1975, Actor John Wayne Visits Marion

Could It Be? Yes! It’s THE John Wayne

They tried to keep it quiet, but word got out quickly. John Wayne was in Marion. THE John Wayne. Duke. Movie STAR John Wayne. Drawl and all. Handing out pre-printed “autographs.”

Wayne and four business associates flew from Chicago to the Williamson County Airport Thursday morning to check out the possibility of locating a coal gasification plant in Southern Illinois. Continue reading

1974, Marion Annexes Over 500 Acres Including East Lawn Cemetery

Council Votes to Add Area West to Rt. 148

The Marion city Council Monday night accepted the grant of Egyptian Memorial Gardens Cemetery on Route 148 five miles from downtown Marion, and initiated steps to annex territory to include the cemetery and most of the Williamson County Airport nearby.

Councilmen voted to accept a deed to the cemetery property from Woodrow Dann, Carterville Rt. 2, who has operated for the last 17 years the perpetual care cemetery which was established in the 1930’s. Continue reading

1974, Girls Want to Play Basketball

Girls Want to Play Basketball 0ct 29 1974Girls Want to Play Basketball

This group of elementary school girls and their mothers gathered in protest outside the Logan School gym Monday afternoon, October 28, 1974, while tryouts for boy’s basketball teams were being held inside.

The mothers said the demonstration was arranged to protest the lack of similar athletic programs for girls. They said their daughters had been barred from tryouts. They said the board of education was sympathetic. Continue reading

1974, The Cold Case Murder of Dr. Donald Ripley

On December 4, 1974, Dr. Ripley’s chiropractic office at 1825 W. Main Street was full of patients awaiting treatment. At 9:30, an hour after the office should have opened, an unanswered telephone prompted one of the patients to answer it. Upon opening a hallway door he discovered the body of Dr. Donald Ripley. Ripley had been shot seven times with a .45 caliber hand gun. Most of the efforts to uncover his murderer centered around a mysterious, well-dressed black man, but his killer was never found and remains one of Marion’s cold cases to this day.  Continue reading

1976, Former Marion High School Athletic Greats

This list of former Marion High School athletic greats was published in the Bi-Centennial Edition of the Daily Republican in 1976. It was created from the memories of the public at large and is in no way encyclopedic or complete, but serves as a reminder that Marion High has nurtured many great athletes in its past.   Continue reading