 What it sounds like was a perfect evening at Latham Park as the
Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial 2009 Commission hosted a Thursday
evening celebration during Heritage Days.
Recent Lincoln High School graduates Tony Curcuru and Lincoln
Moore got the evening started by performing works from their speech
competitions, taking a minute to plug the Lincoln High School speech
team's successful year. Their performances were witty, well-done and
appreciated by the 100-plus people in attendance.
The Mary Todd Lincoln cake arrived along with ice cream. The
recipe for the cake is one of Mrs. Lincoln's. The ice cream social
was in full swing as emcee Charles Ott began the Lincoln and Mary
Todd Lincoln look-alike contest. Ott is well-known throughout
Illinois as Mr. Lincoln.
The only Mary Todd Lincoln contestant was Donna Daniels of
Wheaton. Beautifully dressed and presenting the audience with a
historically accurate picture of Mrs. Lincoln, she drew loud
applause from the audience.
Later when talking with Donna, I asked the question any woman
would be dying to ask. How many Mary Todd Lincoln dresses do you
have? "Too many, my husband would say," she laughed.
She and her husband, Max, who was in the Lincoln competition,
have been the Lincolns for 20 years.
"When we first started we had an agreement," she said. "Since he
only needed about three frock coats and six pairs of trousers, and
Mary Todd Lincoln … never had worn the same dress twice, I would
invest in gowns. Max needs to read new [material] published about
Lincoln, so he would invest in books."
The couple appears in Civil War re-enactments, at schools,
libraries, trade shows, conventions, and they have many speaking
engagements.
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Next up were the younger Lincolns, without beards. Colin Price of
San Jose, Stephen Oney and Ron Keller of Lincoln did the honors.
First place went to Stephen Oney. Stephen will be a freshman at LCHS
in the fall. He said when he moved to Lincoln he thought it was
interesting that he was living in Lincoln and going to school at
Washington. He will be representing the young Lincoln in 2009 and
joked that by then his 6-foot-1 frame might be 6-foot-4, Lincoln's
height. All the bearded Lincolns looked their part and had the
opportunity to share their thoughts as Lincoln. In that competition
were Gary Simpson of Heyworth, Lounn Pressnall of Forsyth, Robert
Rotgers of Wauwatosa, Wis., David Edwards of Lincoln and Daniels of
Wheaton. Pressnall placed third, Simpson second, with Max Daniels
placing first. He and Mrs. Daniels will represent the Lincolns
during all of Lincoln's bicentennial events.
The Postville Express, regular players at the Postville
Courthouse, provided rousing music to complete a pleasant evening in
the park, full of reminders that Lincoln, Ill., has a connection to
the 16th president that no other community can claim. It had to do
with naming a town and the juice of a watermelon, but that's another
story.
[Diane
Logsdon]
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