Bodies filled the Sherrard High School gym in June 2012 to pay tribute to a local fallen soldier.
Corporal Bryant J. Luxmore of New Windsor paid the ultimate price in service of his country at the age of 25.
Yesterday, a joint House Resolution filed by Representative Don Moffitt is renaming a stretch of highway after Luxmore.
llinois Route 17 from the Henry/Mercer County Line running to Viola, will now be known as “CPL Bryant J. Luxmore Memorial Highway”.
Speaking yesterday on the House Floor, Moffitt asked members to stand as he eulogized Luxmore.
“He was so well liked in the community, as well as in the service. His heart was huge and his smile was infectious.”
Luxmore played baseball at Sherrard, then at Monmouth College and Illinois College where he graduated in 2009, fulfilling a promise to his parents to obtain a bachelor’s degree.
But he fulfilled his desire to serve, entering the U.S. Army in 2011 as infantryman, eventually deploying to Afghanistan in March 2012.
“His first entry in his journal that he kept in Afghanistan read, ‘If you don’t live for something, you’ll die for nothing.’ Bryant J. Luxmore live and died for all of us”
The highway that now bears his name passes through the heart of his hometown in New Windsor.
Dave Dahl contributed to this report.
