In this writer’s opinion, The Marion Recreation Department has been one of the most significant factors if also one of the most unheralded— in the overall quality of life in Marion for the past 60 years. Marion is the only community in the immediate area to have a recreation department as a function of local government. Continue reading
Category Archives: All Marion Content
Bobby D. “Bob” Boyt was born April 2, 1939 in Marion to Jack Boyt and Amy Haesker Barnett. He married Emily Sue Bishop on September 19, 1998.
Bob graduated from Southern Illinois University with a degree in accounting.
He worked for GTE for 25 years. He was a priesthood member of the Community of Christ Church for 35 years and a member of the Marion Rotary Club and Paradise Alley Players. Continue reading
The following article was extracted from a Marion Living Magazine article written by Lila Colloton in April 2007 and describes one of the old eating institutions of Marion. Located for many years just outside the city limits of Marion next to the fair grounds on old route 13, the restaurant has certainly seen its share of history. Continue reading
Dr. Alonzo Newton Baker, M.D. was born May 28, 1904 at 1310 W. Main in Marion, Illinois to Dr. Virgil Baker and Nora L. Neber. Alonzo was likely named after his grandfather Alonzo P. Baker, civil war soldier and pioneer county doctor who helped influence the formation of early professional Southern Illinois medical care. Continue reading
Dr. Virgil Aaron Baker was born on April 3, 1876, in Grassy Precinct, Williamson County, Illinois. He was the son of Dr. Alonzo P. Baker and Martha Jane Matheney, and brother to Dr. Griffin J. Baker.
The 1880 census, found Virgil at the age of 4 living with his parents in Grassy Precinct of Williamson County where he was born, sharing space with five siblings. The Baker family lived in the very southwestern corner of the county, roughly where the southern tip of Devil’s Kitchen Lake is located now. Continue reading