Released - August 19, 2010

EC Students To Portray Figures From Eureka’s Past In Sept. 12 Cemetery Walk

Aug. 25 auditions also open to community members

The Eureka College Theater Department and the Woodford County Historical Society will hold their third annual cemetery walk from 2 to 4 p.m. Sept. 12 at Olio Township Cemetery, 1015 S. Main St., Eureka. The rain date is Sept. 19.

Eureka College students and community members will portray figures from Eureka’s past.

The actors will have researched the figures and will be costumed in keeping with the figures’ time periods.

For the first time, auditions will be open to community members, according to Eureka College theater professor Holly Rocke. Auditions will be from 6 to 9 p.m. Aug. 25 in Pritchard Theatre.           

Rocke is asking family members of the historical figures to get involved, too.

“Besides having Eureka College students and community members participate, we also are asking the families of these historic individuals if they are interested in auditioning or contributing to the script-writing process,” Rocke said. Those interested may contact Rocke at (309) 467-6580.

The historical figures who will be portrayed include:

- Abashai Myers, who in 1847 helped found the school that became Eureka College.
- Basel Meek, a Civil War veteran.
- Henry Robinson, a Goodfield cattle baron who died in1886. His tombstone is the tallest in the cemetery.
- William Wyrick, a constable who was killed in an accident at the city water works in 1909.
- Wilford Rosborough, who died in an influenza epidemic in 1918 three days before his wife died, leaving a 2-week-old child. 
- Stephen Binkley, who graduated from Eureka College in 1934, was a member of the research team that received a Nobel Prize for discovering vitamin K and folic acid and then was a chemistry professor at Eureka College from 1972 to 1985.
- Genevieve Langston, who graduated from Eureka College in 1938, taught education at the college from 1965 to 1977 and was the wife of Eureka College president Ira Langston.                                                                                                        
- Royal Humbert, a religion and philosophy professor at Eureka College from 1948 to1975.

Members of the Eureka College Circle K Club will be greeters at the cemetery gates and will distribute programs and maps to the gravesites.

There is no admission fee, but donations to the historical society will be accepted.

For more information, contact Holly Rocke or historical society member Karen Fyke at (309) 467-4525.

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Contact:

Michele Lehman

Media Relations Coordinator

mlehman@eureka.edu

(309) 467-6318