Allyn, the first president of what was then Southern Illinois Normal University. He also was a former president of McKendree College and a clergyman.

Parkinson Laboratory — In honor of Daniel Parkinson, one of the institution’s original 12 faculty

Anthony Hall — Now home to administrative offices, Anthony Hall was the university’s first dormitory, dedicated in 1913. It is named for prominent women’s rights leader Susan B. Anthony.

Woody Hall — Named in honor of Miss Lucy K. Woody, the building was originally a dormitory for women. Woody headed the Household Arts department and was named dean of women in 1926.

Lentz Hall — The cafeteria and central-office building for the Thompson Point

residence halls, the building honors Eli G. Lentz, who served the university for 40 years in a variety of roles, including as dean of men from 1935 to 1945.

Rhen Hall — Recognizes Henry J. Rhen, first dean of the College of Vocations and Professions, who oversaw programs including agriculture, speech, home economics.

He later served as first dean of business. The building is home to the College of Business.

Brush Towers — This residential complex is

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members. In addition to teaching natural philosophy and chemistry, he served as university president.

Altgeld Hall — Originally a science building which also contained the first library and gymnasium, it is named for former Gov. John P. Altgeld, who architecturally influenced the building.

Boomer Hall — Part of the University Park residence halls, Boomer is named in honor of Simeon E. Boomer, who headed the physics department from 1911 to 1938.

named in honor of Daniel Harmon Brush, who served in the 18th Regimental Army and was one of the founders of Carbondale.

Kellogg Hall — honors Thelma Kellogg, a faculty member in English during the 1930s and 1940s.

Several lecture halls and auditoriums are also named after individuals: Muckleroy Auditorium (Agriculture Building) — for R. E. Muckleroy, a 1903 graduate who began the first agriculture programs at the university and served as chairman from

1911 to 1945.

Furr Auditorium (Pulliam Hall) — Named for Wallace A. Furr, who set up the original student teaching program and served as head of the Training School from 1913 to 1935 Browne Auditorium (Parkinson Laboratory) — Honors George M. Browne, professor of physical and chemical sciences at SINU from 1903 to 1936.

Moore Lecture Hall (Faner Hall) — Recognizes Harry T. Moore, a professor of English and biographer of D.H. Lawrence.

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21

BRIAN KALATA Chef turned RLC’s culinary institute into one of Midwest’s best

BY TOM BARKER THE SOUTHERN

When Chef Brian Kalata took over the Culinary Arts program at Rend Lake College five years ago, opportunities for the program’s handful of students were limited.

Classes were mostly lectures, and the only kitchen available for learning purposes doubled as the college’s cafeteria, leaving erratic scheduling conflicts for all chefs to-be in the program.

Now, Culinary Arts students enjoy two large kitchen facilities that are totally dedicated to education, an extensive variety of hands-on cooking classes and degrees that prepare them for managerial chef positions.

“I really had to hit the ground running,” Kalata said. “I was the only instructor, everything was lecture class and I had to take it step by step. It was tough enough to stay one class ahead of the students.”

Kalata got his start in the restaurant business at 13, taking jobs washing dishes and doing other kitchen work in western New York, where he grew up. He attended a community college similar in size to RLC before attending The New York Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y. After graduating from the institute, he received his first full-time chef position at The Peabody Hotel in Orlando, Fla., and he has held a number of prestigious chef positions around the country.

He couldn’t turn down the chance to establish his own program with the high standards he had upheld while studying at the culinary institute. Kalata instills the same values in his teaching methods that got him into culinary arts in the first place.

The experienced chef chose to come to RLC because of its potential to grow, an opportunity for Kalata to change things and leave a lasting influence in the program. He couldn’t turn down the chance to establish his own program with the high standards he had upheld while studying at the culinary institute.

Kalata instills the same values in his teaching methods that got him into culinary arts in the first place.

“For me, it was just the opportunity to be creative,” he said. “I’m a creative person naturally, and I didn’t want to find myself working in a cubicle every day, doing the same thing over and over again.”

When Kalata took control of the program, commitments had already been made to improve the class structure and facilities. The hiring of a new instructor was, in fact, part of the college’s plan to take the program in a new direction.

Then, after waiting for various forms of state funding, the college began the renovation of the kitchen facilities, which involved more than $1 million in expansions and additions. Now that they have been completed, the large, fully-equipped cooking environments are bustling with chef students

all day, every day.

Each student has the space and tools he or she needs to work creatively to complete cooking and food preparation assignments, which explore the entire gamut of the culinary industry. Classes include instruction in subjects ranging from basic cooking skills to international foods and restaurant management. In some classes, students get to serve their creations to the public.

But Kalata will be the first to denounce the idea that he has built the program on his own. Kalata gives more credit to his fellow associate professor, Chef Loughton Smith, as well as countless supporters behind the scenes, for really making the program successful.

“We basically set a common vision for the program,” Smith said. “We really got a strategic plan together to make this program grow and that hasn’t wavered at all.

We’ve made this program really one of the better

programs in this part of the country.”

Smith, also a graduate of New York Culinary Institute of America, came on board a couple years after Kalata, bringing his specialized expertise in baking and pastry-making, a fine complement to Kalata’s skills in cooking principles. Together, the professors work to promote team building and effectively use each other’s strengths and weaknesses to improve classroom opportunities for students.

“Constant communication is the key to our success,” Smith said.

“Nothing can break things down faster than lack of communication.”

Certainly, Culinary Arts at RLC has come a long way in five years, but the program continues to grow today.

