Remembering

RILEY GRAHAM SEVERNS Beloved son of Richard and Dana Severns of Rochester, Riley Severns, from the moment he set foot on this earthly blue sphere on Nov. 3, 1997, until his departure for his heavenly palace on Aug. 10, 2013, this young man lived life on his own terms. That generally meant full speed ahead. […]

  ANN ELIZABETH SEFCIK WOOLSEYAnn Ann rushed in where others feared to tread, whether it was leaving the comfort of the familiar for places unknown, or climbing a fence to rescue Bounce, the pug, from a stamping, snorting bull. She never looked back or looked around, and she never weighed the what ifs. She simply […]

CARL VOLKMANN Carl Volkmann died Oct. 11 after a 15-year struggle with cancer. In October 2012, he received an Alumni Award from his alma mater, Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa. Here is an excerpt from the citation read on that occasion: Carl Volkmann epitomizes the importance of a sense of place. For him, the place […]

GRACE ELEANOR MURDOCK Grace Murdock, you could say, was a real pistol. Upon her death at 94 last spring, Murdock’s son, Mitchell, found a .22-caliber gun in her nightstand at Concordia Village, where she lived the final decade of her life. “She was always with a weapon,” Mitchell says. When her husband, Russell, became sheriff […]

CECILE MARIE WOODSON-WHEATLEY My mother was born in Vicksburg, Miss., but she had been a resident of Springfield since the age of 2. Most people old enough may remember her as the daughter of the Hay Homes Legend “Virgin Mary Hamilton” (and yes that was her mother’s real name), who was as known for standing […]

KENNETH ROBERT FOLKS Ken Folks is missed by me, his coworker, and all the lives he touched in his classroom at Land of Lincoln Goodwill Industries. He was the kind of guy that you only had to meet once, and from then on you were friends forever. It was like you’d known him for years. […]

TECUMSAY JUMO ROBERTS, SR. Sisters Gifty Smith and Yarvo Roberts say their childhood home in Liberia was so full of familiar faces that they didn’t know which people were actual relatives. “Those in need came to our house and my parents would find a way to get them whatever they lacked. Dad was always helping […]

Dr. David Sumner of Springfield was a renowned surgeon, academic and artist. One of his paintings, at right, depicts the Rue Dauphine, a well-known street in Paris, France. A beautiful Parisian streetscape, a sailboat race on the North Carolina coast, and a peaceful snowfall on frozen Lake Springfield: Those picturesque scenes and many more were […]

MARK ALEXANDER MACDONALD “isn’t easy being a man / all those lines we paint / to the endless amusement / of those who live between them” – from Mark’s poem “Lines” Mark visited Illinois the year the Mississippi flooded. As a participant in the 1993 World Free Fall Convention in Quincy, he took a Springfield […]

Remembering Becky is an everyday thing. When someone made you laugh so much it hurt, you want to bring back that memory as much as possible. I heard of her passing and I had to wrap my brain around it for a very long time to make sure it was true. Becky could not be […]

Mary Lee Leahy fought for underdogs. Best known for representing state workers in a landmark Supreme Court decision that ended overt patronage in government, the Springfield attorney who succumbed to pancreatic cancer had plenty of uphill battles. Even outside the courtroom, Leahy remembered the little guy. Consider the Kentucky Derby parties she hosted at the […]

I am honoring my grandmother, Margaret E. VanGeison from Pawnee, who was born on Sept. 30, 1913, and passed away on Oct. 17, 2012. Margaret was 99 years young when she left this earth to be with her husband, Chester L. VanGeison. She was a strong woman who was kind, patient, caring, funny and loved […]