The Galesburg community gathered Thursday to honor U.S. Army Corporal Paul Eugene Hoots, a Galesburg native and Korean War hero whose remains returned home after more than seven decades.
Funeral services were conducted at Hinchliff-Pearson-West Funeral Directors and Cremation Services, followed by a procession through flag-lined streets of Galesburg to East Linwood Cemetery.
Cpl. Hoots, born in Galesburg in 1925 and a Galesburg High School graduate, went missing in action in 1950 near Ch’onan, South Korea, while serving with K Company, 3rd Battalion, 34th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division.
His remains, identified in November 2024 by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency, were laid to rest Thursday afternoon with full military honors.
Todd Ettinger, funeral director and owner of Hinchliff-Pearson-West, called the event a “full-circle moment” for the funeral home, which held Hoots’ memorial in 1954 at its predecessor, Kimber and West Chapel.
“I’m very honored and humbled to be a part of it,” Ettinger said earlier Thursday on Galesburg’s Morning News. “For these nieces and nephews and great-nieces and nephews… to know he’s being laid to rest with his family after over seven decades is really profound.”
Ettinger personally escorted Hoots’ remains from St. Louis Lambert Airport on Tuesday, joined by the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, Illinois State Police, Rolling Thunder, and Patriot Guard Riders.
“It was quite impressive,” he said, describing fire departments and communities lining overpasses along Interstate 55 with flags and firefighters at attention.
In Galesburg, residents and an honor guard stood vigil at 11:05 p.m.Tuesday as the military honor guard removed Hoots’ casket.
The funeral, led by Pastor Gordon Barrick, who grew up with the Hoots family, began at 11 a.m. after a 10 a.m. visitation.
The noon procession traveled east on Fremont Street, south on Seminary Street, and west on Main Street through downtown to the cemetery, led by veteran motorcycle groups, Galesburg Police, Knox County Sheriff’s Office and the Galesburg Fire Department.
