Celebrating 22 loved ones lost in 2009
JOE KNOX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P.7
ADAM PADGET . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P.8
JOHN M. SKUBE, JR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P.8
ANITA JEAN TULL YUNG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P.9
JAMES ROBERT ENLOW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P.9
ERIC HUCKABY, JR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P.10
HOWARD HUMPHREY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P.10
RICK VATTHAUER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . P.11
CATHERINE S. KALB . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . P.11
DELBERT “DEL” REYNOLDS . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . P.11
CONSTANCE A. MERRIFIELD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P.12
KENNETH “GENE” WELLENREITER JR. . . . . . . . . . . P.12
CAROL MANLEY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . P.13
FES STEVENS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P.14
WILLIAM G. HALL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P.14
EVA TROSTJOHNSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P.15
JOHN DAVID PETERSON . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P.16
KATHY CONOUR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . P.17
JOHN PRICE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P.17
LARRY ROBINSON, SR. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . P.18
LEONARD METZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . P.19
STEVEN OLSZEWSKI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . P.19
About the issue
This last week of the year Illinois Times takes a loving look back at some of the lives that ended in 2009. All across Springfield this past week, chairs were empty and hearts were aching as families went through traditional holiday gatherings for the first time without their loved one. At the same time, those families remembered the joy the newly missing ones had contributed over the years.
Each person makes a contribution to the larger community. Not only are families diminished, but Springfield is taken down a notch with each passing as well. This collection of lives remembered is IT’s way of pausing to note the losses, while celebrating their contributions. Included here is a teenaged football start, a murder victim, a disabilities activist, a once-homeless writer, a public official, a business executive and many others. Read as a whole, the edition reminds that a community is a collection of characters, sometimes underappreciated until after they’re gone.
The selection is idiosyncratic and makes no attempt to be comprehensive. IT staff writers and regular contributors wrote the nine longer obituaries. We asked readers to send us remembrances of their Springfieldarea loved ones who died in 2009, and they responded well, contributing the 13 shorter essays included here. Together we celebrate 22 very different lives, all memorably lived.
—Fletcher Farrar, editor
