Roland Burris returns to his roots
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lation. He also serves on the Senate’s armed services, veteran’s affairs, and homeland security committees. During his visit to Illinois, he stopped by the VA hospital in Marion, the military aircraft manufacturer Boeing in St. Louis, and Scott Air Force Base, of which he also has fond memories having grown up nearby.

“My sister-in-law — you know they used to date those guys from Scott field. And we used to have some rumbles with those guys for coming in and taking our pretty girls,” Burris says, chuckling. “That’s why they give me the script. I get to running my mouth. I’m sure that’s gonna be on television. And that’s when they’re gonna say Burris is up there now talking about how he used to beat up on people.”

Then, as he’s prone to do, he brings the subject back home: “But some of them were fortunate enough to stick around and make their homes in Centralia, so they’re now Centralians.”

Only a fraction of Centralians came out to see Mayor Ault award Burris the key to the city. So the extent to which the love he has for Centralia is reciprocated beyond this banquet room remains unknown.

This much is clear: Burris, to borrow a phrase from hip hop, puts on for his city, famously telling the City Club of Chicago as questions swirled about his forthrightness in the Blagojevich affair, “I’m from Centralia, you all know me. OK?” Doris Downey, Burris’ older sister, puts it this way: “Sometimes, your head gets bigger than where you come from. That’s not the case with Roland.”

Contact R.L. Nave at [email protected].