Now the Dirksen Congressional Center is launching a special project to capture the memories of community members who interacted with Sen. Dirksen and his wife, Louella, over the years. 

They’ll be asked to share their stories during a community oral history project throughout the day on Tuesday, May 12, that will be filmed at the pavilion in Mineral Springs Park.

Whether as young adults meeting the Dirksens through work, worship, or other community activities, or as children who recall Everett or Louella visiting their parents, or those who spent time with Louella after she was widowed and helping launch the Dirksen Center and the Pekin Marigold Festival, those stories help add valuable context to the story of this notable Pekin family.

Those interested in sharing stories are asked to sign up for a 15-minute block of time between 9am and 2pm May 12 by calling the Dirksen Center at 309-347-7113 or by emailing [email protected].

“Hearing from people across Pekin about their memories of the Dirksen family offers us a more well-rounded portrait of them,” Dirksen Center Executive Director Tiffany White says. “Knowing the things they cared about, the interactions that made them laugh, the families still here in Pekin who they spent time with — it all helps us to remember them as people, not just as historical figures.”

The materials will be used in two ways. They will be entered into the Dirksen Center’s collections as oral history transcripts for future researchers looking to learn more about the personalities and priorities of both Everett and Louella.

They will also be used in a series of local history videos premiering as a part of the celebration of the Pekin Marigold Festival this year. The videos will be accessible online and will also be played at the Mineral Springs Park Pavilion as part of the Dirksen Center’s annual display there during the festival.

The materials will be incorporated alongside recent interviews Dirksen Center staff conducted with Everett and Louella’s surviving nephew Thomas, the son of Everett’s twin brother Thomas Reed Dirksen. He shared numerous family memories and stories about his uncle from the 1930s into the 1960s.

“This is my own, my native land, my native city, where the family taproot went deep many generations ago, and it will ever be so, no matter what tasks life may assign to me ...

The inspiration which I received here from a saintly mother, a devoted family, steadfast friends, the constant faith of teachers who taught me, the inspiration I found here in church, and the atmosphere of a quiet and well-ordered community were the forces which helped to fashion those decisions, and for these I shall be always and eternally grateful.”

-- U.S. Sen. Everett Dirksen, remarks at Pekin Testimonial Dinner, Sept. 22, 1961