Enrollment is at its highest point ever with a total of about 90 students, 60 new freshmen and 30 returning sophomores.

Last semester, spring 2009, the program saw its largest-ever graduating class.

“It’s one of those industries that, even when the economy gets tough, it seems to survive,” Kalata said.

Professors say the program is larger and more popular than ever, and, with graduates already

TOM BARKER / THE SOUTHERN

Chef Brian Kalata instructs students during a course at Rend Lake College’s culinary institute. Kalata graduated from the New York Culinary Institute of America and had a number of professional chef positions before coming to RLC in 2004.

making names for themselves in the culinary industry locally and across the country, the program has begun to promote itself. Adding to higher enrollment and graduation, job placement rates are better than ever before.

Kalata said when he began at RLC, he never received calls from employers looking for new hires. Now, he said, they call him first.

In the future, the chefs would like to see the Culinary Arts program expand even further, as additional faculty would be able to better facilitate more courses and offer classes at more times, accommodating more students.

The program still has room to grow, but Kalata is grateful for the opportunity he has had to be a driving force behind the development of one of the region’s finest culinary institutions. No matter the circumstances, the professors plan to continue maintaining a high standard of culinary education and practice.

“We don’t just want to grow for growth’s sake,” said Chef Smith. “I think the program will always be good quality. We don’t want the quality to change, we want to keep our high standards.” thomas.barker@thesouthern.com 618-351-5805

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PAUL SIMON Late senator still influences people worldwide Editor’s note: This article first appeared in The Southern on Dec. 7, 2008, to observe the fifth anniversary of the death of U.S. Sen. Paul Simon.

BY ADAM TESTA THE SOUTHERN

Even five years after his death, the late U.S. Sen. Paul Simon continues to have an influence on people around the globe. Through his political career as a state legislator, Illinois’ lieutenant governor and U.S. congressman and senator, Simon championed policies and legislation with lasting effects.

Today, Simon’s legacy continues to thrive. But in the years since he began his political career in 1955, people have come to take many of these acts for granted.

Sheila Simon, Paul’s daughter and a law professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, said her father would say he was most proud of the Education of all Handicapped Children Act, which Congress passed in 1975. The legislation guaranteed all students with disabilities the right to a free and appropriate public education.

“It doesn’t seem like such a big deal to us now because it’s been around for long enough, but it was a huge deal at that point,” Sheila Simon said.

Patti Simon, Paul’s second wife and widow, said he used his positions in public office to try and make a difference on all

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Simon shares a laugh with former President Jimmy Carter outside Carter’s home Oct. 5, 1987.

Key dates and moments in Paul Simon’s life PROVIDED

Sen. Paul Simon, one of Southern Illinois’ most influential men, passed away Dec. 7, 2003.

levels from supporting local charities to fighting for human rights on a global level.

Even after his retirement from the Senate in 1996, Simon continued working on these global issues, particularly providing quality water to developing countries, she said. In 2005, two years after his death, Congress approved the Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act. Mike Lawrence, retired director of the Paul Simon Public Policy Institute at SIUC, said Simon’s legacy also reaches more personal levels.

“Paul’s name was on some significant legislation in Springfield and in Washington,” he said. “He certainly made his mark that way, but he influenced hundreds of lives, maybe even more, through his

interactions with people.”

Others close to Simon, including Matt Baughman, interim director of the Simon Institute, and Lisa Madigan, Illinois’ attorney general and a former Simon staffer, recalled the same thing about their friend and mentor.

Whether he was walking the halls of the Capitol, stopping at a gas station while traveling or meeting with foreign dignitaries, Simon always engaged people in conversations and made them feel as if he really knew them and their issues.

“Paul was down to earth, and he had integrity,” Madigan said. “He was about helping people, not just on the large issues, but also on the small ones.” adam.testa@thesouthern.com 618-351-5031

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1928 — Paul Simon is born Nov. 29 in Eugene, Ore., the son of Lutheran preacher.

1945 — Attends the University of Oregon and Dana College in Blair, Neb. 1947 — At age 19, he becomes the nation’s youngest editor/publisher at the Troy Tribune in Troy.

1951 — He uses the Tribune to help expose syndicate gambling connections in Madison County. At the age of 22, he was called as a key witness to testify before the U.S. Senate’s Crime Investigating Committee.

1954 — He is elected to the Illinois House of Representatives as a Democrat.

1960 — He marries Jeanne Hurley of Wilmette.

1962 — He is elected to the Illinois Senate. During his 14 years in the Legislature, he won the Independent Voters of Illinois’ Best Legislator Award every session.

1968 — He is elected lieutenant governor, and is the first person to be elected lieutenant governor with a governor of another party.

1972 — He seeks the Democratic Party’s nomination for governor but is defeated by Dan Walker, who went on to become governor.

1972-73 — He starts the public affairs reporting

program at Sangamon State University in Springfield (now the University of Illinois at Springfield).

1972-73 — He lectures at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

1974 — He is elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served for 10 years. He served as the congressman from the 22nd and 24th congressional districts.

1984 — He is elected to the U.S. Senate when he upsets incumbent Charles Percy.

1987-88 — He seeks the Democratic nomination for president of the United States.

1997 — He joins the staff of Southern Illinois University Carbondale after retiring from the Senate. He was founder and director of the Public Policy Institute at the Carbondale campus.

1998 — He receives a Lincoln Academy medallion, given to distinguished citizens of Illinois.

1999 — He undergoes heart-bypass surgery.

1999 — He receives the Paul H. Douglas Ethics in Government Award on March 10 in Washington.

