Wayman Presley
   HOME
*





Wayman Presley
Wayman Presley (1896–1990) was an American rural mail carrier in Makanda, Illinois. He was the principal founder, organizer, and inspiration behind the construction of the Bald Knob Cross of Peace in Alto Pass, Illinois. He was featured on Ralph Edwards's TV show '' This Is Your Life'' in April 1955. After retiring from the Postal Service, he started a multi-million dollar tourism company. He is remembered as a humanitarian, an entrepreneur, and a tireless promoter of Southern Illinois. Early life Wayman Presley was born July 15, 1896, in Cobden, Illinois. He was the oldest of seven children in the family of sharecroppers Jim and Gertie Presley. Following eighth grade, Presley attended Southern Illinois Normal College in Carbondale, Illinois. Following college, he became a grade school teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in 1915. In November 1917, Presley joined the United States Air Corps. He worked as a rigger at a Royal Air Force field in Scotland until his return to the United S ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

This Is Your Life (American Franchise)
''This Is Your Life'' is an American reality documentary series broadcast on NBC radio from 1948 to 1952, and on NBC television from 1952 to 1961. It was originally hosted by its creator and producer Ralph Edwards. In the program, the host surprised guests and then took them through a retrospective of their lives in front of an audience, including appearances by colleagues, friends, and family. Edwards revived the show in 1971–1972, and Joseph Campanella hosted a version in 1983. Edwards returned for various specials in the late 1980s. Concept The idea for ''This Is Your Life'' arose while Edwards was working on game show ''Truth or Consequences''. He had been asked by the United States Army to "do something" for paraplegic soldiers at Birmingham General Army Hospital, a California Army rehabilitation hospital in Van Nuys, Los Angeles (a site later converted into a high school). Edwards chose a "particularly despondent young soldier and hit on the idea of presenting his life ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Southern Illinois
Southern Illinois, also known as Little Egypt, is the southern third of Illinois, principally along and south of Interstate 64. Although part of a Midwestern United States, Midwestern state, this region is aligned in culture more with that of the Upland South than the Midwest. Part of downstate Illinois, it is bordered by the two List of U.S. rivers by discharge, most voluminous rivers in the United States: the Mississippi River, Mississippi below its connecting Missouri River to the west and the Ohio River to the east and south with the Wabash River, Wabash as tributary. Southern Illinois' most populated city is Belleville, Illinois, Belleville at 44,478. Other principal cities include Alton, Illinois, Alton, Centralia, Illinois, Centralia, Collinsville, Illinois, Collinsville, Edwardsville, Illinois, Edwardsville, Glen Carbon, Illinois, Glen Carbon, Godfrey, Illinois, Godfrey, O'Fallon, Illinois, O'Fallon, Harrisburg, Illinois, Harrisburg, Herrin, Illinois, Herrin, West Frankfo ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Southern Illinois Normal College
Southern Illinois University (SIU or SIUC) is a public research university in Carbondale, Illinois. Founded in 1869, SIU is the oldest and flagship campus of the Southern Illinois University system. The university enrolls students from all 50 states as well as more than 100 countries. It is classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activity". SIU offers 3 associate, 100 bachelor's, 73 master's, and 36 Ph.D programs in addition to professional degrees in architecture, law, and medicine. History An Act of the Twenty-sixth General Assembly of Illinois, approved March 9, 1869, created Southern Illinois Normal College, the second state-supported normal school in Illinois. Carbondale held the ceremony of cornerstone laying, May 17, 1870. The first historic session of Southern Illinois Normal University was a summer institute, with a first faculty of eight members and an enrollment of 53 students. It was renamed Southern Illinois University in 1947. The univer ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


John J
John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second Epistle of John, often shortened to 2 John * Third Epistle of John, often shortened to 3 John People * John the Baptist (died c. AD 30), regarded as a prophet and the forerunner of Jesus Christ * John the Apostle (lived c. AD 30), one of the twelve apostles of Jesus * John the Evangelist, assigned author of the Fourth Gospel, once identified with the Apostle * John of Patmos, also known as John the Divine or John the Revelator, the author of the Book of Revelation, once identified with the Apostle * John the Presbyter, a figure either identified with or distinguished from the Apostle, the Evangelist and John of Patmos Other people with the given name Religious figures * John, father of Andrew the Apostle and Saint Peter * Pope Joh ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Makanda, Illinois
Makanda is a village in Jackson County, Illinois, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the population was 547, down from 561 in 2010. In the early 20th Century it used the slogan "Star of Egypt." Makanda is part of the Carbondale, IL Micropolitan Statistical Area. History The village was named after Makanda, a local Native American chieftain. After Lincoln’s inauguration, Theodore and Al Thompson flew the Union flag from a tree atop a hill between Makanda and Cobden in defiance of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secessionist group that operated throughout the Midwest. In 2019, citizens of Makanda rallied against the Illinois Central Railroad Company after an announcement of a tower set to be built in the downtown area and a registered flood plain. After former U.S. Senator Paul Simon died in 2003, Makanda added a "bow tie" to the smiley face water tower to honor Simon. Geography Makanda is located at (37.618190, -89.229545). According to the 2010 ce ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Bald Knob Cross
Bald Knob Cross, officially known as the Bald Knob Cross of Peace, is a large white cross located in Alto Pass, Illinois, United States. The structure is tall. The base of the cross is 1,034 feet above sea level and overlooks the Shawnee National Forest. Originally completed in 1963, the cross itself stands 111 feet tall, is 22 feet square at the base, 16 feet square at the top and its arms extend 63 feet horizontally. The exterior white panels covering the cross are 4-inch architectural flat insulated metal panels while the base portion is covered in granite approximately 4-inches thick. The structure sits on a foundation of 730 tons of reinforced concrete that goes down 20 feet to bedrock. The steel framework weighs approximately 170 tons. Each of the four sides of the cross have a word inscribed into the granite: Peace, Hope, Faith, Charity. Bald Knob Mountain was first suggested as an excellent site for a sunrise Easter service by Wayman Presley and Rev. William Lirely aft ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

