Dave Hinton: Urbana's Docher 'an icon in the community'

Jan. 20—Willie Docher belts out a tune on the harmonica, "Big Boss Man," and he's young again.

The way-back machine travels to past days when he played with BB King and Muddy Waters.

To when he hosted his cousin, blues artist Sonny Boy Williamson II, in his Urbana home.

He goes back to the time when he stood atop the Assembly Hall on a construction crew and vowed never to climb such heights again.

He remembers helping to build a church for free.

And he returns to a close call with a rattlesnake.

It's been a colorful life for Willie Docher, who turned 94 on Friday.

Still carrying a thick Mississippi accent, Docher seems to take life in stride.

His friend Sam Issa, who operates Sam's Cafe in downtown Champaign, said Docher has helped a lot of people.

"I've known Willie for 30-plus years," Issa said. "He was a big business guy."

Issa remembers when he needed help on his house, and Docher did much of it free. Other times he only charged for materials.

Bishop King Underwood called Docher "an icon in the community."

"He did a lot of things to help a lot of people."

Underwood was out with a shovel preparing to dig the footing to build New Free Will Baptist Church on East Grove Street when Docher saw him.

Underwood's son, the Rev. Herbert "Hub" Burnett, said within seconds of his father sticking the shovel in the ground, Docher drove by and said, "Reverend, what are you doing?"

He said he would go get his backhoe and dig the footing. A job that would have taken a week with a shovel took far less time with a backhoe.

Burnett said his father has told that story across the country to show how God works.

King and Docher remember what happened differently. Whatever the case, Docher went out of his way to help.

"He was very hospitable," Underwood said of Docher.

Docher also built Macedonia Church on Fourth Street.

Growing up in Grenada, Miss., one of nine children, on a plantation that his family rented, Docher learned quickly how to work and wasn't afraid of it.

"I always did work," he said.

One of his first jobs, at age 15, was cutting timber with a cross-cut saw for a company.

"They were paying me as much as the men," Docher said.

He remembers a co-worker using an axe to kill a rattlesnake that had risen up to strike Docher from behind. Wanting no more work in that snake-infested forest, Docher said he was going to quit if he had to return there. The company said he could work in the sawmill instead.

Docher came to Kankakee to visit a cousin. After settling in Illinois, he never returned to Mississippi. He got a job driving spikes and putting in railroad ties for Illinois Central Railroad.

Docher's strength became well known. Issa remembers an 80-year-old Docher picking up the heavy end of an air-conditioning unit while his younger helper took the light end.

After Docher migrated to Champaign-Urbana, he joined the union and got a job with Felmley Dickerson Co. building the University of Illinois home economics building, which he said still stands.

An Urbana resident since the late '40s, Docher was a heavy-equipment operator for that company. He can go to area communities and say, "I helped build that."

Among them were a training center and the water plant at Chanute Air Force Base.

"They weren't paying us a whole lot of money," Docher remembers. "On the water plant, that's when they raised our salary to $1.10 an hour."

Docher dug the foundation for the Assembly Hall and was up top the massive "space ship" instructing university students when he decided he didn't like it up there. He didn't like heights.

He used a stairway in the middle of the building to come back down.

"When I got toward the bottom, I kind of tripped down the rest of the way," he said.

His fear of heights reared itself again while working on the roof of a house. He got down by climbing down a tree instead of a ladder.

Docher also served as foreman constructing Champaign's Arrowhead Lanes after the man in charge of the project unexpectedly died.

He bought his own equipment in the late '60s and started Willie Docher Construction Co., doing demolition, excavation and underground utility work throughout Champaign County

Docher said he raised the money to buy some of his equipment by gambling. Georgia Skin, a card game, was his favorite.

During one game he was arrested after he slugged an undercover cop that he didn't know was a cop.

"He was in disguise, and we thought it was a holdup," Docher said. "The judge said he would have hit him too."

To support himself while laborers were on strike, he bought a restaurant and a tavern.

Williamson, his cousin, stayed with Docher for about three months and played regularly at the tavern until he was called back to play in Chicago.

"People would come from everywhere to hear him play," Docher said. "They'd come there every day."

Docher played with BB King on Beale Street in Memphis and with Muddy Waters in Rolling Fork, Miss.

"Muddy Waters used to stop by every time he was in Champaign," Docher said.

His favorite musician remains Williamson — "my main man."

Docher still likes playing the blues.

Docher attributes his long life to "being a good person."

"I didn't bother nobody," he said. "I don't follow a bad crowd. I've never been in nobody's jail. I was arrested for gambling, but they let me go."

Docher still lives on Ellis Avenue in Urbana.

Miss Ford County fourth runner-up at state

Miss Ford County 2023 Maci Kingren was named fourth runner-up last week at the 2024 Illinois Association of Agricultural Fairs State Queen Pageant in Springfield.

