Note to readers – Sauk Valley Media reprints editorials and articles from the past as a regular Monday feature. The following items appeared in the Telegraph on Sept. 19, 1966.
Miss Valerie Percy
Illinois and the nation were deeply shocked Sunday when the news spread of the death of Valerie Percy, the fine young daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Charles H. Percy of Kenilworth.
The prominence of the family gives this brutal crime more prominence than usual. Charles H. Percy, the girl's father, is a candidate for U.S. senator from Illinois.
The young Percy girl's life was brutally snuffed out by an intruder who had broken into the Percy home while the family were all asleep.
Friends and political opponents alike have warm-heartedly sent messages of condolence to the Charles Percy family, and this is the American Way.
This terrible crime shocked everyone because it could happen in any home in America, and we all know this to be only too true.
We are sure that the hearts of every decent, God-fearing family in Illinois go out to the Charles Percy family in their tragic hour of bereavement.
Seek clues in murder of Percy's daughter
Burglar theory ruled out by police chief
KENILWORTH, Ill. (AP) – Kenilworth's police chief said today all indications are that the slayer of Valerie Percy broke into her home for no reason but "to harm a member of the family."
Whether Valerie, a 21-year-old twin, was the intended victim Chief Robert M. Daley said he did not know. She simply may have been the first person the killer found, he said.
The daughter of Charles H. Percy, 47, one-time boy wonder of business and now Republican nominee for U.S. senator, was beaten and stabbed to death in her bed early Sunday morning while the Percys and two other children slept nearby.
The sleeping children included Valerie's twin, Sharon, and another sister, Gail, 13. The Percys' two boys were away. ...
Percy's wife, Loraine, discovered the killing after hearing moans and going to Valerie's room to investigate.
The Percys' bedroom door was closed. Asked how the mother could have heard sounds with the door closed, Daley said that in the quiet of the night she would have heard them. ...
U.S. Sen. Paul Douglas, Democrat, abruptly halted his campaign for re-election in November and offered the Percys his condolences. He said he would resume stumping only after Percy does. ...
The slaying numbed residents of Kenilworth, a community of fewer than 3,000.
Meteor spotted in area
Dixon police and the sheriff's office Saturday night were swamped with inquires about a flying object high in the sky which appeared to be an airplane afire to most who called.
Mrs. Jessie Taylor, matron at Lee County Jail, said she first began receiving the calls about 8:15 p.m. from curious and excited area residents who had just "spotted a flaming object in the sky falling rapidly toward the earth."
Mrs. Taylor said she checked with Dixon police who themselves had already received a call from an anxious citizen.
Police told Mrs. Taylor that they had checked with the local airport and the Rockford airport and were told the "flaming object" was sighted high in the sky and east of Rockford.
A further check with Chicago authorities revealed a giant meteor had exploded over the Midwest, dropping fragments on Indiana, Michigan and southern Ontario, Canada.
‘Mission’ lacks plot, is boring
By Cynthia Lowry, AP TV-Radio Writer
NEW YORK (AP) – "Mission Impossible" had for its mission the job of spiriting some nuclear warheads out of a dictatorship in South America. And it took an extremely long Saturday evening hour to accomplish the assignment.
The CBS program was one of three new shows bowing in over the weekend. The others were NBC's "T.H.E. Cat" on Friday and CBS' Western comedy "Pistols 'n' Petticoats" the following evening. None of them proved to be anything more than stock treatments of familiar themes.
The sole hour show was "Mission Impossible." It had the least amount of plot. And it resolved that problem by filling the extra time with a lesson on applying stage makeup and with a demonstration of electronic methods of breaking down the door of a bank vault.
"Mission Impossible" is an organization of secret agents for hire – but only for the good side, of course. The head man, played by Steven Hill, didn't have much to do, but he had on hand guest star Wally Cox playing a master safe cracker, Martin Landau, playing a master of disguises, and Barbara Bain as a mistress diverting masculine attention at the right time.
It was also pretty confusing, not to mention boring. ...
Surveyor 2 launch is set Tuesday
CAPE KENNEDY, Fla. (AP) – The National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans Tuesday to launch Surveyor 2 toward a soft landing in the center of the moon's visible face to explore a potential manned landing spot.
An Atlas-Centaur rocket is to boost the 2,204-pound spacecraft skyward during a 43-minute favorable period starting at 6:46 a.m. (CDT). The three-legged, camera-carrying vehicle is to cover the quarter-million-mile course in 63 hours, aiming for a feathery touchdown in the Sinus Medii (Central Bay) Thursday night.
The target is about 800 miles east of the Ocean of Storms where Surveyor 1, America's first lunar soft-lander, touched down in June. Performing far beyond expectations, Surveyor 1 relayed 11,233 close-up pictures that indicated the surface where it landed is strong enough to support a manned expedition.