A new bench in front of Marseilles City Hall honors their first female mayor. Patti Smith was mayor from 2011 to 2015.
She died earlier this year at the age of 76. Mayor Jim Hollenbeck says the idea for the bench came from Patti’s friend Judy Johnson. Smith and Johnson were friends since grade school. He says she and other family members wanted to do something special.
He says the bench and plaque was created in the Chicago suburbs and then brought to Marseilles. Hollenbeck also worked with Smith when he was the city’s health and safety commissioner.
