Oral History

Brian Mark Nemenoff was born in Chicago, Illinois, on December 3rd, 1947, and lived there until the age of five. He spent his childhood and teenage years in Aurora, Illinois, and graduated high school in 1966. Nemenoff attended Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he graduated in 1970, and he then served in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1970-1976. He became licensed to practice law in 1974 after graduating that same year from University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign School of Law. Nemenoff clerked for Third District Appellate Court Justice Jay Alloy from 1974-1975. He served as Municipal Attorney for the City of Peoria and general counsel for the Peoria Civic Center Authority, starting in 1976 until 1986. Nemenoff was appointed an Associate Judge in the Tenth Judicial Circuit in 1986 and served in that position until 2007. After serving as a judge, Nemenoff has practiced in mediations with an emphasis in court ordered family law mediations. Nemenoff is on the board of CASA of Peoria County, which is Court Appointed Special Advocates which is a private non-for-profit group that provides juvenile abuse and neglect courts with help. He is on the board of the B’nai B’rith Covenant House. Nemenoff also serves on the steering committee for the Illinois High School Association Boys Basketball Tournament and has worked the exhibit hall and as a team host for several years. He enjoys time with his friends, family and wife Kathryn.

Stephen L. Spomer was born in Urbana, Illinois, on April 14th, 1949, and grew up in Cairo, Illinois. He graduated from Tulane University in 1971 and Tulane Law School in 1974. After school, Spomer worked as a public defender and then a State’s Attorney of Massac County (1976-1978). Spomer was elected a Circuit Court Judge in 1978 in the First Judicial Circuit and served in that position until 2005, he ran as a Republican. In 1992 he was elected as a Chief Judge for the First Circuit which lasted until 1998. In 2005 he was appointed to the Fifth District Appellate Court, and he retired from the bench in 2014. He has a wife, Debra, and a daughter, Amy.

Frank W. Lincoln was born in Tuscola, Illinois on November 17th, 1938, and grew up on the south end of Tuscola during the World War II era. Lincoln attended DePauw University and the University of Illinois Law School. He passed the bar in 1964 and clerked for Harrison J. “Budge” McCown who was State’s Attorney of Douglas County. He served as assistant for four years to McCown. Lincoln met his wife Marlene in August of 1966 and they married in 1968. They went on to have four children. Lincoln worked in private practice while also conducting the State’s Attorney’s office. He worked with George E. Nichols for ten years, and with Harrison J. McCown for twenty years. He was a partner in the Tuscola law firm of Nichols, Jones, McCown & Lincoln. More of his time as a lawyer will be discussed in the second interview.

Carson Klitz was born in Quincy, Illinois, on January 20th, 1938, and moved with his family to Rushville, Illinois, when he was six years old. After graduating from Rushville High School, he entered the Navy in 1956. He returned to Rushville after getting out of the Navy in 1960. He worked for CB&Q Railroad before entering Western Illinois University. He married Carol Richey in December of 1961. He eventually attended John Marshall Law School. He began practicing law in Rushville. Served as judge from 1980 until 1998. Judge Klitz has been on the Schuyler County Fair Board since 1970, as well as the park board, belonging to a local community organization called Pride, and has been active with the local Masonic organization. In more recent years he has served as Mayor of Rushville.

Judge Arnold F. Blockman was born in Memphis, Tennessee. He attended the University of Illinois Urbana/Champaign School of Law and graduated in 1973. Blockman served as a Law Clerk for Justice Leland Simkins from 1973-1975 and worked in private practice at Hatch and Baker, P.C., later becoming a partner at the firm renamed Hatch, Blockman and McPheters, P.C. He was elected a Champaign County Circuit Judge, Sixth Judicial Circuit of Illinois, Urbana, Illinois, until his retirement in 2016. Blockman also taught law beginning in 1974 and continued this until the present day. Judge Blockman and his wife Rita have three children.

Warren D. Wolfson practiced law in Chicago, Illinois, before being appointed as Judge of the Circuit Court of Cook County in 1975.

This oral history project began with the work of Judges James F. Henry and Theodore M. Swain to collect the oral histories of Cook County Judges. The two Judges passed the work on to graduate students at Loyola University Chicago under the guidance of Professor Christopher E. Manning.

Stuart H. Shiffman worked in the Attorney General’s office, opinions division, from 1974-75; the Sangamon County State’s Attorney’s office from 1975-79;  the Attorney General’s office, this time working in the criminal division, from 1979-80; and again with the State’s Attorney’s office, from 1980-1983.

Juleann Hornyak, a graduate of Chicago-Kent College of Law, began her legal career as a research attorney for the Fourth District Appellate Court in 1979.

Thomas F. Londrigan, a graduate of the University of Illinois in Urbana/Champaign College of Law, has practiced law in Springfield, Illinois since 1962.

Chris Freese worked in private practice from 1978-99, was a Public Defender in Moultrie County from 1979-80 and 1996-99, and was State’s Attorney of Moultrie County from 1980-84.

John A. Barra worked as an Assistant State’s Attorney in Peoria County from 1974-80, and was elected State’s Attorney of Peoria in 1980, serving in that position until 1988.