The following compilation consists of three articles describing Homer Butler and lastly, his obituary. Two articles were large, front page stories that were issued on the day of Homer’s death. The last article was composed by Pearl Roberts and printed in the 1989 Williamson County Sesquicentennial book commemorating the people, places and events of the county.
Even today, as I work on this website trying to document as much as Marion’s history as I can, I feel like I am working in the shadow of Homer. Many of the articles on this site are extracted from his columns and were it not for him, a great deal of Marion history would be considerably harder to find or lost completely. Thanks, Homer.
Homer Butler Dies at Age 77, Marion Daily Republican, May 25, 1982
Homer Butler, long time Marion journalist and politician, died Monday evening at Marion Memorial Hospital following an extended illness.
Butter, 77, worked for the Marion Dally Republican for over 60 years, as a reporter, city editor and even paper carrier in his youth.
His weekly column, “Glances at Life” won numerous awards and was one of the most well-read items ever to appear in the Daily Republican.
At the time of his retirement from the Daily Republican, on January 10, 1961, Homer Butler looked back on his years at the newspaper. “I started selling newspapers as a boy on Nov 9, 1918. I remember the date because a false armistice has been declared for World War I and I sold newspapers like mad. A couple of years later when they ended the war again, I sold the newspapers all over again.”
When he graduated from high school in 1923, he became a full time reporter with the Republican.
Butler left Marion for about a year to attend Illinois College in Jacksonville. When he returned to the area, he went back to his newspaper job and took night courses at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
His interest in politics began in the 1930s when he served two terms on the Marion High School Board of Education.
Following a stint on the Marion City Council, he was elected to the Illinois House of Representatives. In 1944, he won a seat in the Illinois Senate. Altogether he spent 16 years in the two houses of the Illinois General Assembly.
Butler resigned as news editor of the Daily Republican during his last year to the legislature but he continued to write his “Glances at Life” column.
He returned to the newspaper fulltime in 1964 as a reporter. He often said he never had any real conflicts between journalism and politics, two areas commonly thought of as adversarial.
“I’ve enjoyed both.” he was quoted as saying just prior to his retirement. “I got into one because of the other. Politics was an outgrowth of newspaper work. I got Interested at local government through newspaper coverage of the city council and the school board.”
Numerous honors and awards have been bestowed on Homer Butler over the years.
In 1978 he received a Certificate of Merit from United Press International for his column.
He also received a distinguished service award from the Williamson County Historical Society. Williamson County Circuit Judges presented him with a bronze plaque in appreciation at the time of his retirement.
In 1977 he was awarded Marion’s highest honor when he was named “Man of the Year” by the Greater Area Marion Area Chamber of Commerce.
A member of the Marion Lions club for over 40 years, the club annually presents the Homer Butler Journalism Award.
Since his retirement, the new Marion Housing Authority Hi-Rise has been named the “Homer M. Butler Hi-Rise”.
Butler’s journalism career was not limited to newspaper alone. He had a regular 15 minute news program on Harrisburg station WEBQ for 20 years, beginning in 1937.
The interest in politics runs in the Butler family as his son, Bob, has been mayor of Marion for many years.
Also surviving is another son, Bill, and his wife of over 55 years, Eva. He also had four grandchildren and one great-grandson.
Funeral services will be held at Mitchell Hughes and Lemasters, Thursday, at 2 p.m. Visitation will be at the funeral home Wednesday from 5-9 p.m.
Public Figures, City Officials Praise Butler, Marion Daily Republican, April 25, 1982, by Vince Hoffard and Jim Kirkpatrick
Praise from throughout southern Illinois was expressed today upon the news of the death of former Marion politician and Daily Republican city editor Homer Butler. Friends Butler made to his 60 years as a reporter and political figure in Marion. Williamson County and throughout the state showered the man with favorable comments.
