“In Memory, Eugene & Imogene Thornburg, Lives that touch others live on forever.” This new, engraved park bench is now setting near the Memorial Park in downtown Alton. Imogene Thornburg was a 1985 charter member of Alton PRIDE and served as treasurer for many years. At the time of her death in Aug. 2022 her family established two local memorials: Alton PRIDE and the Pleasant Plains United Methodist Church, which Eugene & Imogene became members of when they moved to their farm south of Alton in 1959.

Imogene's memorial to PRIDE was used to help fund the recently installed new oak floor in Alton's Community Room. Pleasant Plains UMC used their memorial to purchase the painting “O Jerusalem” that now graces their church's interior. The funds for Imogene's local memorial gifts came from donors in Alton and the surrounding area. Donations from farther away were used by Imogene's daughter Janet Schulte to purchase the park bench that she delivered from Ellsworth to Alton on February 19.

The Alton community is proud to be the recipient of Imogene's memorial and all other memorials that have been given over the years. (The Pleasant Plains UM Church, located 11 miles south of Alton on County Road 657, was established in 1879. Russell Stover's 1888 birth site is a short distance east of the church.)