James Allen Thornhill

EAST PEORIA – After a courageous two-year battle against colon cancer, James Allen Thornhill left to be our guardian angel on the evening of Tuesday, March 15, 2011, dying peacefully at his home with all his family by his side. Funeral Services for James will be at 12 noon Friday, March 18, 2011 at Deiters Funeral Home and Crematory in East Peoria. Visitation will be 2 hours prior to the service at the funeral home. We will say goodbye at the graveside in Fondulac Cemetery in East Peoria. My husband, James Thornhill, was born on Thanksgiving Day, November 25, 1943 to James W. and Norma Foster Thornhill in Peoria, IL. He graduated from East Peoria Community High School in 1961 and volunteered for the draft during the Vietnam War but never served. He worked at Peoria Brick and Tile and was retired from Security Services and Keystone Steel and Wire Co. He married Karen M. Eldred on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1976 in Pekin, IL. We had a daughter, Kristina (Paul) Foster, who survives. James’ brother, David W. Thornhill also survives, along with his uncle Pete Steward of Burnside, IL, and aunt, Edna Foster. Also surviving are his first wife, Linda (Sheckler) Hudnall and their children, Kathy (Doug) Holmes and David A. Thornhill; his daughter, Tracy (Jim) Bartlett, by the late Gloria (Turner) Stewart; and his second wife, Pat (Jordan) Schwenk and their twin sons, James M. and Robert A. Thornhill. From this brood there are 10 and a half grandchildren and 9 great-grandchildren. Preceding him in death were his parents and 2 grandchildren. James loved to collect Imperial slag glass, die-cast cars, stamps from Germany, Canada and the United States and just about any other collectible. He was an obsessive reader leaning toward biographies, non-fiction, World War II, Kennedy, Hitler, and science fiction. James loved to shoot pool and play cards until all hours of the morning with a drink in one hand and a smoke in the other. He quit his three-pack-a-day addiction to cigarettes cold turkey on February 16, 1982. He was a die-hard Cardinals fan and a Bears fan. He was a member of the National Imperial Glass Collectors Society, the Caterpillar Stamp Club and many different websites. Many thanks to all of James’ care givers at Methodist Hospital and Illinois CancerCare, and all those both known and unknown who prayed for us daily.

James Allen Thornhill

November 25, 1943 - March 15, 2011