A dedicated chronicler of life in Randolph County, Eileen Gordon edited one of the area’s most respected newspapers for decades, telling the stories of local residents and championing causes that improved their lives.
Eileen H. Pariset was born on October 23, 1925, in Red Bud. She was the only child of Herschel “Pete” Pariset (Rowland) and Grace Hasemeyer, who divorced when she was young. Eileen and her mother settled with her maternal grandparents, William and Lizzie Hasemeyer, in the little house at 706 Ann Street in Chester. Both Grace and William worked at the nearby shoe factory, in facilities now owned by Gilster-Mary Lee. William was employed by the International Shoe Company as a cobbler, while Grace worked as a top stitcher on the factory floor.
After finishing the eighth grade at St. John’s Lutheran School, Eileen enrolled at Chester High School. There, she got the first taste of the career, journalism, that would one day define her life. She signed up to work as a typist on the staff of the school’s yearbook, the Summit. In the annual, she was noted for her “sophistication,” but her classmates prophesied that she would one day become a “chicken raiser.” In her senior year, 1943-44, the yearbook had a patriotic theme in honor of the young men and women from Chester who were supporting the war effort at home and abroad. The roster of Eileen’s classmates was a sobering reminder of the conflict, with many of the young men’s photographs accompanied by notes sharing the date that they had left school early to enlist in the army or navy.
Eileen graduated from high school in the spring of 1944, just weeks before D-Day. Soon after graduation, she pitched in to do her patriotic duty, volunteering with the Randolph County Selective Service Board and the county’s War Price and Rationing Board. The local draft board managed the registration of the county’s young men for military service, while the rationing board was responsible for regulating just about everything in daily life: the prices that local restaurants could charge for various food items, the amount of gasoline that a household could purchase, and the issuing of the ration books and stamps that families used while shopping for groceries and other household goods.
Eileen’s typing skills would have been particularly useful in all of her volunteer work. Local rationing boards sometimes recruited young women from typing classes in nearby high schools to help out with the clerical work required to organize and manage such a huge project. The skills that Eileen honed while volunteering during the war prepared her well for other secretarial jobs in her early years. She worked at the Randolph County Clerk’s office, and later was hired to help staff the law office of John Sprigg Gilster, Chester’s city attorney.
In the autumn of 1949, Eileen married an Air Force veteran, Jack Gordon, in Murphysboro. The following year, she gave birth to their son, John, whom they raised in Chester. Eileen found new opportunities to flex her skills in motherhood, including serving on the PTL at St. John’s Lutheran School and becoming a Cub Scout leader. She loved the magic of childhood, coordinating holiday traditions for local boys and girls for years even after her own son was grown. She could often be seen judging costume contests on Halloween or welcoming Santa Claus to Chester at Christmas.
When John went to school, Eileen turned her attention back to the working world. In 1955, she joined the staff at the Chester Herald-Tribune. The newspaper, which was created when two of Chester’s papers merged in 1922, had a shared history of publishing local news that stretched back to the 1860s. The job turned into a career, and it would end up being one of the defining roles of Eileen’s life. She worked as a reporter and correspondent under a string of publishers and editors, including John File, Lucien File, Lucille Koeneman, John Mulkin, Herbert Gerdemann, Edward Akers, and Joseph Akers.
Eileen’s start with the Herald-Tribune coincided with a period of consolidation for Randolph County’s newspapers. The owners of the Chester newspaper acquired several other local papers in the early 1950s, and in 1954 they began publishing a consolidated weekly edition of the Herald-Tribune, the Red Bud Pilgrim, the Evansville Enterprise, and the Prairie du Rocher Sun. Ten years later, the name of the paper was changed to the Randolph County Herald-Tribune, reflecting the wider coverage area of the expanded newspaper.
Eileen rose through the ranks at the paper, eventually becoming its editor, a role she held until she retired. Reflecting on her long career as a journalist, the Southern Illinoisan shared, “Gordon believed strongly in the importance of the small town newspaper, and through the years, she became the ‘face’ of the newspaper as she reported the local and regional news for the people of Randolph County.”
