Skip to content

St. Elmo News

ANNOUNCEMENTS
Wednesday, Nov. 30
• The St. Elmo Women’s Civic Club will decorate the Christmas tree at Friendship Manor Nursing Home.
Thursday, Dec. 1
• The St. Elmo Business Association, 12 noon, Mary Ann’s Restaurant.
• The St. Elmo Women’s Civic Club will meet at 5:30 p.m. at St. Mary’s Catholic Church to pool rides to the Vandalia Ponderosa for the club’s Christmas party, which will be held at 6 p.m. in the back room. Those attending are reminded to take canned foods for the Caring and Sharing program.
Saturday, Dec. 3
• St. Elmo’s Holiday Celebration will be from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. You can do holiday shopping, sign up for prize drawings and have refreshments from local businesses.
• Post-Polio Survivors and Friends of East Central Illinois, 11:30 a.m., Ryan’s Restaurant, Effingham.
• Royal Neighbors of America #5784 will have a catered dinner at noon at the First Church of God S.H.E.D. for those who have made reservations. Those attending are asked to take canned food or a new toy for the Caring and Sharing program and the St. Elmo Food Pantry.
• The St. Elmo High School Homecoming will be in the high school gym. The queen and king coronation is from 7-7:30 p.m., and is open to the public for a $1 admission fee.
Sunday, Dec. 4
• The St. Elmo Ministerial Alliance is sponsoring a community potluck dinner and birthday party for Jesus at 5 p.m. at the St. Elmo Elementary School. Anyone wishing to participate with special music or readings can contact one of the church ministers.
Monday, Dec. 5
• The St. Elmo City Council, 7 p.m., Phillips Building.
Tuesday, Dec. 6
• Friendly Neighbors potluck, noon, Phillips Building.
• The Council of Catholic Women, Christmas party at 5:30 p.m., Mary Ann’s Restaurant.
Wednesday, Dec. 7
• Wright’s Corner Unit of Home and Community Education.
• St. James Hornets 4-H Club, 7 p.m., Christmas party.
Those attending are to take an item for the Caring and Sharing, a gift for a gift exchange and finger food.
Thursday, Dec. 8
• The Lunch Bunch, noon, Mary Ann’s Restaurant. For a gift exchange, those attending are to take a $10 gift that will work for a man or woman.
• The St. Elmo Library District Board, 7 p.m., St. Elmo Public Library.
• The Effingham Chapter #110 Order of the Eastern Star, 7:30 p.m., Effingham Masonic Temple.
Thanksgiving Dinners
On Thanksgiving Day, turkey dinners with all the trimmings were delivered to shut-in or single people.
The plates were prepared at First Assembly of God Church.
Royal Neighbors of America furnished the turkey and vegetables, salads, rolls and desserts were furnished by the churches in the St. Elmo Ministerial Alliance.
In addition to First Assembly of God, they are First Church of God, First Baptist, First United Methodist, St. Elmo Christian, Freedom Reigns in Christ and St. Mary’s Catholic.
Historical Vandalia Inc.
The board of Historical Vandalia Inc. met the evening of Nov. 21 at the Fayette County Museum, with the following present:  President Steve Durbin, Betty Aderman, Donna Blair, Phil Shroyer and Mary Truitt, all of Vandalia; Jim Brewer of Ramsey; Marylyn Beyes of Smithboro; and Anna Jean Rhodes of St. Elmo.
It was reported that the museum had 285 registered visitors in October and surpassed the 169 visitors in October 2010.
Items donated to the museum since the last meeting totaled 21, including a box of old recipes. Also reported was that the potted plants in the garden have been taken inside and the main thing to do in the garden is dig the amaryllis.
Many compliments have been expressed on the “Season of Events” second feature – “The Koenig Family During World War II” given on Nov. 6 by Jerry Koenig of Chesterfield, Mo., who recounted the years his family struggled to escape the horrible conditions Jewish families suffered during the war.
The third and last feature of the 2011-12 “Season of Events” will be given at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Jan. 22, by Kevin Kaegy of Greenville, who will recount the formation of the Illinois 130th Infantry at Greenville in 1862 and its travel to Camp Butler, Vicksburg and much more.
This and the first event (“The Fall of the Sparrows: The Rev. Francis Springer and his Boatload of Orphans” given on Sept. 18) are in celebration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War.
The Jan. 22 program will be in the Vandalia First United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall.
In advance, single adult tickets are $13 and student tickets are $6.50 Tickets can be bought ahead of time at the museum at 301 W. Main St., Vandalia. The museum is open Monday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m., and on Sundays through December, 1-4 p.m.
