Veterans and their families gathered at the Decatur Civic Center Saturday for a Vietnam Veterans Recognition Day with special guest speaker, Iraq War veteran and retired Staff Sgt. Shilo Harris.
Steve Tarter / WCBU
Small towns across the country looking to brand their community have learned the importance of recalling hometown heroes.
In Illinois, Eureka celebrates the fact that movie actor and former president Ronald Reagan attended college there while Springfield has long been identified as the home of Abraham Lincoln.
Famous authors are also recalled. Hannibal, Mo. has developed its tourism campaign as the boyhood home of Mark Twain.
Laura Ingalls Wilder, author of “The Little House on the Prairie” series, is honored in five different states with museums or little-house replicas. You can find places to visit in Mansfield, Mo., Walnut Grove, Minn., Pepin, Wis., De Smet, S.D. and Independence, Kan. Towns like Chester in southern Illinois, where Elzie Crisler Segar was raised, honor the comic-strip artist s creation, Popeye, with statues all over town of Popeye, Olive Oyl, Bluto and the whole gang.