News Progress

Greg A. Dirks, 65, of Sullivan, passed away 2:57 a.m. Monday, June 22, 2026 in his home. Celebration of Life services will be 12:00 Noon Friday, June 26, 2026 at the Sullivan Faith Lutheran Church with Pastor Justin Cullen officiating. Burial will be in the Zoar Cemetery, rural Mattoon. Visitation will be Friday from 10:00 a.m. until 12:00 Noon at the church. Memorials are suggested to the Sullivan Faith Lutheran Church for youth activities. Reed Funeral Home, Sullivan is in charge of arrangements. Online condolences may be sent to the family at reedfuneralhome.net. Greg was born May 29, 1961 at Lincoln, … Read More

June Foreman, former resident of Sullivan, passed away June 20, 2026 at a care center in Luverne, Alabama. She was 96 years old. Born Francis June Bell in the cold pre-dawn of Christmas at the start of the Great Depression in 1929, she grew up on a red dirt road where water came from a well, and light from oil lamps. Her father, Johnny, ran a small farm and worked timber while her mother, Beatrice, wrangled chickens and made biscuits in a cast iron pan. As the  middle child, June worked the mule-plowed fields, picked cotton, and tended livestock as readily … Read More

Mary N. Dotson Lane, 90, passed away peacefully Sunday, June 14, 2025, at her home in Gulf Shores, Alabama, surrounded by her loving family following complications from a stroke and long-term battle with severe arthritis. Mary was born February 17, 1936, in rural Macon County, Tennessee, the fourth of seven children to parents Curf and Artie Dotson. After moving to Sullivan, Illinois, she met Roger, a classmate at Lowe Elementary School. They grew up together and married in 1955. She worked at the First National Bank in Sullivan until 1958, when she decided to stay home and take care of … Read More