Two other area representatives were named in the top 16 — Fisher Fair queen Ella Luna-Drone and Moultrie-Douglas County Fair queen Reggan Smith.

Kingren competed alongside 72 other county fair queens for the state fair queen crown.

Kingren, 20, is a daughter of Bobby and Olivia Kingren and Laura and Tom Proctor. She is a 2022 graduate of Paxton-Buckley-Loda High School and is enrolled at the University of Illinois through the Parkland Pathways program.

Kingren's goal is to earn a bachelor's degree in Agribusiness Markets and Management at the UI to pursue a career in agricultural sales.

Natalie Evans of Jacksonville, representing Miss Morgan County Fair, was named Miss Illinois County Fair Queen. She will be a summer employee of the Department of Agriculture, will travel to about 30 county fairs and serve as the official hostess of the Illinois State Fair in Springfield and the DuQuoin State Fair.

As queen, her primary duty is to emphasize the importance of agriculture and county fairs to Illinois.

Quilt of Valor presented

Jim Keller of Fithian was the recipient of a Quilt of Valor last week.

Keller served in the U.S. Army from 1969 to 1970, including a tour of duty in Vietnam.

His quilt will be registered with the Quilt of Valor Foundation, which has presented more than 330,000 quilts to veterans and active service members since its founding in 2003.

Quilt of Valor recipients were LiAnne Kitchen and Marlene Wise.

SWCD to meet in Rantoul

The 81st annual convention of the Champaign County Soil & Water Conservation District will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, Feb. 2, at The Linden Banquet Center, Rantoul.

PBL grad buys business

Wright Family Products, a locally owned business designed to provide affordable organic alternatives has been sold.

Audrey Adkins, a 2021 graduate of Paxton-Buckley-Loda High School, has purchased the business from Kevin and Valerie Wright.

Adkins began her own business making handmade personal care products last June. In addition to being a business owner, she is obtaining an HR management degree with a minor in entrepreneurship from Illinois State University.

The Wrights developed their company after they began to change to a more clean lifestyle, decreasing the chemicals and preservatives traditionally found in commercially produced products.

Initially, they were only focused on the clean eating concepts. However, they quickly learned it didn't matter if they were eating clean if they were also putting chemicals and preservatives on their skin, which ultimately are absorbed into the body.

Champaign students named state scholars

An even 100 Champaign Unit 4 school students from Central and Centennial high schools' graduating classes of 2024 had been designated Illinois State Scholars.

MaKenna Beaulin, Annika Blackburn, Francis Brigoli, Elena Carrilo, Natalie Caughlin, Dana Chehab, Mia Childress, Emily Fallaw, Maya Favila, Alfonso Gutierrez, Alexander Hackman, Jonathan Hahn, Jonathan Harrell, Elena Hoang, Joshua Hooper, Daniel Juhn, Shounok Kar, Lilian Kelly,

Joaquin Leon, Helena Lynn, Tammy Marinichev, Wyatt McCarty, Sarmad Mizan, Clare Pate, Riley Ries, Salma Rojano, Trevor Schoonover, Gavin Sheppard, Jenna Shin, Carson Smith, Sandhya Subbiah, Emily Tam, Wilson Tian, Christina Tran, Sadie Tsiakals, Ares Zhu, Ezra Bernhard,

Madeleine Bigler, Elyes Boubekri, Parker Burk, Iris Burov, Lindsay Campbell, Everette Carlson, Charlotte Chesser, Alexander Cho, Thomas Costello, Rachael Coventry, Jake Crawmer, Elijah Dorsla, Jacqueline Douglas, Harper Farrell, Jonah Friedman, Jackson Greenwold,

Manmitha Gunasekera, Hasan Hanif, Caden Hanlon, Leah Hernandez, Daniel Herzog, Kelly Hong, Brooklyn Hubbard, Elise Ionin, Keerthi Jagarlamudi, Shalin Joshi, Eleanor Kim, Eunice Kim, Andrew Kindratenko, Jack Larson, Michael Lee, Angela Lin, Joshua Loftus, Swarup Majumder, Abigail McKendall, Sarah McKendall, Christopher Miller,

Robert Miller, Mariclare Ogorman, Madeleine Orlie-Frost, Carleigh Parks, Thomas Pipkins, Aaron Poetze, Stefan Popa, Casey Pyrz, Avi Rhodes, Katharine Roth, Maxwell Ryan, Samaira Sandil, Evelyn Schuchart, Sanjay Selvam, Kate Simmons, Ryan Slifer, Darwyn Sly, Jonathan Smith,

Savannah Stortzum, Hannah Su, Sarah Su, Benjamin Sutton, Ayesha Waheed, Kalah Weber, Murphy Wilberg, Abigail Yoon