2000 — Jeanne Simon, 77, dies Feb. 20.

2000 — Simon travels to Syria and Jordan at the invitation of the Bush administration to discuss

the region’s water shortage.

2000 — He receives a note from “the other Paul Simon,” the well-known singer of Simon and Garfunkel fame, after the Paul Simon from Southern Illinois sings with a blues band. The two met in the 1980s when both appeared on “Saturday Night Live.”

2001 — Travels to Cuba, where he meets with President Fidel Castro.

2001 — He marries Patricia Derge, the widow of former SIUC President David Derge, in May. 2003 — He is honored with the Harry S. Truman Award for Public Service.

Others who have won the award include Henry Kissinger, Hubert Humphrey, Jimmy Carter, Coretta Scott King and Gerald Ford. Simon said after receiving the award, “One of the reasons I am so honored to receive this award is that President Harry Truman had three qualities needed in our government today: integrity and compassion, combined with our greatest deficiency, courage.”

2003 — He is elected into the Senior Illinoisans Hall of Fame by the Illinois Department on Aging.

2003 — Undergoes heart surgery in St. John’s Hospital in Springfield on Dec. 8.

2003 — He dies Dec. 9 after surgery.

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Spirit of Simon’s service lives on Editor’s note: This article first appeared in The Southern on Dec. 7, 2008, to observe the fifth anniversary of the death of U.S. Sen. Paul Simon.

ultimately unsuccessful efforts in the 1988 Democratic presidential primaries.

“If that experience 20 years ago contributed to David Axelrod knowing how to run this campaign, then it was a

BY ADAM TESTA great service we did for the country,” THE SOUTHERN Sheila Simon said.

Simon learned the thrills of victory and Five years after the death of U.S. Sen. the sorrows of defeat during his career Paul Simon, his spirit of public service climbing through the ranks of state lives on in the embodiment of those representative, state senator, lieutenant individuals who worked alongside him. governor, U.S. representative and U.S. From the president-elect of the United senator but losing bids for both the States and his chief of staff to highgovernorship and the presidency. ranking leaders in Illinois government, Knowing the possibilities of many of today’s political leaders looked persistence, Simon constantly up to Simon as a mentor and a friend. encouraged Durbin to persevere through “All sorts of folks who have been losses in campaigns for the state Senate, influenced by dad are now going on to lieutenant governor and Democratic live out that message of public service National Convention delegate. In 1982, and pride in public service,” said Sheila Durbin won victory to a seat in the U.S. Simon, Paul’s daughter and a law House, where he served alongside Simon professor at Southern Illinois University for two years.

Carbondale.

In 1996, after Simon had announced Days before he died in December 2003, his intentions to retire from the Senate, Paul Simon issued the final political he endorsed Durbin as his replacement endorsements of his life. While and helped the Springfield Democrat newspaper headlines touted his support enter the position he has filled for the of Vermont Gov. Howard Dean in the past 12 years. presidential primaries, his endorsement “Both Douglas and Simon really of Illinois state Sen. Barack Obama for defined public service for me in terms of U.S. Senate received much less their efforts to be viewed as honest attention. people in this business and try to U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, who first met establish high ethical standards in their Paul Simon while working in the conduct,” said Durbin, who worked as campaign of Sen. Paul Douglas, said he Simon’s state Senate parliamentarian and Obama were together in Chicago and legal counsel. recently and recalled memories of Simon “I wouldn’t be where I am today in and his deathbed endorsement. politics if it weren’t for Paul’s steadfast “He remembered it well,” Durbin said support and belief in me and the fact that of Obama, adding even after Paul died, he has given me a roadmap of public Sheila Simon picked up where he left off service that has really helped me through in supporting Obama. my career,” he added.

“Barack feels a special connection to One of Simon’s other proud protégés is the Simon family still to this day,” Durbin a rising star who will likely carry his said. messages for years. Illinois Attorney While Obama never worked directly General Lisa Madigan, a one-time Simon with Simon, several other members of staffer, said Simon and his first wife, his soon-to be administration had close Jeanne, had profound influences on her ties to the one-time gubernatorial life and career. candidate.

“He was the perfect example of a U.S. Rep. Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s public servant. It wasn’t about Paul designated chief of staff, was tasked with Simon; it was about helping people and the “hard job” of convincing Simon to making the world a better place,” she call potential supporters asking for said. “Paul was a friend; he became a money, Sheila Simon said. mentor, and obviously, there’s a whole David Axelrod, the political strategist group of us in Illinois who can say that.” who helped lead Obama’s campaign, had joined Simon in 1984 and soon became adam.testa@thesouthern.com 618-351-5031 his campaign manager, leading Simon’s

23

Other notable Southern Illinois politicians Kenneth J. Gray: Former United States Congressman from West Frankfort who helped secure funding for Rend Lake; Olmsted Lock and Dam; Cedar Lake; Lake of Egypt; 120 post offices and federal buildings in Benton and Carbondale.

It is estimated Gray played a part in funding around 4,000 federal projects in Southern Illinois. He sponsored or co-sponsored more than 7,500 laws.

He was one of the authors of legislation that brought the 43,500-mile interstate highway system, including Interstates 57, 64 and 24, to the region.

He was first elected to the U.S. House as a Democrat on Nov. 2, 1954.

He served 17 years as chairman of the house Subcommittee on Public Buildings and Grounds.

He retired in 1974 because of health concerns but was re-elected to Congress a second time, serving from 1984-88.

Gray, who still lives in West Frankfort, will turn 85 Nov. 14.

Clyde L. Choate: Former Illinois legislator and Medal of Honor winner.

