Compiled by Bekki Ferguson-Stevens

25 Years Ago This Week

Moultrie County’s involvement in the Persian Gulf War, the Sullivan High School girls’ state basketball championship, Sullivan’s first Festival of Stars and the prospect of a bedsheets ballot for next year’s state primary election head the News-Progress’ list of top stories for 1991.

Having to delay college graduation by a semester is glorious news to Scot Hollonbeck, the grandson of Lefty and Wilma Hollonbeck of rural Sullivan. The 21-year-old accomplished wheelchair racer from Rochelle is postponing his summer 1992 graduation from the University of Illinois because he is qualified for the 1992 Olympic trials next June in New York.

Jeffrey White, son of Mr. and Mrs. Robert White of Sullivan, was selected as a student marshal for the recent commencement ceremony at Eastern Illinois University. A 1989 graduate of Sullivan High School, he is a junior majoring in botany/zoology.

Blake Bartimus, son of Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Bartimus of Bethany, has been initiated into Kappa Delta Pi at Eastern Illinois University. Bartimus, an 1989 graduate of Bethany High School, is a junior elementary education major.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.