Skip to content

St. Elmo News

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Thursday, July 14
• Fayette County 4-H show day at the fair for all general projects. Check-in starts at 8:30 a.m. The awards presentation is 6 p.m. Junior general projects can be checked at 8 a.m.
• Lunch Bunch, noon, Mary Ann’s Restaurant.
• St. Elmo Public Library District Board, 7 p.m., St. Elmo Public Library.
• Effingham Chapter #110 Order of the Eastern Star, 7:30 p.m., Effingham Masonic Temple.
• New Horizons Bible school, 6-8 p.m.
Friday, July 15
• New Horizons Bible school, 6-8 p.m.
Sunday, July 17
• A Family Fun Fest, sponsored by the St. Elmo First United Methodist Church, will be held from 4-8 p.m. in Deken Park. There will be activities for children, Prairieland Pickers will be there, and Dale Sperry will cook the furnished meat; drinks will be provided. Those attending are to take covered dishes. Testimonials can be given.
Monday, July 18
• Historical Vandalia Inc. Board, 6:30 p.m., Fayette County Museum, Vandalia.
• St. Elmo Board of Education, 7:30 p.m., unit office.
Tuesday, July 19
• St. Elmo Unit of Home and Community Education will meet at St. Mary’s Catholic Church parking lot at 10 a.m. to share rides to eat lunch at House of Plenty in Belleville.
Friendly Neighbors
Eleven were present for the July 5 Friendly Neighbors meeting at noon at Mary Ann’s Restaurant. They were Cora Miley of Beecher City, Marybelle Ledbetter of Brownstown and Richard Lowe, Malinda Miller, Bob and Joanne Owen, Rosemary Owen, Irene Reed, Larry Reed, and R. W. and Mary Smith.
Those attending the Aug. 2 meeting at noon at Mary Ann’s Restaurant are to take school supplies for grade school children.
Rhodes-Side Gleanings
The last week in June, the little frog was back in my mailbox for a day or two. When I put some letters in the box to mail, it was sitting just inside the mailbox, next to the wall. I came back to the house to get my camera and took a couple of pictures; it was looking right at me. Maybe it was saying “goodbye,” for I haven’t seen it since.
These are the first pictures taken with a disposable camera, so it will be awhile before I finish the roll and get the pictures developed.
Lighthouse Pregnancy & Health Services
The Lighthouse Pregnancy Center in Vandalia offers the Earn While You Learn program. This program allows those at the center to walk alongside women who at one time considered abortion, but ultimately decided to carry their baby to term. EWYL provides valuable emotional support, genuine encouragement, vital education for prenatal care and practical parenting help for moms and dads within a sincere mentoring relationship.
The center is at 1703 W. Fletcher St., Vandalia. The phone number is 283-8750.
Wheatland HCE
Home and Community Education units have major lessons and special features in eight months of the year. July is an activity month and August is a 4-H Month for units that sponsor a 4-H club or an activity month for those who don’t. A special feature is given at the November meeting, but the next year’s program books are filled out. In December, units have holiday parties.
For a special activity in July, the Wheatland Unit decided to go to Old Mac’s Café and Convenience Store at Dieterich July 7. Because of conflicts, only two were able to go – Karen Hyde and Ethelyn Williams. They had a good lunch and enjoyed shopping.
In August, the unit will attend one day of the Effingham County Fair.
Rhodes-Side Gleanings
Steve’s Half-Brother’s Obit
Thomas Guy Graham, 64 of Gualala, Calif., died March 12, 2016. There was no funeral service planned, but a “Celebration of Life” in memory of Tom was held on Saturday, June 18.
My son, Steve Rhodes, and his friend, Scott Edmonds, both of Chicago, flew into San Francisco on Thursday, June 16, and returned on June 20. They rented a car and drove north through Sonoma Valley wine country into Gualala.
Tom’s daughter, Marila Peoples, posted an invitation on Tom’s Facebook page to about 30 of Tom’s friends and his brother Steve to attend the “Celebration of Life.” She had an engraved granite plaque installed into a giant tree that grew into a natural bench in his back yard. Those attending placed flowers there and many shared favorite stories and memories of Tom.
Steve said, “We had a backyard BBQ/potluck from noon until 10 p.m. Our mother, who is in advanced Alzheimer’s, was escorted over in her wheelchair by her live-in caretaker, Nina, who with her family all live on the property.