Citizens remembered Eileen’s presence at a whole range of local events, from the exciting to the mundane. “It was a regular and expected thing to see Gordon at county board meetings, city council meetings and other important events,” the Southern noted. Along with reporting the news, Eileen also took to the pages of the newspaper to share her thoughts on a whole range of issues and topics in “Distaff Dissertations,” her popular weekly column. Eileen “had a remarkable way with the written word and informed and entertained her readers for many years.”
Reporting on local news made Eileen keenly aware of the needs that existed within the community, and she became very involved with numerous causes to improve the lives of Chester’s citizens. Eileen was a devoted member of St. John’s Lutheran Church, where she had worshiped since she was a young girl. She sang in the church choir, and she became the first woman to serve on the church council.
Her volunteer work with the American Red Cross in the 1960s and 1970s spanned the Vietnam War, and she was a key figure in helping to keep the lines of communication open between soldiers and their families back home in Chester. As the wife of a veteran, she was also an active member of the American Legion Auxiliary and VFW Auxiliary in Chester. For her contributions to the community, the VFW recognized her with their Citizen of the Year Award.
Eileen’s commitment to improving the lives for the people of Randolph County found its greatest expression in her work with Chester Memorial Hospital. She served on the hospital’s Board of Directors for three decades, including fourteen years as chair of the board. She was also part of the Memorial Hospital Auxiliary, the Chester Women’s Club, and the Daughters of the American Revolution. Her wide-ranging interests in the world of pop culture are reflected by her memberships in the Popeye Fan Club and the Chester Baskerville Society.
Eileen’s pride in the history of her hometown was evident in her work with the Chester Beautification Commission, which was established in 2003. By that time, she had already been a partner in numerous efforts to restore important properties in town. Most notable among these was the Cohen House, purchased by the city of Chester after the death of Bud Cohen in 1983.
After the city purchased the home, a non-profit corporation was established by the city to oversee the restoration of the historic property, which was built in the 1850s and mentioned by Mark Twain in one of his travel narratives. With Bertha Mae Blechle and Edna Cress, Eileen was part of a trio of local women who took over the responsibility of shepherding the restoration project toward its goals.
The result of their efforts has meant that the Cohen Memorial Home remains a jewel of the riverfront in Chester to this day, serving as the backdrop to celebrations like weddings, receptions, meetings, and parties. The house also played a central role in another of Eileen’s gifts to local residents: the Christmas on the River celebration, which she helped to organize for the community each December.
After hearing about other local Christmas festivals on a radio program, Eileen decided that Chester needed its own celebration. The event evolved over the years in response to the community’s concerns and needs. In the 1980s, after arriving via boat on the Mississippi, Santa Claus proceeded through town in a horse-drawn sleigh to the newly-restored Cohen House, where local children gathered to meet him. After the Flood of 1993 touched the lives of so many local residents, the Christmas celebration that year was designed as a tribute to those who had endured the devastation. “We think this will be a pick-me-up for the people who have had to leave their homes and the children who are attending different schools,” Eileen told the Southern Illinoisan ahead of the event.
Time and again, the people of Chester recognized Eileen with a string of honors, thanking her for her community work. In 1977, the Chester Women’s Club chose her as their Woman of the Year. She was named Chester’s Citizen of the Year in 1980, and the same year the Chester Jaycees also honored her with their Distinguished Service Award. She also received one of the highest recognitions that any citizen of Chester can get: she was selected as a Popeye Parade Marshall in 1999. In 2012, Chester also dedicated its Community Christmas Concert to Eileen and Bertha Mae Blechle as a way to thank them for their crucial support work over the years.
Eileen passed away in July 2013 at the age of 87. Tributes came in from throughout the area, lauding her tireless work for her fellow citizens. Jerry Willis of the County Journal remembered, “She did so much for Chester, from working at the newspaper to, with Bertha Mae Blechle, starting the annual Christmas on the River program. She was named an outstanding citizen by just about every Chester organization, and she will be greatly missed in the town and the county.”
Eileen’s lifelong commitment to the people and history of Chester and Randolph County have endured even after her death. “We’re a small community, and everyone seems to know one another,” Eileen mused in 2009. Those connections helped Eileen to focus her professional and philanthropic efforts where her neighbors needed them most, from health care facilities and support for veterans to celebrations that remain mainstays of life in Chester a decade on. Her heart for others is an example and a challenge to us all.
Eileen Gordon was inducted into The Randolph Society in 2026.
The Randolph Society 