Sam Hancock, United Press International correspondent from the Marion bureau, said he had deep respect for Butler. “In all my experience I have never seen one newsman with his hand on the pulse of a town and a community like Homer Butler. If there was something going on, Homer knew about it,” Hancock said.
Hancock was stationed in the same building with Butler in 1956 when he became the United Press correspondent in Marion; however, he said he met the highly decorated reporter prior to 1966 when they were both covering major news events.
“In all my years in journalism I have never encountered a more respected newsman than Homer Butler” Hancock said.
Ed Soldner was a co-worker with Butler at the Daily Republican in the late 1920’s. Soldner worked side-by-side with Butler until he retired in the mid 1970’s. “He was one of the best reporters the Marion Daily Republican ever had. He gained a lot of fame and notoriety from his radio program, too,” Soldner said. “He was a good man to work with. Oldham Paisley (former Daily Republican owner) considered Homer and me to be part of his family.”
Larry Perrotto, publisher of the Marion Daily Republican and the West Frankfort Daily American, said Butler was a true professional in his field and was valuable to the community.
“Homer Butler was not only a professional journalist and a valued member of the newspaper and community, but also a force for good in Marion.” Perrotto said.
Stan Meyer, the current general manager of the Daily Republican, was deeply saddened by the death of Butler.
Marion has lost a great citizen. He will be missed by all. His contributions to Marion will be long remembered. Home was not only a great journalist but a tremendous human being… a person who was respected by all his peers.
“In my eight years with the Marion Daily, Homer Butler was not only an employee, but he was also a very close friend. When I joined the organization, Homer took it upon himself to teach me about this business as much as he possibly could.”
U. S. Rep. Paul Simon, Makanda, said he had known Butler for close to 30 years, and they became friends when they were both serving in the Illinois General Assembly in the mid-1960s. “I never have known a more dedicated citizen than Homer Butler,” Simon said. “When we were in the House, much of the politics of Southern Illinois was known for its corruption. He stood as a good example; I have never known a more honest man.”
Simon said with Butler’s death Southern Illinois has lost one of its finest citizens.
Marion attorney August L. “Gus” Fowler first got to know Butler in the 1920’s and they both served on the old Marion Township High School Board of Education in the 1930s. “If anyone was entitled to the term gentleman, he was that person,” Fowler said. “I have never known anyone I had more confidence in than Homer Butler.”
Before Fowler began practicing law, he worked at a reporter for the old Marion Evening Post covering the Herrin riot trials and later at the Marion Daily Republican, where he got to know Butler.
“Everything Homer did, he did it in a unique way,” Fowler said.
Illinois House of Representatives member C.L. McCormick, R-Vienna, served with Butler in state government. “Homer Butler was a good legislator. He was honest, sincere and did his homework. No one ever tried to change his mind on a bill. Homer would have his mind made up as to what was right and he wouldn’t change his opinion. If Homer told you he would do something, you could consider it done. You could count on his word. His word was good.”
“Homer never got excited about anything. He was always calm. He was a pleasure to work with,”
McCormick said one of the most impressive facts about Butler was the massive audiences his radio program attracted in the 1930s, 1940s and 1960s “Everyone in the country listened to Homer Butler on the radio at 4:16,” McCormick said.
Illinois State Senate member Gene Johns, R-Marion, said the community has lost a great leader.
“I do everything in the Senate to see that the gentleman is honored admirably and appropriately. I am saddened by his death. He was a good man. I had a lot of respect and deep admiration for him.”
Both Johns and McCormick said they would introduce resolutions to have Butler honored by both the Illinois Senate and the House of Representatives.
Marion attorney Kenneth Powless said with Butler’s death he feels a personal loss. “I had known him ever since I was a boy and worked as a substitute carrier at the paper,” Powless said.
However, Powless said the real loss is for the community.
“Homer was a true technician at the newspaper,” he said. “You could always confide in him.”
Marion businessman Bob Bradley said for natives of Marion, Homer Butler’s death is the end of an era.
