Remembering

Leroy Jordan’s mother worked in school cafeterias and his father worked for the railroad. While he didn’t follow either of their paths directly, both schools and railroads would become themes in his life. Jordan was born in Murphysboro. A talented athlete, he was inducted into his high school’s football hall of fame. Jordan attended Southern […]

My father liked to tell this story. He was a professional musician, and a country band out of Ashland had hired him to play at that year’s Chandlerville Burgoo. “Just go down 78 to the end,” the leader told him. “You can’t miss it. If you do, you’re in the river.” When he met his […]

Bill and Mary Schnirring met at Hay-Edwards Elementary School in third grade. They married in 1950 and died two weeks apart in January 2020. They were devoted to each other and their family and loved Springfield. Together they had an enormous impact. Bill received the Copley First Citizen award in 1989 and was named Laureate […]

Their first encounter was on a dance floor during the 1970s; Michael was a Ph.D. student and Martha was a teacher. There was evidently magic in the moment (he was, among other things, an accomplished magician), for in time they wed and built a marriage that lasted for 42 years … no small accomplishment. When […]

Five years before his death last July at age 95, civil rights icon Rev. C. T. Vivian was strolling the halls of Macomb High School in the Illinois town where he spent most of his younger years. “I would never have been who I was if not for Macomb, Illinois,” he told an audience during […]

Springfield lost two community-minded entrepreneurial giants, Louis Myers and Arnold Stern, within the first week of September 2020. Though Stern and Myers were three years apart in age, they were lifelong friends who had much in common, beginning with primary education at Butler Grade School, followed by graduation from Springfield High School, according to Myers’ […]

A few years ago, Linda “Lin” Rakers of Springfield told her friend Barb Lestikow that she planned to go sky diving. “That was Lin,” explains Lestikow. “She always had a zest for life, and when she was determined to do something, she did it.” Another friend, Harriet Arkley, tells of the time years ago when […]

Don’t do it, administrators warned. Anyone caught painting the chimney atop Springfield High School, long a senior class tradition, would be expelled, the adults said as graduation neared for the Class of 1988. Shortly afterward, “88” showed up in white paint on the chimney. Administrators hadn’t bargained on Jerry Jacobson, whose daughter was a senior. […]

Charles Hoogland was a video store pioneer, but wasn’t known for having a favorite movie. It probably would have been something old – he liked John Wayne and Maureen O’Hara, says Keith Hoogland, Charles’ son. “The Quiet Man,” maybe, and not surprising, given Hoogland’s penchant for doing business the old-fashioned way. Charles Hoogland, a Springfield […]

Danyel Pitts never had biological children, but plenty of people called her Mom. From her stepchildren to nieces and nephews to the high school girls she coached in track, many young people relied on Momma Dee for guidance, advice and unconditional love. Danyel grew up in Springfield with her twin sister, Joyel. Danyel was older […]

Once one of Springfield’s most popular artists, Michael Manning created an untold number of paintings. His work is displayed in banks, law offices, living rooms and restaurants throughout the city. He also created less-popular portraits of former Gov. Jim Edgar and former U.S. Sen. John Kerry. “People would stop him on the street constantly and […]

Norman Frederick Rovey II – Fred to most everyone – had a knack. At 10, he was driving bulldozers – his father ran N.F. Rovey and Son Excavating. Growing up on South Fourth Street, Rovey once declared that he hoped to become a garbage hauler. Instead, he became a Springfield firefighter, rising to the rank […]