Clyde Choate died in October 2001 at the age of 81. Choate, of Anna, was born in 1920 in West Frankfort. He served as a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army during World War II and singlehandedly destroyed an enemy tank near Bruyeres, France, in October 1944, for which he earned the Medal of Honor.

Choate was a member of

the state House from 1947 to 1977, serving as minority and majority leader within his Choate 30-year stint in Illinois government.

Choate became a delegate to the Democratic National Convention from Illinois in 1972. He resigned from the house in January 1977 and became director of external affairs at Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

Choate was known as a strong advocate for SIUC while he served in the Legislature, and helped procure money for infrastructure work at the university, helping transform it from a small teacher’s college to a major research university, which helped make SIU the economic anchor of Southern Illinois.

Ralph Dunn: Served 12 years in the state House of Representatives and 10 years in the Illinois Senate.

Dunn was born in 1914 in Pinckneyville.

He and his two younger brothers started a readymix business, a trucking company, a car dealership and owned a radio station.

Dunn was involved in politics at the local level throughout his career, and was a Republican delegate at the 1968 national convention.

At age 58, Dunn ran as a Republican for the Illinois House. He served as a state representative from 1973 to 1984. He became a

state senator in 1985 and remained in that office until he retired in 1995.

Dunn helped secure $7 million for Southern Illinois University Carbondale’s power plant generator. In appreciation of his efforts, the university named its business incubator the Dunn-Richmond Economic Development Center.

He died at age 90 in 2004.

Glenn Poshard: Five-term United States Congressman, born in White County and raised on a farm in Herald.

He spent three years in the United States Army in postwar Korea and then graduated from Southern Illinois University Carbondale.

He taught at Thompsonville and Galatia high schools from 1970 to 1974.

Poshard was appointed to the 59th District state senate seat in 1984 and was elected to the seat in 1986.

He was first elected to Congress in 1989 and retired from the seat 10 years later after promising to run for only five terms.

He won the Democratic primary and ran unsuccessfully for the office of Illinois governor in 1998.

Poshard and his wife, Jo, formed The Poshard Foundation for Abused Children.

Poshard currently serves as the president of Southern Illinois University.

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JIM BELUSHI Movie star, ‘Saturday Night Live’ alum recalls time at Southern Illinois University Carbondale

BY BRENT STEWART THE SOUTHERN

Although he gets back to his native Chicago rather frequently, Jim Belushi sort of had an explanation for why he has so infrequently visited the bottom half of the state since graduating from Southern Illinois University Carbondale in 1977.

“I just keep thinking about that long ride down (Interstate) 57 on my motorcycle,” Belushi said.

“But I guess they have planes that go there now.”

Needless to say, it’s been a busy 30-plus years for the actor and comedian. In addition to his two years as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” and his television show “According to Jim,” which recently wrapped up after eight seasons on ABC, Belushi has

‘Marion Kleinau, the head of the performance studies program in the speech department, was an astounding professor. I learned more in that reader’s theater class and prose class that I use in my acting every day.’

JIM BELUSHI, SIUC GRAD, ACTOR, COMEDIAN

starred in movies, including “About Last Night,” “Red Heat,” “K-9,” “Mr. Destiny” and “Joe Somebody.” He also has a blues band, Jim Belushi and the Sacred Hearts, and at times joins Dan Aykroyd for performances as The Blues Brothers.

Belushi has also performed on Broadway in Herb Gardner’s acclaimed “Conversations with My Father” at the Royal Theatre, off-Broadway in “True West,” at the Cherry

Lane Theatre in the Williamstown Theatre Festival production of John Guare’s “Moon Over Miami,” and for Joseph Papp as the Pirate King in “Pirates of Penzance.”

How did it all begin? Why did Belushi choose a life as an entertainer, which led him to SIUC and eventually to Hollywood?

“Girls,” Belushi said, simply. “I was on the football team, and I was a tackle. Girls don’t go out with tackles; they go out

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Jim Belushi, star of shows such as ‘According to Jim,’ is a 1977 SIUC graduate.

with people who touch the ball. But in theater in high school, there were like 28 people in the theater department and five of them were guys. Then I joined choir, and that was 40 people, eight guys. So, I was working a percentage game when I was in high school, and it would work because you’d have six weeks of rehearsal, and the girls, by the end of the six weeks, would go, ‘Hey, he’s not such a bad guy; he’s funny.’”

After graduation, Belushi refused to take his SATs out of principle, so he started out at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn. When he found out that several friends were heading south to finish school at SIUC, Belushi decided to attend as well, receiving a National Student Direct Loan of $500 a semester. After graduating, when he finally paid the loan back, Belushi sent the university a letter of appreciation because of how much the money helped in enabling him to finish school.

During his time at SIUC, Belushi described himself as a pretty serious student. In fact, the moments that stand out the most for him were in pursuit of his degree.

“I loved the experience in the speech department, the theater department and the radio-TV department,” Belushi said. “It was the moments on stage — the performances of my oral interp classes of Shakespeare, Dylan

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Thomas— being on the big stage, doing the playwrights’ one-acts.”

Belushi was involved in 40 productions before even getting to SIUC, but when he arrived, he tried to get experience in whatever way possible. There were disastrous performances in improv groups in bars, which is not a conducive atmosphere for that type of show. He also performed at benefits, including shows for deaf children.

“It’s the same advice I give to every young actor: Do everything you can,” Belushi said. “Do it all. Each rep you do, you get better.

