Going, going . . .
For years, sagacious observers have warned that the real threat to prosperity in Illinois is not high taxes or low politics but stagnant population growth. I addressed the issue in a 2014 column titled “Stuck in Illinois . . . “ Emily Badger at the Washington Post gives us the most recent demographic data about…
“Daddy’s” a Funny Look at Bad Parenting
Obviously, director Sean Anders and his crew are well-aware they’re not on the road to creating something akin to Citizen Kane when they set out to make a movie like Daddy’s Home. I would imagine that, in addition to having a rip-roaring time when they show up to work each day, the intent is to make…
A shooting
Demolition of the President Lincoln Hotel at Fourth and Capitol. COURTESY OF THE LINCOLN LIBRARY SANGAMON VALLEY COLLECTION As part of our 40th anniversary observances, and in light of more recent events, we will revisit some of columns from James Krohe Jr.’s Prejudices series that ran from 1977 to 1994. Typos in the originals have…
Letters to the Editor 12/30/15
Illinois Times invited a small group of area music promoters, booking agents and festival organizers to dinner Dec. 2 at Obed and Isaac’s to discuss the presentation of live, original music in Springfield. PHOTO BY PATRICK YEAGLE MAKING A SCENE In response to Scott Faingold’s Dec. 17 Illinois Times cover story, “Making a scene,” which…
Editor’s note 12/30/15
It was 40 years and a few months ago that a group of visionary entrepreneurs gathered in Springfield to start a weekly newspaper they called Illinois Times. They found a ready audience and, more remarkably, they found advertisers willing to take a risk on a nontraditional publication, enough of them to make their idea into…
Trucking, a bedrock of the economy
Trucks: we see them every day on Illinois roads. We ride alongside them on the freeway. Many may be surprised to learn that the professional trucking industry has been a critical part of making the holidays happen for America’s families. From the Christmas trees that came from our forests far and wide, to the holiday…
Learn self defense from a black belt
Women’s Personal Defense Seminar Learn the art of self defense in a free, hour-long seminar led by Mark Commean, a black belt trainer in the art of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu since 2001 and current head instructor and owner at Gracie Humaita. Each course covers the importance of confidence via eye contact and projecting your voice, plus…
Independent, international films
Film Series Preview Party Indulge your excitement for the 25th Annual Molly Schlich Independent and International Film Series by attending a popcorn and fun-filled preview party at the Springfield Art Association on Wednesday, Jan. 6, at 7 p.m. The party offers attendees their first opportunity to purchase 2016 film series passes ($45 a piece) and…
Theatrical basketball
The Harlem Globetrotters The Harlem Globetrotters are an exhibition basketball team that combines athleticism, theater and comedy to create a superstar sports show that will delight the young and old alike. The team plays Springfield on Friday, Jan. 1, at 7 p.m., as part of their 90th anniversary world tour. Harlem Globetrotters shows make exciting…
When Harry bent Sally over the hood of the car
PHOTO COURTESY AMY ALKON Amy Alkon My girlfriend’s “best friend” is a straight guy. I trust that she thinks he’s just her friend. However, as a guy, I know that if he could hit it, he would. FYI, I’m not really a jealous or insecure person, and my guy friends complain about this same scenario,…
First Night Springfield is ‘Downtown to a fine art’
Mark Gifford and Damien Kaplan’s Dual Piano Show will be peformed on Dec. 31, from 7-7:45pm and 8:30-9:15pm in Theatre 3 at the Hoogland Center for the Arts. Send out 2015 in a blaze of performing arts, fireworks and creativity and celebrate a new year at First Night Springfield. The Springfield Area Arts Council-hosted celebration…
Tarantino flirts with greatness with Eight
PHOTO COURTESY THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY Kurt Russell, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Bruce Dern in The Hateful Eight. His most assured and satisfying film since Jackie Brown, Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight is unique in the director’s oeuvre in that it’s the only one he’s made he can truly call his own. Absent are the numerous…
New Year news
