Jeff Rankin: John Lugg Monmouth’s memorable mortician
Jeff Rankin
The Rankin File
For most of us, the profession of funeral director may seem dreary or even macabre, and conjure up the image of a polite but morose individual.
Although his name might have reflected those characteristics, longtime Monmouth mortician John Lugg would never have been described in those terms. Upon his death in 1951, he was celebrated as one of the city’s most engaged and engaging characters an erudite, colorful gentleman who was beloved by all.
While he took great pride in his profession, John Lugg did not start out to become a funeral director, and the scope of his interests went far, far beyond his North Main Street funeral home.
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Monmouth airport hangar rebuilding moves forward
By Jane Carlson
For the Review Atlas
MONMOUTH A year and a half after Monmouth’s municipal airport hangar burned to the ground, the rebuilding process is moving forward.
The fire that broke out on Oct. 24, 2019, destroyed the hangar, an adjacent office, and eight planes, causing more than $1 million in damages.
“We immediately retained our airport engineering firm to start to move forward with the design and location of the new hangar,” said city administrator Lew Steinbrecher.
Those plans were approved last week by the Division of Aeronautics at the Illinois Department of Transportation, after delays related to staffing issues on the state’s end and COVID-19.
Jeff Rankin: Beloved veterinarian played Santa for decades
By Jeff Rankin
The Rankin File
Dr. Vird Odell Cudd had as many vocations as Forrest Gump, working as a circus performer, professor, veterinarian, would-be sheriff, philanthropist and elephant caretaker, but his favorite role by far was Santa Claus.
When the colorful longtime Monmouth resident died in 1964 at the age of 88, “Doc” Cudd was beloved by generations of local children for donning an increasingly threadbare red suit and jingling sleigh bells year after year, a tradition he began in 1897 at the age of 22.
Perhaps it was Cudd’s birth, a week before Christmas in a South Carolina snowstorm, that inspired his passion. It was “the worst snow and windstorm ever to hit that state,” he once quipped, “but the doctor still had to run 20 miles to catch me.”