Legendary Locals of Decatur

1971.

INTRODUCTION

Decatur is often portrayed as a city with an inferiority complex, perhaps because it is not Springfield, which is the state capital, or Champaign, which has the University of Illinois, or Bloomington, which has Illinois State University. All of those communities are within 50 miles.

But Huey Freeman is one who steadfastly believes Decatur should apologize for nothing. Decatur is a city with a tremendous heart and soul, he said. It’s filled with self-sacrificing people. There is no town I’ve ever been around that has so many people willing to volunteer their time and energy to help people they don’t even know.

In this book, Freeman has tackled the daunting task of delivering the tale of 130 local legends in words and pictures. What made it daunting was not in finding 100-plus worthy people; it was in limiting his search to so few.

I’ve learned that our greatest resource is our people, he said. I grew up in Chicago and have lived in beautiful places on the West Coast. But I don’t want to live there. I want to live in Central Illinois where people like this make up the community.

People like this are mostly the men and women Freeman has learned about during his 15 years as a reporter for the Herald & Review daily newspaper in Decatur. He began covering city hall and has been on the police beat since 2009.

That brought him in touch with many of the people who have made a difference in the Decatur area, including an appreciation for the selfless people who toil in the area of law enforcement.

He is also grateful to have learned about firefighters, artists, religious leaders, business difference-makers, sports heroes, educators, entertainment and media figures, and a few he categorizes simply as inspiring people.

But never is Freeman more moved than when confronted with any man or woman whose life has included service in the military, and, in Central Illinois, he has uncovered a treasure trove of genuine American heroes.

I grew up in Chicago in a Jewish neighborhood, which had many Holocaust survivors, Freeman said. Almost all of my friends, their dads were World War II veterans. I’ve always had this fascination with World War II. I realized since I was a child that the men who fought in that war saved the world from a brutal form of absolute tyranny.

That led to an insatiable hunger to learn about World War II, especially in Europe, even though Freeman’s own father had served in the Pacific.

In many ways, Freeman’s father embodies the qualities that his son finds so endearing with many of the individuals profiled in this book. That starts with the concept of humility.

Freeman’s father never talked much about his own military service. Not until the late 1980s did he chronicle his own career in a 12-page, handwritten document he penned as a gift to his two sons.

It was almost like he was writing about someone else, Freeman said of the narrative he holds among his dearest possessions. It showed his humble character.

His father was on Iwo Jima for seven months, working as an Army radar operator on Mount Suribachi and later at an airfield to the north. That he survived such an historic battle and never really talked about it is the kind of hidden valor Freeman is drawn to.

That is why among the Decatur veterans he has chosen to profile are Bob Harmon, a hospital corpsman with the Marines who served on Iwo Jima and walked from that epic battlefield with just one shrapnel wound to his arm; Darrell Gene Alcorn, a 140-pound, 18-year-old Marine who fought through bitter cold and long odds in the famous battle of the Chosin Reservoir in Korea; and Robert Robertson, who was an 18-year-old student at Decatur’s Millikin University when he was drafted into the Army and who played an important role in the atom bomb project that helped end World War II. Robertson’s name was etched into the nose cone of the bomb that hit Hiroshima.

In addition to using his eloquent words to tell these many stories, Freeman has taken about 70 of the photographs. They serve as stories in their own right, drawing on inspiration from Morrie Camhi, his photography teacher at City College of San Francisco. Morrie was the first teacher who lifted me up and encouraged me by saying I had some special talent, Freeman said.

Even before he decided to pursue a writing career, Freeman has always embraced a love of reading. So it comes from a position of knowledge that he hopes to bring honor to the people whose stories make up this book.

These are people whose stories are as great as any story I’ve ever read, he said. I’m excited to be able to help tell their stories because I want people to know Decatur is a tremendous place with tremendous people.

