Category Archives: Features

First Christian Church Calls on Wade to Lead

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Family pastor elevated to senior pastor

by Barry Featheringill
Sullivan Reporter

Grant Wade

Grant Wade

Grant Wade, who for the past three years has been the family pastor at First Christian Church in Sullivan, has been called on to become senior pastor. Pastor Rebecca Ingram resigned after serving seven years to pursue other interests.

Wade and his wife Erin along with their two children Gavin & Emery (plus another boy due in January) have found Sullivan a very friendly community. Erin is a high school math teacher at Sullivan High School. Read More

Purple Bricked Theme to Focus on Former LHS Students

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First year with no football game, Lovington Homecoming continues

by Florence Hallford
Lovington Reporter

This year’s Lovington homecoming theme, ‘There’s No Place Like Home: Follow the Purple Brick Road’ carries with it the hopes of Lovington Alumni to continue the tradition of homecoming, even without a high school.

A banquet to be held at Yoder’s Kitchen on October 19 will feature bricks from the old high school and honor former students.  Read More

Brown Shoe Company History Gets Complete Treatment

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Last month’s historical meeting helps some get acquainted with long lost shoe company

Barry Featheringill
Sullivan Reporter

In October of 1929 the Brown Shoe Company of St. Louis, Missouri signed an agreement with the city of Sullivan, to build a shoe factory. The facility was to cost $300,000 and the city of Sullivan was to provide $125,000 of that amount, secure the site which was 321 South Hamilton Street, and pay all property taxes for 10 years. Brown Shoe was to have an employee base of approximately 400 and came to have a great relationship with the city of Sullivan for 45 years.

These were the opening remarks by former Brown Shoe employee Gerald Watkins at the Moultrie County Historical Society meeting Thursday September 19. Read More

Kathy Best Named Editor of The Seattle Times

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Photo by Erika Schultz, The Seattle Times Kathy Best, (above), is a 1975 SHS graduate and was recently promoted to Editor at the Seattle Times, the first woman ever in the paper’s history.

Photo by Erika Schultz, The Seattle Times
Kathy Best, (above), is a 1975 SHS graduate and was recently promoted to Editor at the
Seattle Times, the first woman ever in the paper’s history.

Once an NP staffer herself, Best becomes first female to lead the Times

By The Seattle Times Staff

Kathy Best, whose family has published newspapers in Sullivan for 50 years, has been named editor of The Seattle Times, Seattle Times Publisher Frank Blethen announced last week.

Best, who most recently has been one of The Times’ two managing editors, replaces David Boardman, who resigned after 30 years at The Times in August to become dean of Temple University’s School of Media and Communication in Philadelphia.

Best, daughter of Bob and Marion Best, is the first woman to lead The Seattle Times. She is the sister of Robert R. Best, the current publisher of the News-Progress.  Read More

Jackson’s New Showrooms and Renovations Ready for Duty

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Photo by Keith Stewart The Jackson Family of Dealerships recently completed renovations to the Sullivan location, including the addition of a new showroom. Pictured from left to right are owner Mark Jackson, Jeff Parkison, Zack Bryan, and Drew Danalewich.

Photo by Keith Stewart
The Jackson Family of Dealerships recently completed renovations to the Sullivan location, including the addition of a new showroom. Pictured from left to right are owner Mark Jackson, Jeff Parkison, Zack Bryan, and Drew Danalewich.

After nearly two years, dealership’s new look and features complete

by Barry Featheringill
Sullivan Reporter

Jackson Family of Dealerships of Sullivan offering Chrysler and General Motors brands of cars has completed a new facility on the west side of Sullivan.

After purchasing the former HPR dealership in 2010, the Jackson Family of Dealerships moved from 107 E Jackson Street in Sullivan to 1320 W Jackson Street.

Then approximately two years ago, the dealership decided a face-lift, among other things, was in order. Read More

C.E.F.S. Recognizes Locals at Annual Meeting

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C.E.F.S. Economic Opportunity Corporation recently showcased their 48th year of accomplishments demonstrating the fact that community action helps people and changes lives. During the 2013 annual meeting, two locals were recognized who had overcome obstacles in obtaining or maintaining self-sufficiency. According to C.E.F.S. Chief Executive Officer Paul White, “This past year our programs and services truly made a real difference in the lives of residents of the community.” Read More

Bethany Hears New Howl with Music Studio

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New record studio grand opening during block party

Photo by Keith Stewart Local band Slant Six is seen here, with members Stan Smart (left), Mike Harmison (center), and Julie Maloney (right). After first organizing in 2008 and then dissolving, the band reformed in 2011 and will perform live during the block party in Bethany October 12.

Photo by Keith Stewart
Local band Slant Six is seen here, with members Stan Smart (left), Mike Harmison (center), and Julie Maloney (right). After first organizing in 2008 and then dissolving, the band reformed in 2011 and will perform live during the block party in Bethany October 12.

by Emily Scott
Bethany Reporter

Mike Harmison of Sullivan has loved music ever since he learned to play the guitar at the age of five years old. In his teenage years he went on to play both the guitar and drums.

“That’s how I identify myself,” he said. “I’m a musician.”

Harmison has been recording local bands on his own since 1979 with his own recording equipment. While he admits the recording processes he once used were not the most high-tech, he enjoyed helping bands record and considers the time recording on his own successful. “Everyone ended up with a tape by the end,” he said.  Read More

Courtyard Celebrates Five Years, Staff and Residents Alike

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Photo by Keith Stewart Courtyard Estates’ resident Eloise Heidbreeder (left) dances with her daughter Carol while the Melvin Reynolds Jr. band performs Saturday during the five year celebration of the facility.

Photo by Keith Stewart
Courtyard Estates’ resident Eloise Heidbreeder (left) dances with her daughter Carol while the Melvin Reynolds Jr. band performs Saturday during the five year celebration of the facility.

Area bands, family and friends make for special day

by Barry Featheringill
Sullivan Reporter

Five years ago this October, Mary Jane Harshbarger made the transition into assisted living, a move that can often times be difficult to make given many older individuals’ long-held love of independence. But it was upon her niece’s kind coercion and in light of Harshbarger’s difficulty taking medication on time, that Mary Jane became the first resident of Courtyard Estates in Sullivan.

On Saturday, she along with her fellow residents, family members, and friends celebrated five years of assisted living at the Sullivan facility. Read More

Raffle Winner Treats Friends to Unusual, Homestyle Meal

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Submitted Glenn Austin informs guests about what it was like to be students and teachers at Center School, a one-room school house located at The Great Pumpkin Patch.

Submitted
Glenn Austin informs guests about what it was like to be students and teachers at Center School, a one-room school house located at The Great Pumpkin Patch.

Submitted by
Ann Wheeler

From the early 1900s until the 1950s, one-room school houses dotted the landscape in east central Illinois. Today, most of these structures have gone the way of the rotary dial phone: only a few exist and even fewer are actually used for their original purpose. Perhaps only Center School, which has found a home among the pumpkins and mums at The Great Pumpkin Patch in Arthur, has been used as the site for a winning raffle ticket. Read More

Inaugural Alzheimer’s Walk at Wyman Looks for Good Turnout

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First year of many to come

by Jake Dilley
Reporting in Sullivan

Christina Whitford knows all too well what the struggle with Alzheimer’s is like. The Sullivan resident lost her grandmother Nora Hatley five years ago to the disease and has since worked to not only honor her but to help others who are affected.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, an estimated five million Americans 65 years and older have Alzheimer’s, and the number is expected to triple as high as 13.8 million unless other, more effective measures, are discovered and put into practice in the treatment of the disease. Read More