Illinois Valley Times

If nothing else, the Senate agreed on one thing during its last day of the regular spring session: A portion of Illinois Route 72 will now be designated Lance Cpl. Alec Catherwood Memorial Road.

“A lot of us have spoken at these funerals, and we can’t pretend to know what these Gold Star families go through,” Sen. Tim Bivins (R-Dixon) said on the Senate floor. “We can’t offer much other than our sympathy and our prayers and our thoughts to them, but this is one thing that we can do: Designating roads to allow people to ask the question – especially young people – 'Who’s this road named for?' And carry on their memory. That’s the one thing we can do: Honor their memory.”

Bivens, who sponsored the measure, Senate Joint Resolution 34, said Catherwood graduated from Byron High School in 2009 and was killed during combat operations in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province on Oct. 14, 2010. He was a member of the Future Farmers of America and a Boy Scout, and was survived by his parents, sister and fiancée.

Catherwood earned a Purple Heart, Combat Action Ribbon, National Defense Service Medal, Global War on Terrorism Medal and Korean Defense Service Medal.

The designated area of Route 72 stretches from Byron to the Ogle County/DeKalb County Line.