The News-Gazette.com: Sketches at exhibit honor Illinois' fallen heroes

Sketches at exhibit honor Illinois' fallen heroes

By Mary Schenk

Sunday, November 1, 2009 8:50 AM CDT

CHAMPAIGN – Doug Kimme couldn't help but let a sob escape as he studied the pencil drawing of his only son.

"I used to call him my war baby," said the Champaign police officer from Fisher, explaining that his son was born when the elder Kimme served in the Air Force.

Danny Kimme, 27, was killed Jan. 16, 2008, in Iraq under circumstances that his father said are still under investigation.

"We're still fighting the Army. There are a lot of issues over what happened," said the grieving father, who has lost weight and countless hours of sleep since losing his son.

Danny Kimme would have turned 29 on Oct. 27. Besides his parents, he left behind a wife and a daughter he never met who is now 18 months old.

Kimme's was one of 219 faces of fallen Illinois soldiers penciled by Mattoon native Cameron Schilling on display at Parkland College through Thursday. What began as a gift from Schilling to the parents of a Mattoon man killed in Iraq in August 2004 has swelled into a remarkably moving and, unfortunately, growing memorial.

Gov. Pat Quinn was on hand Saturday afternoon at Parkland's Gallery lounge to introduce the "Portrait of a Soldier" memorial that's been traveling around the state since May 2006 honoring Illinois soldiers killed in the war on terrorism. Quinn said he's been to about 60 of the exhibit openings.

The portraits are displayed in the order that the men and women died, starting with those killed at the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. There are several soldiers from East Central Illinois. Schilling said he's done some portraits that are not yet prepared for the display. The originals go to the next of kin, and copies go in the exhibit.

Ron Roberts of Champaign shook Doug Kimme's hand as he looked as the portrait of his son, Allen Roberts, 21, of Arcola, that is on the same panel as Danny Kimme. Roberts was killed in a vehicle accident in Iraq on Thanksgiving Day 2007.

"He's my only child. This was his second tour. We had our first beer together before he left," Roberts reminisced.

It was Roberts' second time to see the exhibit, which he said he appreciated even though the experience is difficult.

"It helps to be around other people who have lost their kids," he said.

Flanked by Gold Star family members, Quinn quoted from Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Gettysburg Address in urging Illinoisans to remember the men and women who had given their lives.

"God didn't give them a long chronological life, but he gave them a very purposeful life," Quinn said.

Jaye Roberts of Arcola, mother of Allen Roberts, recalled her son as fun-loving, friendly and willing "to take care of the underdog."

"He's the light of my life. Holding him in my arms is a nice thing," she said, clutching his portrait.

Connie Bickers of St. Joseph, mother of Cory Hubbell of Urbana, who died in June 2003 in Kuwait, remembered talking to him while he was overseas.

"They won't treat us like they did the Vietnam vets, will they?" she recalled him asking. She praised Schilling for keeping memories of the soldiers alive.

Schilling, 25, was present Saturday but did not speak publicly and declined to be interviewed on camera.

"I want it to be their time to tell their stories," he said of the survivors, whom he visited with individually. "It's humbling to hear their stories."

Schilling did his first portrait when he was a sophomore at Eastern Illinois University in 2004 for the family of Charles Neeley, whose funeral was handled by Schilling's father.

At the request of Quinn, then lieutenant governor, Schilling did about 120 soldier portraits over his spring break in 2006 to have them ready for exhibition by Memorial Day that year.

The political science graduate is now a member of Quinn's legislative staff and instead of searching online for soldier deaths as he did when he decided to try to do a portrait of each fallen Illinois soldier, a member of Quinn's staff now supplies him with the names and pictures. He does the pencil sketches in his free time, mostly on weekends. Each takes him from 90 minutes to three hours, he said.

For more information on the memorial, visit www.OperationHomefront.org and click on Portrait of a Soldier.

If you go

What: 'Portrait of a Soldier' exhibit

Where: Parkland College Gallery lounge, 2400 W. Bradley Ave., C.

When: 1 to 4 p.m. today; 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Wednesday; 7 a.m. to afternoon Thursday.