The Way We Were
25 Years Ago
1989 – CPR administered by Mulberry Grove health instructor Kathy Lappe and junior-senior high Principal Bill Donaldson saved the life of 15-year-old student Tracy Goodin, who had quit breathing after choking on food or suffering some type of seizure during lunch hour.
St. Elmo cable subscribers voiced complaints about a rate adjustment and poor reception to Warner Cable Communications Inc. personnel at a town meeting.
Gene Eberhardt of Mattoon, 79-year-old chairman of First National Bank of Mulberry Grove, thwarted an attempted robbery at his bank, telling the would-be-robber to “get out now” or “go out on a cot.”
Bill Payne was the DAR winner at Patoka High School.
Chosen as directors of the Vandalia Chamber of Commerce were Tom Wright, Bill Bruenderman, Tom Epplin, Pete Barbuto and Todd McKellar.
35 Years Ago
1979 – Miss Fayette County Fair Micki Brown competed this week in Springfield with 54 other county fair queens for Miss Illinois County Fair.
Rick Eyman and Randy Straub, Vandalia Jaycees, presented a check for $633 to a Decatur field worker for the fight against MS.
Simmons and Forsch were to highlight the Cardinal Caravan scheduled to attend the Chamber of Commerce luncheon Jan. 24.
About 250 farmers were present for the Agronomy Day program sponsored by Fayette County Agricultural Association under the supervision of Joe Faggetti on Tuesday.
Slick streets were blamed for many accidents – street crews were doing a good job on downtown streets and the children had a ball making snowmen.
Attorney David Miller returned to Vandalia to take a post with the Martin J. Corbell Law Firm.
Monday night the Vandalia City Council approved a contract with International Systems an Atlanta, Ga., firm, that had two years been helping the city obtain federal grants.
James Jackson, head of Farmers and Merchants Bank, announced that the collecting of $9,500 for the city beautification had reached the halfway mark.
Doyet Davis of Ramsey planned to turn hills into home sites in the Ramsey Area.
45 Years Ago
1969 – Newly elected officers of Progressive Merchants Association were: Robert Cearlock, president; Dick Eckhardt, vice president; Betty Kringer, secretary; and LaVerle Knebel, treasurer.
Cutbacks in many extracurricular activities in the Vandalia School Unit were ordered Tuesday night by the Vandalia Board of Education.
Three Fayette County drafters Joseph P. Harner II, Stephen D. Evans and Rodger E. Naab, left Jan. 9 for basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.
Jockey license was issued to Barbara Rubin, granddaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Wehrle, Mulberry Grove. She was the first female to hold such a license.
55 Years Ago
1959 – Jaycees and their bosses heard George M. Penwell, secretary of Mattoon Chamber of Commerce; tell what Mattoon has done and what Vandalia could do.
Statistics showed 200 more births than deaths in Fayette County last year.
Harry Walton Jr. signed a lease and planned to operate the Dair-I-King. Owner was L.K. Langston.
Jerome Harper of Mulberry Grove received National Corn Growing honor and went to Kansas City.
65 Years Ago
1949 – Ben Perkins was elected head of Vandalia Chamber of Commerce. He succeeded Harry Rogier.
Supervisors raised the salary of two janitors at the courthouse from $125 to $140 per month.
The supervisors voted a $300,000 road bond issue.
According to a report from Eugene Crane, the Okaw flood waters covering the bottoms between the two levees for the past several days, due to the recent snow and rains, subsided Saturday night.
75 Years Ago
1939 – Twenty-seven and one-half tons of foodstuffs were being distributed to the needy by the Illinois Emergency Relief Commission.
A Chicago man and his daughter were taken into custody, charged with attempting to kidnap the 6-ear-old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Same Nations of Farina.
Keen interest was being shown in many communities of Fayette County concerning proposed electric service for the farmers of the county.
L.E. Wilson moved his abstract office the Farmers & Merchants Bank Building.