We did improvs, as many shows as possible in the worst places. I did every Caliper stage show, I did one-acts, I did director’s classes, I did new playwrights’ plays, I did readings, and I was performing all the time. It wasn’t a party school to me; it was a place to get experience as an actor.”

Belushi can even still sing one of the musical numbers from the avant-garde production of “The Tommy Allen Show” by Megan Terry. He entered the stage in blackface riding a motorcycle.

“I got everything I could out of that school, every last ounce of information,” Belushi said. “Marion Kleinau, the head of the performance studies program in the speech department, was an astounding professor. I learned more in that reader’s theater class and prose class that I use in my acting everyday, more in that department than I learned in the theater department. In the theater department, I got my chops.

I did everything.”

Belushi did have his share of fun in Carbondale. He spent quite a bit of time having drinks at Jim’s Pub. Every Friday, Belushi would look forward to getting his paycheck and walking from his apartment on College

BEFORE

Street to get a sandwich from Booby’s and an ice cream from Dairy Queen.

“I wasn’t at keggers, I wasn’t at big parties,” Belushi said. “Every Saturday night the living room was packed and we watched ‘Saturday Night Live,’ that was the parties I went to. That was cool, man. ‘Yeah, that’s my brother. Yeah, he’s funny.’”

Once, Belushi got arrested at a grocery store for eating a “Lime Delight,” a little cup combination of Jello and pudding, and throwing the container away without thinking before leaving.

Before he knew it, he was handcuffed and walked back through the store in front of one of his professors. The charges were dismissed.

Another favorite hangout was Mary Lou’s.

“That’s where I got all my weight,” Belushi said. “She was really a character of that town; she really instilled a spirit of fun and made you feel good.”

Belushi actually finished college in the fall of 1976, but didn’t walk until August 1977, after student teaching in Hinsdale, and taking a detour working at Second City. He still treasures the faded picture from an instamatic camera taken with his parents at graduation.

While working at Second City, Belushi was seen by writer-producer Garry Marshall and cast in a couple of television pilots.

His stint in Chicago ended in 1980, and in 1983 he began working on “Saturday Night Live,” the show that launched his brother’s career.

“I’m grateful for all the opportunities I had to get experience performing,” Belushi said. “When I left SIU, I got right into Second City, I was a professional actor when I walked out of there.” brent.stewart@thesouthern.com 618-351-5074

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SHAWN COLVIN Grammy winner spent formulative years in Carbondale

BY BRENT STEWART

the number of musicians Carbondale roots in a sense friends she keeps in touch who were part of the group in the 1980s, when she with. who have gone on to bigger began playing solo in “I spent 11 years in The 1998 Grammy Awards and better things. Buddy has coffeehouses again. Partly, Carbondale developing my were the peak of an become a respected singer/ the transition back to talent,” Shawn said. “The exceptional time in Shawn songwriter/ producer who, acoustic music was out of people I knew, the music Colvin’s career. She won in addition to his solo career, necessity to make more they played me; the music I honors for song and album went on to play guitar with money to pay the bills. heard in Carbondale; of the year, had a massively Steve Earle, Emmylou “I was still having trouble Golden Frets, the music successful album and was Harris, and most recently, finding the direction I shop, all the bars in pregnant with her daughter, Robert Plant and Alison wanted to go,” Shawn said.

Carbondale; it taught me so Caledonia.

Krauss. Another member, “Was I a pop musician, was I much and was such and And to think, 23 years Larry Campbell, spent a a country musician, was I a invaluable place to be, It was before that moment, the number of years in Bob folk musician? I took stock so important.”

PROVIDED young aspiring artist was Dylan’s “Never Ending of what I did best and Shawn Colvin, a Grammy-winning singer and songwriter, brent.stewart@thesouthern.com playing shows in Giant City Tour” band and is now thought, ‘not everyone can attended Carbondale Community High School.

618-351-5074 State Park and on the steps guitarist for Levon Helm. play all by themselves and of Shryock Auditorium.

“It was a great band,” hold an audience’s interest,’ Shawn came to Shawn said. “I was really and you can do that.’ I just Carbondale in 1968, lucky. When I joined the thought I’d focus on the attending seventh grade at Dixie Diesels, I was just music that really influenced Lincoln Junior High School. looking for a change. I me the most growing up, Her father, Bob, was working wasn’t really writing songs, which were singeron his Ph.D. in behavioral I didn’t know what style of songwriters.” psychology from Southern music I should do. I wanted That style certainly comes Illinois University to move from Carbondale, out in her first two albums, Carbondale, staying on after check out another city, but recorded for Columbia graduation to teach in the I was kind of afraid to do it Records, “Steady On,” in School of Medicine. He and by myself. I loved the 1989, and “Fat City,” in 1992, Since 1995, I’ve offered complete Shawn’s mother, Barb, Diesels, it was a lot of fun. which were built around her interior decorating services to stayed in the area for 25 I’d also been having trouble percussive style of acoustic residential and commercial clients years. with my voice and I wanted guitar playing. all over Southern Illinois. My By the time she had moved a gig where I didn’t have to Her fourth album, “A Few work reflects my client’s lifestyle to Carbondale, Shawn had do all the singing. So, it was Small Repairs,” released in and taste, so your project looks already learned to play the a great opportunity for me. 1997, contained the single like you. It is the perfect time to guitar and enjoyed singing, If I hadn’t done that I “Sunny Came Home,” which add a decorator’s touch to any but it was there she began to would never have met was an enormous hit. The room. You’ll be amazed at the really take it seriously as she Buddy and been in that success afforded Shawn the difference just a few carefully matured. band.” opportunity to live life at chosen items can make in creating “I went to Carbondale When Buddy left to return more of her own pace. an inviting, pulled-together place Community High School, to Texas, Shawn took over “I make enough money to you never want to leave. So, let and I had a lot of friends the band. She recruited get by,” Shawn said. “I still me design a window, room, or who played,” Shawn said. guitarist John Leventhal, have to tour, but that’s my whole house of your dreams.

