Randolph Society honors 2018 inductees

The Randolph Society held its second annual induction of honorees at the Randolph County Courthouse in Chester on Tuesday evening, March 13. Now in its second year, the Randolph Society, a 5013-C nonprofit organization, was formed in 2016 through a Rotary International grant, sponsored by Rotary Clubs from Chester, Red Bud and Sparta. The first five honorees were named in March 2017 with photos placed on a wall of honor in the rotunda at the county courthouse. The Honor Society is devoted to memorializing people who have lived in Randolph County and who have, in their lifetimes, contributed in a positive and exceptional way to the county and, in many cases, the world. This year additional honorees were named and their photos have been placed on the wall of honor in the courthouse rotunda. A large crowd was in attendance to witness the induction. Descendants were in attendance for four of the five honorees.

Randolph County Commissioner Dr. Marc Kiehna, President of the Foundation, was the master of ceremonies and he introduced the following who also took part in the induction: Dr. Lauren Kiehna, Foundation Secretary; Justin Jeffers, Foundation Treasurer; Julie Glangloff and Cynthia Lawder, Foundation members.

The first honoree was George M. Khoury, businessman, philanthropist and youth sports organizer. Khoury was born in 1900 in St. Louis to parents who had emigrated from the Middle East. He, along with his family, moved to Coulterville, Illinois sometime shortly after 1910, where he attended area schools and learned the printing trade. In his early adulthood, he returned to St. Louis where he married and started several businesses. Along with his wife, Dorothy, he founded the Khoury League, a youth baseball organization for local boys. The league was expanded nationally and internationally over several decades, adding additional sports for boys, girls and adults. Khoury worked with St. Louis sports legends to support youth sports. He was selected by the United States Committee for Baseball in Israel to help

start youth leagues there in 1960. His purported goal was to ensure that all children, regardless of talent or income, were able to play ball in his organization. Khoury died in St. Louis in 1967 at the age of 67.

Elzie Chrisler Segar was the second nominee of the evening. Segar was born in Chester in 1894, was educated in Chester schools and held various local jobs, including work at "Windy" Bill Schuchert's Opera House in Chester, where he played the organ, and had janitorial duties. While there, he honed his cartooning skills through a correspondence course. After leaving Chester, he worked for newspapers in Chicago, continuing work on cartoon strips of the day, covering current events and developing original comics. He created Thimble Theatre and the Sappo series for King Features Syndicate in New York in 1919. He moved with his wife and children to California in the 1920s, and in 1929 he created his most favorite cartoon character, Popeye, The Sailor Man. Segar's depictions of Popeye, Olive Oyl and Wimpy were all fashioned after residents he had known while growing up in Chester. Segar became one of America's most popular cartoonists

with strips running in more than 500 newspapers nationally and around the globe. Commemorated as one of Chester's most prominent sons, Segar died in Santa Monica, California in 1938 at the age of 43.

Another inductee, James Thompson, surveyor, judge and public servant, was born in South Carolina in 1789. He traveled to Randolph County, Illinois in 1814, joining relatives in an Irish settlement in the village of Kaskaskia. He taught in Kaskaskia schools until his marriage in 1817 and then purchased a farm in Preston, Illinois where he raised a large family. Thompson served as county commissioner, probate judge, county surveyor and United States surveyor. He also

served as captain of a local regiment during the Black Hawk War.

Thompson surveyed numerous area roads and towns. In the summer of 1813 he was hired by the Illinois and Michigan Canal Commission to complete the very first plat map of the city of Chicago. Thompson named Chicago's Randolph Street after his home county of Randolph. He is celebrated as one of the founders of Chicago. He died in Preston, Illinois in 1872 at the age of 83.

Receiving joint honors this year were Charles Briggs Cole and his daughter, Alice Emily Cole. Mr. Cole was born in Chester in 1845. He was educated at Harvard University where he earned a degree in manufacturing. He took a leading role in the family's Chester milling business, H.C. Cole Milling Company. He served as president and general manager of the Wabash, Chester & Western Railroad. Cole was elected to the Illinois State Legislature in 1894 and served for more

than a decade on Chester's school board. Along with his daughter, Alice, Cole donated a new building for Chester's public library.

Sadly, Cole died in 1928 at the age of 82 and his wake was the first public event to be held at the library.

Alice Emily Cole continued her family's charitable legacy, donating 50-acres in 1933 for Chester's Cole Memorial Park. It opened to the public in 1936. Alice Cole remained a citizen of Chester for many years and died in Clayton,

Missouri in 1962 at the age of 90.

The final individuals honored by the Randolph Society this year were Gilbert and Emma Penny Holmes, both ground breaking black educators. Gilbert Holmes was born in DuQuoin in 1898 and Emma Penny was born in Sparta in 1912. Both were educated in the teaching program at Southern Illinois University at Normal, Illinois. They married in 1934 and both

taught at Vernon School in Sparta for many decades. Vernon School was a school for black children. After its closing, Emma taught in other Sparta district schools. Music and education were their mutual passions. Gilbert became the first African American president of the Randolph County Education Association. Emma was a founding member of the Sparta Community Chorus. Each worked to champion their fellow black educators, keenly aware of the difference that they could make in their community by challenging students to reach their individual potentials. Gilbert Holmes died in Sparta in 1992 at the age of 93 and Emma Holmes died in Springfield in 2002 at the age of 90.

It is the plan of the Randolph Society to continue to induct nominees on an annual basis. The public is encouraged to peruse the website RandolphSociety.org to read more about the 2017 and 2018 inductees. Anyone interested in submitting

nominations for the coming year may do so at this website.