—Mark Tupper

CHAPTER ONE

Veterans and

Service Members

On April 23, 2003, traffic came to a standstill along Decatur’s two main arteries, Routes 36 and 51, as thousands of people stood alongside the roadways, some holding American flags and Marine Corps banners. Many saluted or placed hands over their hearts as the hearse slowly passed, carrying the remains of 30-year-old Pvt. Jonathan Lee Gifford. The Decatur native joined the Marines after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and was killed at the start of the Iraq War, when his armored assault vehicle was demolished by an artillery shell.

The outpouring of support for the first local fatality of the post-9/11 wars was indicative of the deep respect Decatur residents hold for service members and veterans. There was a similar show of appreciation for Army Cpl. Karen Clifton, 22, a military police officer who died in Iraq in 2007, and Army Sgt. Jesse Tilton, a 23-year-old medic killed in Afghanistan in 2010, during his second deployment. Decatur area service members have distinguished themselves in two World Wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and in many other conflicts around the globe. In addition to serving in every regular service branch, many men and women have served in Decatur-based units of the Illinois Army National Guard, the Army Reserve, and the Naval Reserve.

World War II veterans have been showered with attention in recent years. There has been tremendous community support for Honor Flights, which have been flying remaining members of the Greatest Generation to Washington, DC, to see the National World War II Memorial and other monuments. The veterans have been greeted by adoring crowds as they disembark from buses at the end of their journeys.

Joined Marines after September 11

The Iraq War had just begun when Vicky J. Langley received word that her only child, Pvt. Jonathan Gifford, 30, was missing in action. Nineteen days later, she received a visit from four Marines at her east side home. The visitors, including a chaplain and a casualty officer, told her that Johnny’s remains were found in an amtrak, an armored amphibious assault vehicle in southern Iraq. Gifford, who left behind a four-year-old daughter, Lexie, was older than most of his fellow Marines. He was 28 years old when he enlisted, a few weeks after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. A 1991 graduate of Stephen Decatur High School, Gifford had dreamed of becoming a Marine since he was a teen. He served as a rifleman in the 1st Battalion, 2nd Regiment, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, which suffered many casualties as one of the first ground units to invade Iraq in March 2003. Gifford, a former construction worker who liked to fish and play pool, was known by friends and family members as someone who would help anyone he could and loved children. He believed in the mission to remove Saddam Hussein from power because of his cruel treatment of the Iraqi people. At his funeral at Maranatha Assembly of God, attended by 400 people, a Navy chaplain said that Johnny had two families, the one in Decatur and his fellow Marines. When he called home, he liked to put his squad members on the phone so they would get to know each other. The chaplain said Gifford was willing to lay down his life for his friends and that Marines made the world a richer place because of their willingness to sacrifice themselves. Without that, you wouldn’t get into an amtrak and ride into harm’s way, the chaplain said. John Gifford keeps a photograph of his martyred son on the counter of his Decatur establishment, the Rendezvous Bar and Grill. (Courtesy of John Gifford.)

Preserving Peace

During his 32 years serving on the Decatur Police Department, Harold Miller did not even tell people he had been in the military.

He believed the best policy was to forget about the horrors he witnessed as a Marine fighting on Iwo Jima. But, more than 60 years later, Miller decided to speak publicly about his experiences, because he believed others could benefit from his story of divine protection. Shortly before boarding a ship laden with five Sherman tanks for the voyage to Iwo Jima, Miller, who had no faith experience before that, knelt in a small church in Hawaii and said, God, I don’t know who you are, you probably don’t know who I am, but I would appreciate it if you would help me through the situation. Miller believes he survived Iwo Jima, which cost the lives of 5,400 Marines, because his prayer was answered. A member of the Fifth Tank Battalion, Fifth Marine Division, Miller was constantly exposed to enemy fire as he served in a reconnaissance group. The three Marines carried a radio to front lines alongside infantrymen, then called in tank shelling and flame-throwing at enemy pillboxes, caves, and tunnels. Miller was on the eight-square-mile Japanese home island when five members of the Fifth Marine Division and a Navy hospital corpsman raised the US flag on Mount Suribachi, an event that would become the iconic image of the war. Miller, who