“We’d get together on who became her musical job, that’s what I do well. I’m • Made to measure blinds, weekends on Saturday partner. The two have lucky to have the career I shutters and draperies nights at this (church) youth collaborated for more than do.”

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“It was great,” Shawn said. “It was a very lively town. The university really had an effect of the kind of activities that were going on. We had quite a great art department and music and drama and speech department at CCHS. It was a really fertile environment for me to be learning and playing music.”

When she graduated from high school, Shawn began Wheather you’re refinancing or purchasing from a dealer, our rates will save you money. playing music in local bars.

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Diesels, she learned about country music, and in Texas, gained an appreciation for the state’s tradition of great songwriters.

For two years, Shawn stayed with the band in the Lone Star State, but still trying to find her musical identity, she left the Diesels and Austin and came back to Carbondale for a few months before going to California for a short time and finally landing in New York. Her move to the east coast was prompted by a friend from Texas, Buddy Miller, who invited her to come and join his band.

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THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

JOHN MEDWEDEFF Sculptor creates metal works in Murphysboro

BY BRENT STEWART THE SOUTHERN

In Murphysboro, there are bronze sculptures that grace the fountains two parks on Walnut Street, the main artery for traffic, which divides the town in half. Each of them are completely different, yet evoke similar images, imitating the structure they decorate.

Murphysboro has been home to Medwedeff Forge and Design and its owner — metalsmith and sculptor, John Medwedeff — for more than 20 years. It was where he and his wife, Cynthia Roth, settled upon his graduation from Southern Illinois University Carbondale with a master of fine arts degree and a specialty in metal sculpture.

If you travel to the courthouse square of Clarksville, Tenn., you’ll find another forged and fabricated bronze statue designed and made by Medwedeff, and another at William Rainey Harper College in Palatine. You’ll find a gate of forged and fabricated steel at Christ Church Cathedral in St. Louis.

Although Murphysboro is home to Medwedeff and some of his work, the artist has pieces that adorn

‘We sort of intended to move back to Tennessee, but Carbondale and the general area kind of grew on us. After a while we decided, ‘Why would we want to move? Everything we need, we have right here.’’

JOHN MEDWEDEFF METALSMITH, SCULPTOR, OWNER, MEDWEDEFF FORGE AND DESIGN IN MURPHYSBORO

private and public collections all over the country and the world, including the John Deere Collection, Illinois State Museum and Minneapolis Institute of Arts. This year, he was featured in a oneperson exhibition at SIUC’s University Museum at SIUC, and he will also be in the upcoming Iron 2010 exhibition at the National Ornamental Metal Museum in Memphis, Tenn.

In December 2007, WTTW Chicago and WSIU Carbondale featured the sculptor in Arts Across Illinois, and WSIU In Focus in-depth public television programs about his life and work.

Medwedeff estimates he was 7 or 8 years old when he began working with metal while growing up in Tennessee. He would make sculptures out of wire and do small casting projects.

“I’m just really drawn to

it,” Medwedeff said. “It’s a fascinating material. If you work at a forge, there are about seven processes that you can use. You can draw it out to make it longer and thinner, you can spread it, you can upset it— which is driving it back on itself— you can drill a hole in it, you can weld it, you can cut it, you can split it, bend it… the rest of it is all design.

One of the things so fascinating about iron as a material or a medium is that you’ve got this really limited power of technique you can use, but infinite possibilities of design. And that’s really cool.”

At 19, Medwedeff began a three-year blacksmithing apprenticeship with Jim Wallace at the Metal Museum and eventually moved to Southern Illinois to continue his education, the place he considers one of the top metalsmithing programs in the country.

STEVE JAHNKE / THE SOUTHERN

John Medwedeff, a sculptor and metalsmith from Murphysboro, adjusts the angle on a bike rack he is constructing for the new Bike Surgeon shop in O’Fallon.

“We sort of intended to move back to Tennessee, but Carbondale and the general area kind of grew on us,” Medwedeff said. “After a while we decided, ‘Why would we want to move?

Everything we need, we have right here.’ Once you make a decision like that, you feel more rooted in the community.”

Technology may be changing, but the basics of metalsmithing haven’t changed in several thousand years. Medwedeff is marveled by historical pieces in a museum that bear similar hammer marks to ones he would make.

When he is commissioned to create a piece, Medwedeff usually has boundaries that help direct his vision. However, he finds inspiration in natural processes like water, wind and fire and the movement in nature. When he is creating architectural metal work, he may be inspired by the buildings he is outfitting.

In the mid ’90s, Medwedeff had quite a few jobs in New York, creating traditional old world English style of metal work.

He said it was a great source of employment, but not something that was

STEVE JAHNKE / THE SOUTHERN

Medwedeff has several metal pieces around Southern Illinois, such as fountains next to Sallie Logan Public Library (above, left) and Smysor Plaza (above, right) in Murphysboro.

artistically satisfying. At the time, he wondered how he could get to the point where he could make a living in sculpture. Then, Medwedeff won a commission from the state of Illinois . That helped him to receive more opportunities in the area of public art, such as the pieces in down town Murphysboro, an area where, today, most of his income is derived.