Tickets can be purchased at the door for $15 for adults and $7.50 for students.
Christmas decorations at the museum were to be put up this week.
On Dec. 10, during the Christmas Open House at the Vandalia Statehouse, the museum be open from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Sidewalk “footprints” will lead the way from the Statehouse to the museum.
The board of Historical Vandalia, Inc. will not meet in December. The next regular meeting will be on Monday, Jan. 16, at 6:30 p.m. at the Fayette County Museum.
Rhodes-Side Gleanings
This year was the warmest Thanksgiving for many years. On the TV news several evenings prior to Thanksgiving, I heard the forecast for this Nov. 24.
A program told the year of the previous Thanksgiving that was in the 60s, and I think it was 1998.
When my daughter and family, Dr. Prentiss and Phyllis Lea, Soo Jin and Chae Rin, visited with me in October, she invited me to their Thanksgiving. I said, “If the weather permits.”
It was Thanksgiving on Nov. 27, 1980, that my diary shows that 8 inches of snow fell during the night.
I knew weather conditions could make travel too difficult, especially when you have to travel more than 200 miles, even on interstate highways, and October was too early to tell what would happen in November.
It was good that this year’s weather was great! I went to Green Oaks on Wednesday and returned back home on Friday. Green Oaks is about 30 miles north of O’Hare Airport. My son, Steve Rhodes of Chicago, came Thanksgiving Day.
Other guests for the Thanksgiving dinner were Norman and Linda Fu, Justin and Jessica of Libertyville, just west of Green Oaks. In addition to a 17-pound turkey, Phyllis served an appetizer plate with vegetables, shrimp and dip, cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, chicken and noodles, homemade cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole, apple salad that was made by Chae Rin, cole slaw that was made and brought by Steve and hot rolls. The dessert was pumpkin pies that were made by Chae Rin, who really likes to cook.
My daughter, who is a good cook, took after both her good-cooking grandmothers – Alice Rhodes always included chicken and noodles with the turkey dinner, and Mattie Bates always had cornbread dressing. .
Chae Rin and Jessica are good friends in the sixth grade, Soo Jin is an eighth-grader, and Justin is a freshman at the Libertyville High School.  
I am thankful my trip to and from Chicago was safe.
I am glad Friday’s gusty wind wasn’t worse because, in the van, I can feel the wind much more than when I had an automobile.
I hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving holiday with family and/or friends as I did.
An Addition to Rhode-Side Gleanings
My 13-year-old granddaughter, Soo Jin Lea of Green Oaks, had to make a poster featuring a war veteran.
She contacted her great uncle (my brother-in-law), Donald Rhodes of Arcola, by phone and also received a letter from him. He was born at St. Elmo on March 8, 1922, to Earl and Alice Rhodes.
When living in St. Elmo, he began his service in the Army Air Force in 1942 and was discharged as a first lieutenant (bomber pilot) in 1947. Don received his basic training at Kelly Field in Texas and was also stationed at Sheppard, Amarillo, Harlingen, Stanford, Enid, Lubbock, Smyrna, Garden City and Laredo Air Force Bases, as well as Lockheed Triangle Center.
While in the United States, Don received flight instructions, pilot training for B-24 and B-17 and flying training practices for bomber gunners.
While overseas, he was stationed at Itazuke Air Base on the Island of Kyushu. Don flew in and around Japan while taking over the country following the atomic bombing.
He lists “flying Army personnel over Nagasaki following the dropping of the atomic bomb” as one of his memorable wartime experiences.
He began construction work following his discharge in 1947 and worked at Ashland Oil and Refinery in St. Elmo. Don was employed at Petro Chemical (USI) from 1955 until his retirement in 1988.
His community service includes his activities in the Arcola Lions Club, Masonic Lodge, VFW and American Legion. He transferred his membership from the St. Elmo United Methodist Church in 1954 to the Arcola United Methodist Church.
His first wife, the former Phyllis Wentworth, is deceased. He now is married to the former Peggy Ashmore.
His children are Linda Rhodes McCollum Green, Donald K. Rhodes, Patricia Rhodes Sargent, Mike and Roger Ashmore, and Sherie Ashmore Hammond. There are 13 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
Earl and Alice Rhodes had three children: Zona Beck, who is deceased, then Don; then Phillip, my deceased husband.
Just recently, Don went on the veterans’ Honor Guard trip to Washington D.C.
 

Leave a Comment