Captain Geech and the Shrimp Shack Shooters play On the Rox in Jacksonville on New Year’s Day, Friday, Jan. 1 at 5 p.m. Hello everyone and welcome to almost 2016 – or maybe it already is the New Year by the time you read this. Whatever your situation, let’s open to it with open arms…
Jackson Taylor and the Sinners
Jackson Taylor and the Sinners Born just outside Austin, Texas, Jackson Taylor spent his formative years traveling and soaking up the sounds of real country music with his migrant worker family. When, as a young man, he made a move to Nashville, as many aspiring country artists do, the scene there was stifling and not…
New Year’s Day comfort food
French onion soup. PHOTO BY JENNA DEMATTIA MASTERS I’ve long been ambivalent about New Year’s Eve celebrations. My parents and grandparents always threw a party, but it was far from a drunken debacle. To the best of my knowledge, alcohol was never served. Still, silly hats, noisemakers and other celebratory accoutrements abounded. The TV was…
Loyal employee of Illinois Times
Donna Ellen Frost Donna Ellen Frost was my younger sister. We went everywhere together and did everything together. My sister was my best friend. Donna was the first New Year’s baby, born just seconds after midnight on Jan. 1, 1943. She was born in Springfield, at St. John’s Hospital, the daughter of Pete and Mary…
‘Lloyd’s eccentricity made him special’
Lloyd Inslee In 2001, our family bought a house owned by the one and only, slightly odd, mostly eccentric, ZZ Top look-alike Lloyd Inslee. He would spend each subsequent Thanksgiving and family gathering at our home. He could be seen around town doing laundry every Saturday at Crystal Cleaners, shopping at Jewel, hand-pushing his mower…
He lived his faith every day
Dr. H. Brent De Land Jr. Brent De Land lived his life with such care and compassion that his work will likely live on for generations. He was best known for his extensive humanitarian work in Haiti, and the rest of his life reflected that same strength of conviction. Dr. H. Brent De Land Jr.…
‘No matter where he went, he made friends quickly’
Joseph Allen Stancil Joe was a very likeable kid and adult. No matter where he went, he made friends quickly. He was outgoing, compassionate and loving. He loved to travel, and he always asked to bring a friend that otherwise would not have been able to travel as he did. He did very well around…
‘A man who could do anything’
Kevin Hyatt Kevin Hyatt could do anything, or so it seemed. The 200-plus relatives, friends and co-workers who gathered for a celebration of his life three weeks after his July 5 death knew that firsthand. When one of the speakers asked the gathering at the Firefighters-Postal Lake Club, “How many of you had your houses…
‘Emma Lou was anti-authoritarian at its finest’
Emma Lou Eastman Little Born soon after women earned the right to vote, Emma Lou Little relished politics. She loved President Obama because he restored honor to the State of Illinois, delivered intelligent speeches and listened to his wife. Emma Lou’s father took her as a child to see each president who visited the Midwest.…
He made things that made a difference
Ronald L. Earley The first thing many people noticed about Ron Earley was his lighthearted sense of humor, but spending more than a couple of minutes with him revealed a whirring intellect and a passion for making the world a better place. “I had only one rule with Ron,” said his wife, Maureen. “No jokes…
An immigrant’s tale
Ossie Langfelder Ossie Langfelder could have ended up in China. Or Decatur. Or any number of places besides Springfield, where he ended up mayor. He was not initially impressed with the capital city when his family moved to Springfield while World War II raged in Europe, with the United States still at peace. It was…
“A prankster and a jokester, but always reliable”
Dewey A. Rowden Dewey lived his entire life in Springfield and the surrounding area. He was a local musician and an avid St. Louis Cardinals fan, but his true joy in life was his wife, his children and his grandchildren. He spent his career with the Springfield Mass Transit District working as a dispatcher for…
‘Leigh Ann didn’t do anything halfway’
Leigh Ann Galyon Smith Leigh Ann Galyon Smith was an incredible person. The Queen of Everything! Everyone she came in contact with would probably tell you the same thing. Bubbly, beautiful, amazingly talented, angelic voice, patient teacher and wonderful director. She had much to give, and she gave us everything. Leigh Ann didn’t do anything…
‘Do what your heart tells you.’
