Obituary

George May, Massac County historian

George May 1909-2003 George May, southern Illinois teacher, author, and historian, passed away on April 29, 2003, in Metropolis. He was 93. At the time of his death he was living in the same room where he was born on November 1, 1909.

George May was the author of nine books, including Massac Pilgrimage, History of Massac County, Students History of Peoria County, Charles Duryea-Automaker, Doivn Illinois Rivers, History Papers on Massac County, Illinois, Massac Biographies, and Moods and Modes-Vagrant Writings. He was working on another book at the time of his death.

According to his son, Robert May, George May started his career as an educator in 1930, working in rural one-room schoolhouses in Massac and Johnson counties. From 1949 to 1950 he served as a teacher in Huffman, Texas. During World War II he spent three years working in war industries in Indiana and New York. In 1950 he became a social studies teacher at Pleasant Hill School in Peoria, where he retired in 1973, after spending 40 years in the classroom.

May graduated from Peabody College for teachers and received his master's degree from Bradley University in 1958. He was past president of the Peoria Historical Society, the Massac County History Society, and served on several committees ol the Illinois State Historical Society and the Organization of American Historians. He was also a charter member of the Horatio Alger Society.

According to the obituary, printed in the Metropolis Daily Planet, May lived by his motto, "Keep busy—means a longer, happier life." May and his wife traveled extensive, but he "especially enjoyed playing his mandolin and harmonica for his family.

May married Hazel Sexton in 1933. She passed away in 2002. May is survived by a daughter, Sharon Miller of Metropolis, a son, Robert May, of Norco, Louisiana, twelve grandchildren, and many great and great-great grandchildren.

Muddy waters

Paul Dresser yearned for "The Banks of the Wabash Far-Away," Jimmie Rodgers "Missed the Mississippi," but it took the songwriting team of Edward A. Nitram and Thelma L. Deer to pen "Sangamon River (I'm Dreaming of You)."

It was the 1930s, when money was scarce and dreams were plentiful. That reality may have inspired this song, which invites listeners to

Come with me, on a trip
on a memory ship
to a place on a wonderful stream
Where the birds in the trees
Sing a song to the breeze
In the Sangamon Valley of dreams.

The winding, muddy, unnavigable Sangamon nas spawned its share of catfish, carp, and mosquitos, but there are plenty of suckers in those waters too. Published in Springfield, the sheet music for "Sangamon River" sold for $.60 a copy when hamburger sold for $.05 a pound. Nevertheless, there are different types of nourishment.

Lazy old Sangamon, dreamy old stream
That's where my thoughts are tonight in my dreams
Where the birds sing of a sweet memory
By the spring in the shade of a tree
I hear the sound of the wheel at the old mill
I hear the echo rebound from the hill
That's where the sun sips the sweet morning dew
Sangamon River I'm dreaming of you.

There are no records of how many copies of "Sangamon River (I'm Dreaming of You)" were sold; this one found its way to Lincoln Library's Sangamon Valley Collection in Springfield.

And what of the songwriting team of Nitram and Deer, whose only "hit" seems to have been "Sangamon River"? "Long downstream by now," says Springfield historian Edward Russo.

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