Remembering Terry

The Pyramid Players recently lost one of it’s biggest “stars”, Terry Hopkins. Terry died in his sleep in bed at his Mt. Vernon, Illinois home from a heart attack. Terry was a member of the Fifth District Appellate Court since 1994 and he had a law career that spanned three decades. It included two terms as Franklin County state’s attorney, an 11-year stint from 1983 to 1994 as circuit judge in the Second Judicial Circuit, and 13 years on the appellate court when he was first elected in November 1994.

Appellate Judge Steve Spomer said “Terry was a brilliant lawyer, and outstanding judge, and Terry wore many hats. He was a marvelous storyteller, a great public speaker and was exceptionally bright. He participated in community theatre and was a singer with a beautiful voice, but maybe most important he was just as comfortable talking to a coal miner or a cab driver as he was talking to the president of a bank. He was just an easy person to like. “

Brian Summers, who help found the Pyramid Players with Benton resident Alan Kimball, knew Hopkins in a role quite different from a black-robed judge in a courtroom. Summers said Hopkins had played a number of roles, last performing in “You Can’t Take it with You” in August of 2006. Hopkins also had key roles in “Fiddler on the Roof”, “Annie”, “My Fair Lady”, and “Arsenic and Old Lace.”

“Terry performed in several Pyramid Player productions beginning about 1991, “ Summers said. “He was a person that was just bigger than life. He never met a stranger and when he played some of these character roles he really wasn’t acting, that was just Terry, and he was just being himself. Even though he had a prestigious position he never failed to talk to you when he saw you out and he always asked about your family. He was a wonderful, wonderful person.”

We will all miss Terry. He just loved life and was bigger than life when he was “on stage”.

"Arsenic and Old Lace" .................................................. "Fiddler on the Roof"