PEORIA MAGAZINE December 2022

said shewas “a nervouswreck” whenever she talked to the editorial board, but always felt that Drake dug deep to get to and tell what she saw as the truth. “Tome, she epitomized what an editor should be doing,” Krupa said. As an educator, counselor and community volunteer, Krupa was equally accomplished. They came together for a singular public health crusade: the Heartland Clinic. When Krupa became CEO/director in the 1990s, the Heartland Free Clinic was $40,000 in the red and its mostly volunteer staff servedabout 800patients. Krupa took note of an editorial Drake had written about federally funded community health centers. By the time Krupa retired six years later to try politics, what’s now Heartland Health Services was federally qualified and had a balanced budget and 18,000 patients. “This was a great, great gift to the city that Barb provided with her investigative abilities,” Krupa said. The power of the press was key to getting multiple community initiatives over the top, Krupa said. Over the years, the newspaper took a leadership role in advocating for multiple causes: for confronting the local epidemic of teenage pregnancy, for riverfront development, for the rescue of the county nursing home, for the extension of a now-popular recreation trail, for a bigger and better library system, etc. In many ways, central Illinois looks the way it does today in no small part because of those efforts, not least of which on behalf of the Peoria Riverfront Museum. Not surprisingly, PRMPresident/CEO John Morris agrees, enthusiastically. “She saw the power in having a multi disciplinary museum,” he said. As an example, he mentions a Wisconsin family who drove down to celebrate PRM’s 10th anniversary free admission day in October as an example of the long-term fruit of the 147 museumeditorials that Drake either assigned, wrote or collaborated on. “Shenever gaveup. Sheplanted the seed and planted it and planted it — 147 seeds

— hoping one would grow,” Morris said. It did. And Barb and Bernie Drake, both of whom remain actively engaged in the community as volunteers – at Bradley’s OLLI program, at First Baptist Church in Peoria, etc. —were awarded the museum’s highest honor, the James Smithson Award, in 2020. “I think it is not at all an exaggeration to say that without Barb’s tenacity that we should have aworld-classmuseum, it would not have happened,” Morris said. TAKING ROOT, TAKING CHARGE One “seed” still blooming was the commitment by PJS andWTVP-Channel 47 to record the stories of remarkable Peorians before they were gone — sci-fi writer Philip Jose Farmer, Race for the Cure founder Nancy Brinker … and, of Drake doesn’t always tell this part of the story. After weeks of finessing — full disclosure, I was the newspaper’s project manager for the Legacy series —Drake and a film crewwere slated for an interview at Friedan’s Washington, D.C. home. Granted, a mess of lights and cords and strangers is intrusive. But minutes into the discussion, the phone rang and kept ringing. Friedan lost it. She shrieked that if no one had the courtesy to answer the phone, the interview was over: Everybody out. Thinking fast, Drake explained to Friedan that her comments were so riveting that no one had noticed the ringing phone. (Roll eyes here.) Mollified, Friedan agreed to continue. The interview was a success. There was indeed a remarkable woman worth celebrating in that room. course, Betty Friedan. Ah yes, about Friedan.

Drake and her fellow editors took that obligation seriously. They spent months vetting candidates for readers who didn’t have time to investigate for themselves. They have boxes of awards to show for it. More importantly, Drake cites the editorial crusades as producing the biggest impact of her life’s work. For example, the Drake-led Journal Star OpinionPage fought to retain local mass transit service after she spent an entire day riding buses around Peoria soaking up the real-life experienceof other riders and collecting their stories of need. “When 80,000 subscribers read the paper — I don’t think this is bragging or overstated — I think we had a positive impact,” Drake said. BU sorority sister and lifelong friend Joan Krupa agrees. As a Republicanwho served two terms on the Peoria County Board and briefly in the state Legislature, the two did not always agree. If anything, being a friend of the editor caused said editor to ask tougher questions. Krupa Barb Drake speaks about Betty Friedan at Peoria Riverfront Museum

Terry Bibo is a recovering journalist who spent 45-plus years in Peoria as a reporter, editor and columnist. She now gardens, helps various volunteer groups near her home in Elmwood, and writes her books, pretty much in that order

34 DECEMBER 2022 PEORIA MAGAZINE