Wilma Moore

niece, Mary Catherine Keyster of Tremont, and Moore's widow, Wilma
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"She's (Wilma) been through enough and now all of this . . .

"They had a beautiful marriage, she was the love of his life, and they were so happy together."

For Wilma, since Nov. 8, the days and nights have been tough.She has a hard time sleeping at night and she misses her husband that she once considered a good friend when they were high school students in Jacksonville during the late 1920s and early 1930s.

Wilma and John Cordell Moore were married in 1981.
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On one side was Keyster and her family including Wilma Moore
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But while a family disputes Moore's estate, a grieving Wilma Moore simply admits that money can't replace her husband and her best friend.
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The other one gave "99 percent" of Moore's
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At the time of his second marriage in 1981, Moore had been retired.

Before his retirement in 1975, Moore spent 35 years as a civil servant.It was a career that sharply contrasted his humble small-town central Illinois roots.

Moore was born in the Scott County town of Winchester, worked on the family farm milking cows, and went to school in nearby Jacksonville. He graduated from Illinois College in 1936.

Shortly after graduation, Moore worked in a camp in Grafton, near St. Louis, doing odd jobs to make a living.Later, he joined the Navy at the outset of World War II.

After the war, Moore joined the State Department and served as an executive director of the Foreign Liquidation Commission for South and Central America, Balboa, and the Panama Canal zone.In that role, he sold excess property left over from the war including jeeps, guns and other wartime machinery.

"He'd have meetings with the big shots," Wilma said."He'd negotiate for them to buy these ships and jeeps."

From 1947 to 1950, Moore headed the Office of Alien Property in the Justice Department, supervising the disposal of assets confiscated from World War II enemies.

Wilma Moore said through his jobs, Moore traveled the world.The only two countries he never visited, she said, were communist Russia and China.

In 1965, Moore reached the pinnacle of his career as assistant
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Throughout his career, Moore liked to be in the company of high-ranking officers.He hunted with former Texas Gov.
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In later years, Moore became an energy consultant and served on several board of directors for petroleum companies like the Clark Oil Company.

Upon retirement, family members considered Moore a philanthropist who would often donate money to Illinois College and to his native town of Winchester.

Most recently, Moore had been chairman of an advisory board to oil and gas organizations, and sat on Eastern Illinois University's board.

'So wonderful'

In 1995, Moore suffered his first bout with what eventually was diagnosed as Alzheimer's disease.At the time, he and Wilma were living in Jacksonville.

By the summer of 2001, the symptoms of Alzheimer's had become so bad that he was moved into Morton Terrace in the Peoria suburb of Morton, closer to family in both Peoria and Tremont.

Keyster said that on June 12, Moore was admitted into Methodist
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Moore weighed 179 pounds in August of last year and then dropped to 170 pounds by the first of October.But by Oct. 22, he weighed only

On one side was Keyster and her family including Wilma Moore and their attorney J. Edward Flynn.
...
But while a family disputes Moore's estate, a grieving Wilma Moore simply admits that money can't replace her husband and her best friend.
...
At the time of his second marriage in 1981, Moore had been retired.

Before his retirement in 1975, Moore spent 35 years as a civil servant.It was a career that sharply contrasted his humble small-town central Illinois roots.

Moore was born in the Scott County town of Winchester, worked on the family farm milking cows, and went to school in nearby Jacksonville.He graduated from Illinois College in 1936.

Shortly after graduation, Moore worked in a camp in Grafton, near St. Louis, doing odd jobs to make a living.Later, he joined the Navy at the outset of World War II.

After the war, Moore joined the State Department and served as an executive director of the Foreign Liquidation Commission for South and Central America, Balboa, and the Panama Canal zone.In that role, he sold excess property left over from the war including jeeps, guns and other wartime machinery.

"He'd have meetings with the big shots," Wilma said."He'd negotiate for them to buy these ships and jeeps."

From 1947 to 1950, Moore headed the Office of Alien Property in the Justice Department, supervising the disposal of assets confiscated from World War II enemies.

Wilma Moore said through his jobs, Moore traveled the world.The only two countries he never visited, she said, were communist Russia and China.

In 1965, Moore reached the pinnacle of his career as assistant secretary of the interior for mineral resources under President Lyndon B. Johnson.Under that title, he was given supervisory responsibilities over several mining and geological posts.

Throughout his career, Moore liked to be in the company of high-ranking officers.He hunted with former Texas Gov.
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In later years, Moore became an energy consultant and served on several board of directors for petroleum companies like the Clark Oil Company.

Upon retirement, family members considered Moore a philanthropist who would often donate money to Illinois College and to his native town of Winchester.

Most recently, Moore had been chairman of an advisory board to oil and gas organizations, and sat on Eastern Illinois University's board.

'So wonderful'

In 1995, Moore suffered his first bout with what eventually was diagnosed as Alzheimer's disease.At the time, he and Wilma were living in Jacksonville.

By the summer of 2001, the symptoms of Alzheimer's had become so bad that he was moved into Morton Terrace in the Peoria suburb of Morton, closer to family in both Peoria and Tremont.

Keyster said that on June 12, Moore was admitted into Methodist Medical Center's behavioral management unit in Peoria.
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Moore weighed 179 pounds in August of last year and then dropped to 170 pounds by the first of October.
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Flynn also represents Moore's -niece, Mary Catherine Keyster of Tremont, and Moore's widow, Wilma -Smith of Jacksonville and Tremont.
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-Moore was a "man of high integrity," Seamon said, who spent many years -as a civil servant.
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-Moore also had been involved in the U.S. offshore oil industry as a -representative on the board of directors of many petroleum companies, -Seamon said. -

Chairman Wilma Moore is planning some fine entertainment.