The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.
By David Grimes, Correspondent for The Quill
BIGGSVILLE - Charlie McChesney may be the shrewdest of the deal makers, but he's got a heart of gold.
That was the message conveyed over and over Tuesday as friends, family and past and present members of the Highway 34 Coalition gathered at Hend-Co Hills Country Club to honor the man whose name has come to be synonymous with Henderson County.
Last week, the Henderson County Board passed a resolution marking April 15th as C.E. McChesney Day.
Board Chairman Marion "Brownie" Brown formally presented a framed copy of the resolution to McChesney at the reception.
Brown remembers McChesney as always being willing to serve the county and as being a gentleman.
"This is in appreciation for years of volunteer service to the community and the county," Brown said, "including serving on the Union School Board, the REA Board, the Henderson County Board and as chairman of the Highway 34 Coalition."
McChesney, who suffers from Parkinsonism, a form of Parkinson's disease, and is confined to a wheelchair, nodded and laughed as neighbors and friends recalled incidents from the past.
His son, Kurt, assumed the coalition helm after his father resigned the position two years ago. The younger McChesney predicted completion of stretches of the four-lane expansion project from the Carman blacktop to the Gladstone intersection and from the Warren County line to Monmouth in the next four years.
C.E McChesney, longtime Henderson County farmer and businessman, will turn 75 next month.
He was remembered as an accomplished haggler in the marketplace by Barb Kidder, an office employee at McChesney's Gladstone Grain Company.
"He went to shop for a new Cadillac one time," Kidder recalled. "He wore an old pair of overalls when he went in to the dealership in Burlington. But no one ever waited on him so he drove to the Quad Cities and bought his Cadillac.
"But when he got back, he took it to the Burlington dealership for all the oil changes just to be ornery and remind them what they missed out on."
And former director of the Warren and Henderson County Partnership for Economic Development Gene Blade commended McChesney for his persistence, "can-do attitude" and many trips to Washington and Springfield on behalf of the highway expansion project.
"Thanks for planting big seed here," Blade said.