General Federation Of Women's Clubs
The General Federation of Women's Clubs (GFWC), founded in 1890 during the Progressive Movement, is a federation of over 3,000 women's clubs in the United States which promote civic improvements through volunteer service. Many of its activities and service projects are done independently by local clubs through their communities or GFWC's national partnerships. GFWC maintains nearly 70,000 members throughout the United States and internationally. GFWC remains one of the world's largest and oldest nonpartisan, nondenominational, women's volunteer service organizations. The GFWC headquarters is located in Washington, D.C. History The GFWC was founded by Jane Cunningham Croly, a leading New York journalist. In 1868 she helped found the Sorosis club for professional women. It was the model for the nationwide GFWC in 1890. In 1889 Mrs. Croly organized a conference in New York that brought together delegates from 61 women's clubs. The women formed a permanent organization in 18 ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Ralph Edwards
Ralph Livingstone Edwards (June 13, 1913DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . Pp. 86-87. – November 16, 2005) was an American radio and television host, radio producer, and television producer, best known for his radio-TV game shows ''Truth or Consequences'' and reality documentary series'' This Is Your Life''. Early career Born in Merino, Colorado, Edwards worked for KROW Radio in Oakland, California while he was still in high school. After graduating from high school in 1931, he worked his way through college at the University of California, Berkeley, earning a B.A. in English in 1935.Cox, Jim (2007). ''Radio Speakers: Narrators, News Junkies, Sports Jockeys, Tattletales, Tipsters, Toastmasters and Coffee Klatch Couples Who Verbalized the Jargon of the Aural Ether from the 1920s to the 1980s--A Biographical Dictionary''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . Pp. 88-89. While ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

1896 Births
Events January–March * January 2 – The Jameson Raid comes to an end, as Jameson surrenders to the Boers. * January 4 – Utah is admitted as the 45th U.S. state. * January 5 – An Austrian newspaper reports that Wilhelm Röntgen has discovered a type of radiation (later known as X-rays). * January 6 – Cecil Rhodes is forced to resign as Prime Minister of the Cape of Good Hope, for his involvement in the Jameson Raid. * January 7 – American culinary expert Fannie Farmer publishes her first cookbook. * January 12 – H. L. Smith takes the first X-ray photograph. * January 17 – Fourth Anglo-Ashanti War: British redcoats enter the Ashanti capital, Kumasi, and Asantehene Agyeman Prempeh I is deposed. * January 18 – The X-ray machine is exhibited for the first time. * January 28 – Walter Arnold, of East Peckham, Kent, England, is fined 1 shilling for speeding at (exceeding the contemporary speed limit of , the first spee ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


1990 Deaths
Year 199 ( CXCIX) was a common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was sometimes known as year 952 '' Ab urbe condita''. The denomination 199 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar era became the prevalent method in Europe for naming years. Events By place Roman Empire * Mesopotamia is partitioned into two Roman provinces divided by the Euphrates, Mesopotamia and Osroene. * Emperor Septimius Severus lays siege to the city-state Hatra in Central-Mesopotamia, but fails to capture the city despite breaching the walls. * Two new legions, I Parthica and III Parthica, are formed as a permanent garrison. China * Battle of Yijing: Chinese warlord Yuan Shao defeats Gongsun Zan. Korea * Geodeung succeeds Suro of Geumgwan Gaya, as king of the Korean kingdom of Gaya (traditional date). By topic Religion * Pope Zephyrinus succeeds Pope Victor I, as ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

People From Illinois
A person ( : people) is a being that has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness or self-consciousness, and being a part of a culturally established form of social relations such as kinship, ownership of property, or legal responsibility. The defining features of personhood and, consequently, what makes a person count as a person, differ widely among cultures and contexts. In addition to the question of personhood, of what makes a being count as a person to begin with, there are further questions about personal identity and self: both about what makes any particular person that particular person instead of another, and about what makes a person at one time the same person as they were or will be at another time despite any intervening changes. The plural form "people" is often used to refer to an entire nation or ethnic group (as in "a people"), and this was the original meaning of the word; it subsequently acquired its use as a plural form of per ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]