A Memorial to Kenny Zuger

During Kenny’s funeral, in 1998, former Waitsburg resident Michael Keifel read a poem he wrote:

We would not be afraid to see his spirit, whether he should suddenly be standing at the edge of his driveway.

Watching a youngster squint through the twilight at the basket for just one more shot before hustling home for dinner.

Or appear on the bleachers, a cup of coffee in his yet strong grasp.

Slapping his knee with the other hand and laughing at a Cardinal shooting past the defense for the goal.

We would be glad to see him once again, shirt off in khaki shorts tending to his garden.

Or cleaning the leaves from the lawn of the museum across the street.

He was the kind of man who could keep a town from getting too small.

Bigger than gossip but never to big for anyone who needed encouragement or an upbeat one-man cheering section.

His heart was as large as the big screen TV he invited folks to see for sports and Champaign.

But the twinkle he kept in his still young eyes could not be engineered by a human electronic

wizard.

Such brightness could only come from someone as the source of Hope.

And Kenny was the right beacon.

He shed just the right amount of light.

And that’s why kids kept shooting baskets far into the night.

The Waitsburg Quartet followed the reading by singing ‘Take Me Out to the Ballgame.’