“He was a man whose integrity and honesty made him a legend,” Bradley said. “Every man and woman knew him or knew of him, and not once during the 77 years he lived and worked this area did we think badly of him or fail to trust his judgment.”
Bradley said Butler was “a hero of today and a living example for the young men who are the hope of tomorrow.”
Homer Butler, Written by Pearl Roberts, published in the 1989 Sesquicentennial History
“Homer Butler had worked for the Marion Daily Republican for 63 years when he resigned in January, 1981. In the book ‘Oldham Paisley: Community Editor and His Newspapers’ written by Margaret N. O’Shea, it is mentioned that Homer was already working there as City Editor when he was a high school student.
At his retirement he had spent almost his entire life in the newspaper business. He started selling newspapers on November 9, 1918, and at the time of his resignation he reminisced, “I remember the date because a false Armistice had been declared for WWI and I sold newspapers like mad. And a couple of days later when the war ended—again—I sold papers all over again.” From that day he went from newsboy to a part time sportswriter for the newspaper. Sometime in 1923 after graduation from high school, he went from sportswriter, to a full time reporter for the Marion paper.
He left Marion for about a year while he attended Illinois College at Jacksonville, Illinois, and then he returned to his newspaper job. He completed his education by attending courses at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, and by also working at his newspaper job.
It was in the 1930’s that his interest in politics grew. In that period he served two terms on the Marion High School Board of Education. In 1939 he was elected to the Marion City Council and thereafter from 1939 to 1942 was on the Marion City Council. From 1939 to 1944 he served in the Illinois House of Representatives and in 1944 he won a seat in the Illinois Senate, spending sixteen years altogether in the Illinois legislature.
He resigned as news editor of the Marion Daily Republican during his last year in the legislature, but he continued to write his daily column which appeared in the Marion papers owned by the Paisleys under the heading “Glances at Life.” He returned to the newspaper in 1968 as a full time employee. He said he never felt any conflict between journalism and politics, and was quoted in the newspaper as saying. “Politics was an outgrowth of newspaper work. I got interested in local government through the newspaper coverage of the City Council and the School Board.”
To older citizens of Marion the Daily Republican was synonymous with Homer Butler, for he was a radio broadcaster on Station WEBQ in Harrisburg beginning in 1937 and continuing for twenty years. In those years one often heard area residents say “I have to get home to hear Homer Butler. I never miss that.”
Homer was a member of the Marion Lions Club for over forty years and that club presents the Homer Butler Journalism Award annually in his honor. He was also an elder in the First Christian Church of Marion. He received many awards during his lifetime, including a Certificate of Merit in 1978 from United Press International for his column. Circuit Judges in the circuit presented him with a bronze plaque in appreciation of his years of accurate reporting of judicial matters in the newspaper, and the Marion Chamber of Commerce named him Man of the Year in 1977.
According to a column written by him in 1973 when the WEBQ station observed its golden anniversary, Homer wrote: “WEBQ was licensed September 1, 1923, after having been an amateur station for the previous five years, and for years afterward it was the only station in the area. When it introduced its Marion hour, mail came from Kentucky and Indiana, an indication of the wide coverage Homer’s news program received. The Daily Republican featured Homer’s news reports on the radio at 4:15 each weekday afternoon.
The writer’s acquaintance with Homer Butler began about the time that the county offered to the Williamson County Historical Society the old County Jail building, with the provision that if the Society was able to open a Museum to the general public within a five-year period, they would give a warranty deed to the property to the Historical Society. We met the challenge and beat the deadline, thanks to loyal friends like Homer Butler and others. As long as Homer continued to write for the paper we could depend upon generous publicity and his help in our efforts to collect and preserve items of historical interest and importance to our county. The public was informed of events scheduled, and his column often devoted information on our programs and research he had done which we preserved in our files and today find extremely valuable.