“It’s very competitive,” Medwedeff said.

“You get a lot of rejection letters, but sometimes you win one.”

Throughout his career, it’s difficult to count the number of pieces Medwedeff has created and even more difficult to choose a favorite one.

“Usually, it’s whatever I’m working on right now,” Medwedeff said. “That’s where I’m discovering new and learning something; that’s what I’m engaged in.

That would be like asking someone with multiple children which one’s their favorite. You don’t want to do that.” brent.stewart@thesouthern.com 618-351-5074

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Many Southern Illinoisans make their presence felt on stage, on screen or in music Guy Boyd, actor, Sesser: Born in 1943 in Du Quoin to Harry and Pauline Boyd. Although his extended family was centered in Sesser, Boyd spent his years through high school in various towns in Southern Illinois. His father held various positions in the field of education, including serving as a principal in Valier and superintendent of elementary schools in Benton, which brought the family to those towns as well as Springfield and Harrisburg.

Boyd’s mother died while his parents were retired in Florida and his father relocated to Sesser.

Upon his death, Boyd’s father left his son his house.

“I consider myself a Sesser resident,” Boyd told The Southern Illinoisan in 2009.

“That’s really my home and I go there wherever I don’t have to work.”

Boyd’s credits on screen include “Streamers,” “Mi Vida Loca,” “Jagged Edge,” and “Body Double.” On television, there are very few hit shows he hasn’t appeared in, including “M.A.S.H.,” “Hill Street Blues,” “Newhart,” “Roseanne,” “The West Wing,” and more recently, “Law and Order” and its sister program, “Law and Order: Criminal Intent.”

Jonathan Browning, actor-director, Benton: Browning graduated from Benton High School in 1989 and went to college at Illinois State University, majoring in

theater. His short film “The Job” won a page of awards that include Best Short at the St. Louis Browning International Film Festival, Best Comedic Short Film at the New Hampshire International Film Festival, and Best Comedy Short at the Illinois International Film Festival.

Browning continues to write and film short films, but recently his acting résumé has expanded to include roles on NBC’s “The Office” and “How I Met Your Mother” on CBS, as well as performing stand-up comedy.

Dennis Franz, actor, SIUC: Franz is best known for his role as Detective Andy Sipowicz, in the television series NYPD Blue. A 1968 graduate of SIUC, in Franz 2007, he told The Southern his time in the region was “nothing but good memories.”

“Class work was sort of incidental to the experience of going away to school,” he said. “I was supposed to be getting an education, which I did.”

Billy Grammer, musician, Sesser: Born in 1925 Benton. After spending time in the military, Grammer was hired as a singer at WARL in Arlington, Va., by Connie B. Gay, a popular country DJ. When the lead

guitarist was fired, Grammer took up double duty.

He became the bandleader Grammer for George Jones, Hawkshaw Hawkins and for Jimmy Dean on his television shows, replacing a very young, chronically late Roy Clark.

On Feb. 27, 1959, Billy debuted on the Grand Ole Opry. He was “hotter than a pistol” with his first big hit, “Gotta Travel On.” In the studio, he played on albums ranging from gospel to country to jazz, by artists such as Louis Armstrong, Patti Page, Moon Mullican, Bob Dylan, Hoagy Carmichael and Charley Pride’s early hits, including “Kiss an Angel Good Morning.”

The Opry is “the musical pinnacle of the world,” Billy told The Southern Illinoisan in 2009. “Was then and still is. The guy in France might not know your name, but if you say he’s a Grand Ole Opry artist, he’ll know it’s big.”

Mark Victor Hansen, author-speaker, SIUC: Along with business partner, Jack Canfield, Hansen is best known for creating the “Chicken Soup for the Hansen Soul” books, one of the most successful publishing franchises in the world, with more than 140

million books sold internationally and more than 100 licensed products.

Kent Haruf, writer, SIUC: In 1999, Haruf’s novel “Plainsong” was published and became a U.S. bestseller. It won the Mountains & Plains Booksellers Haruf Award and the Maria Thomas Award in fiction and was a finalist for the National Book Award for fiction.

He retired from his teaching position at SIUC and now lives with his wife, Cathy, outside Sedelia, Colo.

Billie Hayes, actor, Du Quoin: Best known for her role as Witchiepoo on the television series “H.R. Pufnstuf,” Hayes has numerous television and film appearances Hayes to her credit and has also done extensive voice work in films. She could be seen on TV in episodes of “The Monkees,” “Donny and Marie,” “Bewitched,” “Murder, She Wrote,” and “General Hospital.”

Tommy Johnagin, comedian, Benton: The son of Linda and Tom Smith of Benton, Johnagin graduated from Benton Consolidated High School in 2001 before receiving a degree from Rend Lake College.

He attended Southern Illinois University

Edwardsville briefly before deciding to move to Chicago to pursue his career.

Johnagin Johnagin, who now lives in St. Louis, has appeared on “The Late Show With David Letterman,” Comedy Central’s “Live at Gotham” and “South Beach Comedy Festival,” CMT’s “Comedy Stage” and “Last Comic Standing.” Recently, he starred in his own comedy special, “Comedy Central Presents Tommy Johnagin.”

Darryl Jones, musician, SIUC: Born in Chicago, Jones attended SIUC in 1980, before deciding to pursue music fulltime. A bass player, he joined Miles Davis’ band in 1983 and has worked Jones with Sting, Peter Gabriel, Madonna, and Eric Clapton. Since 1993, he has toured and recorded with the Rolling Stones.

