 Friends and family said
Waldmire died peacefully in his sleep Wednesday morning.
For some months, Waldmire had been living near Rochester in a
converted school bus he used as a home while in central Illinois.
Waldmire said he had known he had cancer for nearly a decade, but he
refused any invasive procedures that would have prolonged his life
if it did it so at the expense of his philosophy of a simple and
natural life.
He spent much of this fall in the bus, lying on a couch and talking
with old friends. Many of them were his fellow Route 66 devotees who
came from hundreds of miles away Waldmire is no stranger to
Lincoln, having visited during the early stages of saving The Mill,
an iconic Route 66 structure that was close to being demolished.
Logan County tourism director Geoff Ladd added his thoughts on Waldmire:
"Bob was a great friend to The Mill restoration
project. He came over for one of our crucial statewide workdays a
couple years ago and got to meet a lot of our local volunteers. He
did a wonderful painting of The Mill for us, and he brought tasty
homemade cake for everyone. He was a down-to-earth guy, and you would
have never known if you met him that day how much of a celebrity he
was. He will be greatly missed."
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From the LDN archives:
http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/
2007/Jun/11/News/today061107_b.shtml
[Associated Press;
LDN]
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