The Economist traveled to Peoria in late 2013, as Congress was paralyzed by wranglings between Democrats and Republicans over the federal budget, and found that, in “Anytown USA,” “pragmat...
https://www.becomingrichardpryor.com/pryors-peoria/2013/10/12/how-the-shutdown-plays-in-peoria/
In the 1920s, “Diamond Lil” ran central Illinois’s best-known “Black and Tan” resort — a brothel that offered both African-American and mulatto prostitutes. An imposing figure, with t...
https://www.becomingrichardpryor.com/pryors-peoria/2011/02/01/4004/
Matt Clark, a good childhood friend of Richard Pryor, remembered Juliette Whittaker fondly in this elegantly written tribute upon her death. As a teen, Clark first introduced Richard to the Carve...
https://www.becomingrichardpryor.com/pryors-peoria/2010/01/01/remembering-juliette/
By her death in 2007, Whittaker had founded two schools, produced impressive artworks across a multitude of mediums, and touched, even saved, the lives of countless disadvantaged children. As Don...
https://www.becomingrichardpryor.com/pryors-peoria/2007/05/08/a-quiet-storm/
The woman who first saw Richard Pryor’s performance potential left an enormous legacy in Peoria, the African American community and the nation through her work as an artist and mentor. She was ...
https://www.becomingrichardpryor.com/pryors-peoria/2007/05/04/juliette-whittaker/
Matt Clark, a childhood friend of Richard Pryor, recalled the comic’s beginnings in this 2005 Peoria Journal Star piece, published after Pryor’s death. Clark knew a lonely Pryor, a boy who,...
Once the funding at the Carver Center ran out for full-scale theatrical productions, Whittaker downsized, literally, by taking all the technical aspects of a show and miniaturizing them. The res...
https://www.becomingrichardpryor.com/pryors-peoria/2002/11/27/whittakers-expressive-arts/
In this more light-hearted take on the racier days of Peoria before reform, a long time resident looks back on his teenage days cruising through downtown with friends. Even for those not explicit...
Forty years after Peoria’s business and civic leaders promised that the Murray Baker Bridge would transform the city, it had. From sparking real estate booms to moving thousands of Caterpillar ...
https://www.becomingrichardpryor.com/pryors-peoria/1998/12/12/key-bridge-has-changed-face-of-city/
A retrospective portrait of the life of a Peoria prostitute and madam, with attention to her travails in the business and her struggles with the law. The post “Retired Peoria Madam: ‘I look...