His articles represented a “gold mine” of information on the county’s early years of our history. He reviewed books we had reprinted which not only acquainted citizens with Williamson County’s early history, but helped us with the upkeep of the Museum, which is entirely dependent upon that source of income plus donations from the public. His help was vital to us in those first years, and before his death the Society honored him with a special program in appreciation. The collection of stories that Homer wrote form an important section of our records, much of which might have been lost but for Homer’s hard work and time involved as he “dug out” the stories of those long-ago years. This was, of course, a “labor of love” for Homer Butler, since his own family dates back to an early period in Marion’s history, just as that of his wife, the former Eva Clarida’s does. His youngest son, Bill, is a business man in Marion today, and his other son. Bob Butler, has been Marion’s mayor for almost thirty years, as well as having practiced law in Marion for a great many years.
Homer stated that Bob, as mayor, consciously refrained from giving his father any advantage in covering local government.
Butler also added to our knowledge of the past and saved our small staff countless hours of painstaking research which every year becomes more difficult as records may be lost or as knowledgeable citizens are no longer with us. Our library files at the Museum contain copies of some of his columns which cover subjects that would be lost but for his meticulous research and generosity in sharing it.
Would you like to know more about the old courthouses in Marion? About Marion’s military band? Or the premiums at the Williamson County Fair in 1877? Or Ray Miller’s record of having attended 85 yearly fairs in Marion? Or the Stone Memorial Trust Fund? The cholera epidemic in the county in 1866? The Marion State and Savings Bank of 1914? When Marion began its yearly observance of Memorial Day? Homer wrote about all those subjects and hundreds more, and Ethel Ashby, the long time curator of the Williamson County Historical Society, preserved much of the information contained by cutting out many of Homer’s columns, “Glances at Life”, for the museum files. And, until the very last day of his employment, Homer Butler continued to visit the County Courthouse daily and to write in his column items about our local history. On the day of his retirement at the newspaper, at the age of 70, his column dealt with the training of men for law enforcement in Marion and the county. Perhaps his interest in city government and in law enforcement was deep because he loved Marion and never wanted to move elsewhere than the place where his ancestor, surveyor Henry Perry, laid out the lots for the establishment of the Marion Square a hundred and fifty years ago when Williamson County was created from the southern half of Franklin County.”
Homer Butler Obituary, Marion Daily Republican, May 26, 1982
Homer M Butler, 77, a lifetime resident of Marion and former city editor of the Marion Daily Republican as well as area politician, died at 7:03 p.m. Monday at Marion Memorial Hospital.
He was born Oct. 15, 1904 in Marion to the late William and Ada Reed Butler. He was married to the former Eva M. Clarida on March 21, 1926 in McLeansboro and the survives.
Mr. Butler also is survived by two sons Robert L. Butler and Bill Butler, both of Marion; four grandchildren, Mrs. Gary (Cathy) Carruthers of Godfrey, Dick Butler of Marion, Jeff Butler of San Fransisco, Calif., and Beth Butler, Marion; one great-grandson Andrew Kyle Carruthers of Godfrey, and one brother, Berl Butler of Canton, Ohio.
A retired newspaperman by trade, Mr. Butler also served in the lllinois General Assembly for 16 years. He was an active and lifetime member of the Marion Lions Club and was an elder at the Marion First Christian Church.
Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at Mitchell, Hughes, and Lemasters with Dr. Ron Sanders and the Rev. Carl Hearn officiating. Burial will be in the Rose Hill Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesday at the funeral home
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the First Christian Church.
Sam’s Notes:
Eva M. (Clarida) Butler, age 93, died at 7:24 p.m. July 31, 2000, at Marion Memorial Hospital.
She was a homemaker and very active in activities at her church, First Christian Church-Disciples of Christ in Marion. She was a lifetime member of Marion Memorial Hospital Auxiliary and was active in the Marion Womans Club.
She was born in Marion October 11, 1906, to J. H. and Mary M. (Sanders) Clarida. She married Homer M. Butler on March 21, 1926, in Murphysboro.