Marjorie Lawrence, soprano, SIUC: Although best known for her Wagnerian interpretations, Lawrence played in a range of other works, including Salome and Georges Bizet’s Carmen. She made a number of recordings, mainly of works by Wagner. In 1949, Lawrence wrote her autobiography “Interrupted Melody.” In

1955, MetroGoldwynMayer produced a film based on her book starring Eleanor Lawrence Parker as Lawrence; Parker mimed the voice of Eileen Farrell. From 1960 to 1973, Lawrence served as professor of voice at SIUC where she established the Marjorie Lawrence Opera Theatre.

Born in 1907, she died Jan. 13, 1979.

John Malkovich, actor, Benton: Over the last 25 years, Malkovich has appeared in more than 70 motion pictures, including “Death of a Salesman,” “Dangerous Malkovich Liaisons,” “In the Line of Fire,” “Con Air,” “ Of Mice And Men,” “Being John Malkovich,” and most recently, “Burn After Reading.”

Kendell Marvel, musiciansongwriter,Thompsonville: Marvel wrote the recent Jack Owen smash “Don’t Think I Can’t Love You” as well as “Twang,” the title song for the newest George Strait album, released in 2009.

Jenny McCarthy, model-actor, SIUC: McCarthy briefly attended SIUC McCarthy before SEE STARS / PAGE 31

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THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009

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STARS: From ‘Match Game’ to ‘Shaft,’ Southern Illinoisans run the gamut in entertainment FROM PAGE 29 beginning her career as a model in Playboy in 1993. McCarthy has since had a successful career as an actress and television personality.

Laurie Metcalf, actor, Carbondale: Her most recognizable role may have been Jackie Harris, sister to Roseanne Conner on the television show “Roseanne,” but Laurie Metcalf Metcalf was, in reality, part of a family that left quite a mark on Southern Illinois.

Laurie was born in Carbondale, but raised in Edwardsville. Her father, James F. Metcalf, was originally from Murphysboro and was an accountant at Southern Illinois University Carbondale until moving to the Edwardsville campus as the division chief auditor. At the time of his death in 1984, he was the budget director for SIUE. Laurie’s grandfather, James L. Metcalf, was also a prominent member of the Southern Illinois community, operating a clothing store, Metcalf’s, in Murphysboro during the 1950s and 1960s.

David Lee Murphy, musician-songwriter, Herrin: In only four

albums, Murphy has had 13 singles on the country charts, including the No. 1 hit Murphy “Dust on the Bottle” and four in the top 10. In recent years, he has concentrated most on writing, co-penning several singles for other artists, including the hits “Living in Fast Forward” for Kenny Chesney and “Big Green Tractor” for Jason Aldean. Murphy returned home to perform at HerrinFesta in 2007.

Bob Odenkirk, actorcomedian, SIUC: Odenkirk is best known as the co-creator and co-star of the HBO sketch comedy series “Mr. Show.”

He was a writer on Odenkirk “Saturday Night Live” from 1987 to 1995 and has also appeared in such television shows as “The Ben Stiller Show,” “The Larry Sanders Show,” “Seinfeld,” “Newsradio,” “Arrested Development,” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”

From Naperville, Odenkirk was a DJ for WIDB radio on the SIUC campus.

Gene Rayburn, game show host, Christopher: Best known as the host of TV’s “Match Game,” which he hosted in some from 1962 to 1981.

Rayburn Rayburn broke into television as the original announcer on Steve Allen’s “Tonight Show.” From 1962 to 1969, Rayburn hosted The Match Game.

Rayburn was nominated for two Daytime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Host or Hostess in a Game or Audience Participation Show.

Jason Ringenberg, musician, SIUC: While in college at SIUC, Ringenberg played in a couple of bands, most notably Shakespeare’s Riot and its Ringenberg rockabilly offshoot, the Catalinas.

The bars of Carbondale were the testing ground for a completely different way of playing an old kind of music, and as college life ended, Ringenberg knew there was something more out there. He moved to Nashville in 1981, forming “Jason and the Scorchers,” and rewriting the rules of country and rock music,

fusing the two together.

In recent years, he has created “Farmer Jason,” and recorded two children’s albums, as well as appearing in his own PBS special.

Richard Roundtree, actor, SIUC: Roundtree is best known as the original John Shaft, appearing in the film “Shaft” (1971) and in its two sequels, Roundtree “Shaft’s Big Score” (1972) and “Shaft in Africa” (1973). He reprised his role in the 2000 remake with Samuel L. Jackson in the lead role as his nephew.

Richard Russo, writer, SIUC: There’s a local

legend that Richard Russo wrote “Nobody’s Fool,” his novel that became a movie Russo starring Paul Newman and initially put the writer on the literary map, at Denny’s in Carbondale.

Whether the story is true may not be important, however, it illustrates the way small towns tend to talk, especially about “one of their own” that goes on to bigger and better things.

The former English professor at Southern Illinois University Carbondale knows a lot about small-town talk,

having lived in them for most of his life. Over the breadth of his career, Russo has found a voice, in the vein of a Faulkner or Steinbeck, that authentically creates a world that could be your town, that town, or Anytown, USA. His books include “Nobody’s Fool,” “Empire Falls,” “Straight Man,” and “Bridge of Sighs.”

Robert K. Weiss, producer, SIUC: As a film and television producer, Weiss has overseen such movies as “The Blues Brothers,” all of the “The Naked Gun” series, “Tommy Boy,” “Superstar,” and the third and fourth installments of “Scary Movie.”

— Compiled by Brent Stewart

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THE SOUTHERN ILLINOISAN TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2009