“Marila and her family live just west of Lake Tahoe in Sacramento, Calif. Gualala is a seaside community in Mendocino County, on a remote strip of California Highway I, which is 115 miles north of San Francisco, through Santa Rosa. Marila now is custodian of her grandmother, Tom’s and my mother.”
This info on Tom was in the newspaper after his death. Born Nov. 14, 1951, Tom grew up in Arroyo Grande, where he spent his youth fishing in Lopez Creek and sneaking apples from local orchards. He moved to Ft. Bragg in the early 1980s and made a name for himself in the local gun-club community, winning several long-range shooting competitions and earning a reputation as a nice guy “that you didn’t want to mess with!,” joked his family.
He began his career in the flooring industry and would soon move to Gualala, becoming a staple in the community and laying carpet in many houses and businesses up and down the coast. He was a Harley-Davidson loving gun enthusiast and proud NRA member who loved the Lost Coast, spending hours working in his garden, growing “maters” or working in his shop where he learned to be a master woodworker and craftsman.
He is survived by his mother, Marilyn Welch; his brother, Steven Rhodes; his daughter, Marila Peoples; her children, Jonas and Mila; his chosen grandsons, River, Hunter and Hayden; and his friends Rick, Terry, Mike, Mary and Carol.
“He lived hard and loved harder,” said his family. “We will all miss him terribly but will always hold a fondness for his goofy quirks, horrible spelling and tender heart.”
Rhodes-Side Gleanings – Additional Info on Steve
Steve was born on Jan. 23, 1957, in California to Marilyn Welch, a good friend of one of my good friends, Rose Ann Ford, who lived in California. Rose Ann and I became friends in grade school, when our families came to St. Elmo during the Oil Boom. She and her family moved to Arkansas when we were high school freshmen. They later moved to California, but we kept in contact until she died from cancer several years ago.
Phil and I were married Feb. 6, 1949 and tried to start a family, but we were having no luck doing so. Rose Ann knew we were thinking about adopting a baby. When her friend Marilyn found out she was pregnant, she didn’t know if she would keep the baby or let it be adopted; she and Tom’s father were divorced and she wasn’t sure she could afford to raise her 4-year old son and another child.
We received a call from Rose Ann on Jan. 23, 1957, that Marilyn had had a son and would let us adopt him. Phil and I decided to name him Steven Earl. When Steve was 4 days old, Rose Ann brought him to the St. Louis Airport; we stayed at the airport until her flight returned to California.
Steve always knew he was adopted (when he was young, he thought that since he was born in California, his parents were movie stars!), but didn’t get to know his mother until 1988.
Rose Ann kept Marilyn informed about Steve and gave her pictures of him. Since Steve was married, I wrote Rose Ann asking if Marilyn would like to get in contact with Steve. I got a letter from Rose Ann in May 1988 and it enclosed a letter from Marilyn. My son, Steve, called me on Mother’s Day and before we finished talking, I told him about the letter from his birth mother and asked if he would like to get it. He said, “Yes,” so I mailed it to him the next day.
In the letter, Marilyn said she would like to hear from him. He called her. In August, he flew to California to meet her and visit with her; his wife Belinda was pregnant with their child and was unable to go with him. I am glad he got to visit with his mother and half-brother.
In May 1989, Marilyn visited with Steve and family at Richton Park and got to meet her granddaughter, Brittany, who was born on Dec. 22, 1988. They all came to visit with her for a couple of days; this was my first visit with Steve’s birth mother.
Over the years Steve has visited with Marilyn and Tom several times. In October 2001 Steve and I flew to California, and I stayed with a cousin (Bobby Blain of Visalia) at her beach house at Cayucos and he stayed at Marilyn’s who then lived at Arroyo Grande. Rose Ann and her husband Jack Scott lived in Portland, Ore., and came to visit with her sisters at Santa Maria and Santa Barbara and with me. She had developed cancer the year before but seemed to be doing OK. The day and night before we left California, I stayed at Marilyn’s and Tom was there. Over the years, I was with Marilyn twice and Tom once, and until the last few years (when Alzheimer’s took over) we exchanged Christmas cards.
 

Leave a Comment