The Lincoln Courier newspaper in Lincoln, Ill., is set to announce its Citizen of the Year tomorrow night, and one of the 11 nominees is a longtime Route 66 advocate.
That nominee is Lucille Pech of Atlanta, Ill. The Courier writes:
Lucille Pech, a longtime Logan County advocate and member of the Abraham Lincoln Tourism Bureau of Logan County and curator of the Atlanta Museum, is an avid history collector and is passionate about supporting the Mother Road that runs through her hometown. She has earned the unofficial title of “Route 66 Grandma.”
Here’s the Courier’s Citizen of the Month article earlier in the year that enabled her to be a nominee.
Pech has been a Route 66 champion for so long, she was mentioned in the acknowledgements of the first edition of Michael Wallis’ best-selling book, “Route 66: The Mother Road,” in 1992.
Pech also was honored as the grand marshal of Atlanta’s Fall Festival Parade in 2007.
She’s lived in Atlanta since shortly marrying her husband, Joseph, in 1936.
UPDATE: The Citizen of the Year was John Sutton, who is helping restore The Mill along Route 66 in Lincoln.