Edgeton, Whitney named Fairfield Citizens of Year

FAIRFIELD – LeAnne Edgeton and Kent Whitney attended the Fairfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s Annual Banquet Thursday, unaware that they would be thrust into the spotlight that night.

Edgeton and Whitney were named Citizens of the Year. They were supposed to receive the honor last year, but the chamber had to cancel its banquet because of the pandemic. This meant their two families had to keep the secret of their upcoming award for more than a year.

Edgeton’s husband Jim told her that he would receive an award at the banquet, which did not come as a surprise since Jim has received many accolades in recent years for his work as a band director.

“He said [chamber director] Darien Sloat called him to say he was getting an award because he’s done a lot, even though he just got the dang Wall of Honor,” LeAnne said, referring to Jim’s induction into the Fairfield High School Wall of Honor in September.

Whitney’s family told him he should attend the banquet to get more involved since his business, Whitney Monument Works, will host a Business After Hours in early 2022. His son Jordan joined the business a little over a year ago, and has said he wants to take it over from his dad someday, which would make him the sixth generation of Whitneys to run the business since it began in 1875. He told his dad he wanted to become more active in the community, and encouraged the family to attend the banquet.

The 2019 Citizens of the Year were Joan Salts and Jim Flinspach, and they had the honor of introducing this year’s honorees. Salts introduced Whitney, though in the customary fashion of concealing his identity until the very end of the speech, listing his accomplishments along the way.

“This person’s contribution to Fairfield is widespread in terms of scope, as this person has served on numerous boards and organizations,” Salts began, going on to quote from the nominating papers that this year’s recipient was a “very caring, kind and sensitive person.”

Salts spoke about how the honoree was an original member of the pool/gym task force, a past member of the Fairfield Art Association and Carnegie Museum Foundation, and serves on the Fairfield Evergreen Cemetery Board. Salts said this person received the Friend of Education Award for helping create the Cemetery Day Program for middle school students “by sharing his artisan talent and love of stone carving.”

Salts recounted how this person has “visually unified Fairfield” through projects such as his work on the Heritage Courtyard, Trojan Honor Plaza, Trojan Honor Courtyard, Jefferson County Veterans Memorial and Barhydt Chapel Memorial. When she finally revealed Whitney’s identity in the last line of her speech, the crowd gave Whitney a standing ovation as he approached the microphone to give his acceptance speech.

From the podium, Whitney joked that he had forgotten most of the things Salts described. He thanked several people who have inspired him such as Dave Reiff, Larry Nash and Ron Hunerdosse, and said the town’s young entrepreneurs are contributing to making Fairfield a “destination” everyone can be proud of.

Whitney hopes that he inspires other people to “pay it forward,” and said that you don’t have to be president of an organization or serve on a board to make a difference.

“You can just do a simple, kind gesture every day,” he said. “Doing something nice for somebody, that’s what’s important to me.”

Edgeton was even more surprised when her name was announced just minutes later. Her husband told her he couldn’t remember the name of the award he was getting. She looked at the program and assumed it was the Legacy Award.

“I was getting ready to film that, and then they announced Ed Malloy’s name,” Edgeton said.

When Jim Flinspach took the microphone to announce the second recipient of the Citizen of the Year Award, Edgeton had no idea that she was the person he was describing, until he came to one line. Flinspach talked about how the honoree has a heart for children, tutoring students at Pence Elementary and receiving the Friend of Education Award, serving as an usher and ticket-taker for shows at the Sondheim. One nominator wrote that “this person’s warmth and always-say-yes attitude makes this person a valuable asset to the community.”

The next line out of Flinspach’s mouth mentioned that the honoree was a member of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Reserve for two years, and that was when it hit Edgeton that he was talking about her. Edgeton doesn’t remember what Flinspach said after that because she blanked out, knowing she would have to get on stage and deliver an impromptu speech, even though she had a cold and could barely speak. When her name was announced, the crowd gave Edgeton a standing ovation.

Edgeton is a member of Tri-T, AAUW, Chapter C PEO and the Hens. She is an accomplished percussionist, playing in the Southeast Iowa Band, the Fairfield Municipal Band, the Drouthy Ducks, and other groups. She is well known as a rehearsal and performance pianist for several choirs, bands and theatre troupes such as such Fairfield Area Community Theater, the Coming Home-Coming Together concerts, Van Buren Players, Fairfield Community Chorus, First United Methodist Church’s praise band and chancel choir, among many others.

Edgeton began playing piano at age 7, saying her mother “made me practice to the point of crying.”

“My mother said, ‘You’re going to be so glad I made you practice,’” an anecdote Edgeton has repeated to her own piano students. Edgeton said she really began to enjoy the piano in middle and high school when she got her hands on sheet music for pop songs.

Edgeton met her husband at Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington, Illinois, where they both played in the marching band. Whenever Jim had to perform a recital, LeAnne accompanied him on piano.

In 2016, Edgeton was inducted into her high school’s Wall of Honor in Harvard, Illinois. Jim was named Citizen of the Year for 2015, so the couple has the distinction of each belonging to a Wall of Honor and being named Citizen of the Year.