Lana Benedict It’s likely no one who knew Lana Benedict as a State of Illinois retiree, volunteer cook, gardener, singer, loving mother and wife thought she would leave life on this side of heaven at age 69 last October. Vibrant, passionate, and retired but never retiring, Lana always had enough energy for the next project.…
‘She lived a simple life of doing right’
Eleanora Treinis Yuskavich The daughter of Lithuanian immigrants John and Tillie (Rinkienve) Treinis, Eleanora lost her mother at age 6. Raised by her grocer father, cousins from the Joseph and Mary (Treinis) Banaitis family became her siblings. Eleanora attended St. Joseph’s and Pleasant Hill Schools. At 14, Eleanora met John Yuskavich, eventually living with his…
The crop doctor
William N. Becker On May 2, 2015, at 2:10 p.m., I sat holding Bill’s hand when he died of pancreatic cancer in room E282 at Memorial Medical Center. He was my best friend and husband. I met Bill at a dance in junior college in Cicero in spring 1966. In conversation several weeks later, I…
The builder
Robert L. Evans Boom! Boom! Boom! Explosions ripped the air as a demolition team set off charges to bring down the Sankey high-rise apartments a few blocks east of Washington Park. Then silence. But no crash. As smoke from explosives cleared on Oct. 22, 2013, both 14-story towers remained in place. It took 10 minutes…
Remembering the lives they lived 2015
About the issue It is our tradition to reserve our last issue of the year to remember some of the Springfield-area people who have died in the past year. Those we write about here are people who have come to the attention of our writers, and others brought to IT by readers answering our…
‘A quintessential American of his time’
Bob Bartlett My stepfather was not a super man, or a super dad for that matter. Who he turned out to be is rare enough. Bob Bartlett was an old-fashioned, decent fellow who kept his feelings, if not his opinions, to himself. The oldest of 13 children, born into a poverty that encompassed everyone he…
‘A consummate shopper… of professional status’
Fae “Arlene” Clemons It has always been Mom and me against the world. She married her first and only love, had one child (me) and worked her way up to management at Illinois Bell, a great achievement in the 1970s. The marriage ended; we both had to start over together. We moved to Springfield from…
Prolific artist, force of nature
Charles “Hugh” Moore When Hugh Moore passed away this past March, the Springfield area lost a writer, painter, radio host and general bon vivant. He was also president of Springfield Poets and Writers and on the board of the Route 66 Film Festival. His absence has left a gaping hole in the arts community, where…
Writer, creator of community
Lola Susan Lucas When Lola Lucas posted a personal in Riverfront Times, “Gomez, John Steed, Corwin of Amber seeks perchance Morticia, Emma Peel, Deirdre – raven-haired swf intent on sabbaticals to Britain,” Kevin Brown felt the message targeted him. The ensuing marriage, the “Lucas-Brown Partnership” was Olympian. Lola had so many competences: literature (especially sci-fi…
He fought the good fight
James Craven As a judge, James Craven wasn’t the sort to embarrass lawyers by calling them out publicly while court was in session. “I run into all kinds of people who appeared before him once, twice, many times,” says his son, Don Craven, one of four children, all of whom became lawyers. “They describe him…
‘There wasn’t anything that he couldn’t do’
Ordwin Albert (Rocky) Schoenrock My dad was born May 30, 1922, in Wilton Township, Minnesota, to Otto and Magdalena Schoenrock. He married my mom, the love of his life, Evelyn Brewer, on April 10, 1954. Dad was a proud veteran of the U.S. Navy, having served as sonar man on the Destroyer Escort USS Inch…
October Harvest
October Harvest,by Lola Lucas This week’s poem was suggestedby Yosh Golden who observes, “Lolawas a quiet master of words. Here,is lyrical imagery and a starklyobjective conclusion.” We printit in Lola’s honor and remembrance.For more on Lola Lucas, see page 15. Pumpkins, no less than oranges,Hold the rain of springThe sunshine of summerIn their flesh. Entwined,…
‘She enjoyed sharing her resources with many nonprofit groups’
Bettie J. Allen Bettie was the first full-time director of the Springfield Human Relations Commission, and later was with the Capital Development Board for the State of Illinois until her retirement. Bettie helped enforce civil rights in housing, hiring and education. She worked with the People’s Bank, the first financial institution on the east side…
‘Lisa was the glue that held together her family of performers’
Lisa K. Leach She was born Lisa Lindsey, a name as pretty as she was. She was a funny, quirky child who loved music and words. As she grew up and moved on to college, her gifts became evident. A skilled and funny writer. A great organizer as editor of the campus newspaper. And a…
Equestrian
Charles Armstrong ‘Chick’ Chapin Charles Armstrong Chapin was many things: a World War II veteran, an accomplished attorney, a lover of classical music, an involved member of his community and a beloved husband and father. But above all else, Charles Chapin was a horseman. Charles (“Chick” to everyone who knew him) was born in Springfield…
‘A gifted music man of many talents’
Evans Brittin Evans Brittin was truly a gifted music man of many talents, which he willingly shared his whole life. After he served in the U.S. Navy as a pilot, he graduated from Illinois State University and taught vocal and instrumental music to many youth in Springfield and Sangamon County for 28 years. No matter…
The death of the Abe, in pictures
This is week in my print column I dusted off a column from my old Prejudices series that recalls the demolition in 1978 of the Hotel Abraham Lincoln. I was pleased therefore to learn that a series of still photos depicting that very event will be part of a new exhibition of more than 40…
