Press Releases

Library Closed for Memorial Day Holiday

May 20, 2013

Lincoln Library, the Public Library of Springfield, 326 South 7th Street, will be closed on Monday, May 27, 2013, in observance of the Memorial Day holiday. Regular hours will resume on Tuesday, May 28, 2013.

Contact:  Nancy Huntley or Kim Hergett, 217-753-4900

Library Closed For Staff Institute

May 3, 2013

Lincoln Library, the Public Library of Springfield, 326 South 7th Street, will be closed on Friday, May 10, 2013, for the annual Staff Institute. On this date, the library staff will be participating in a day of continuing education and training so as to better serve customers. Regular hours will resume on Saturday May 11, 2013.

Contact:  Nancy Huntley or Kim Hergett, 217-753-4900

Library Reading to Feature “crazy” Vietnam War Memoir by Springfield Native Julie Titone

April 11, 2013

Springfield native Julie Titone will read from her book, “Boocoo Dinky Dow: My Short, Crazy Vietnam War,” on Tuesday, April 23, at 6:30 p.m., in the Carnegie Room South of Lincoln Library -The Public Library of Springfield, 326 South 7th Street.  The memoir captures the experiences of late artist Grady Myers, who co-authored and illustrated the book. The reading is free and open to the public. Copies of the book are available for checkout from Lincoln Library.

A reviewer for the Vietnam Veterans of America calls the book “Lucid ... well-told ... beautifully illustrated … infused with humor.”  Its title comes from a slang phrase used by U.S. troops meaning very crazy. The book includes drawings that are in the collection of the National Veterans Art Museum in Chicago.

Myers was an artistic but aimless Idaho teenager, when, desperate for troops, the U.S. Army overlooked his extreme nearsightedness and transformed him into Hoss, an M-60 machine gunner. After nearly dying in combat, he returned from Vietnam with a Purple Heart and went on to a professional art career. Myers and Titone were newspaper colleagues when they produced the first manuscript of his memoir in the late 1970s. They eventually married, had a son, divorced yet remained friends. When he became bedridden late in life, they revived the manuscript. 

Titone is a graduate of Ursuline Academy, Springfield College in Illinois and Southern Illinois University. Her writing and photography has appeared in regional, national and international publications; her essays have been published in three college textbooks and two literary collections. Her novel, Deadline Affairs, was recorded by Books in Motion. She lives in Washington State.