Procession to honor longtime Edwardsville mayor since coronavirus prohibits big funerals
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include additional information from Gary Nieber’s family.
Coronavirus restrictions will keep Edwardsville residents from planning a big funeral or memorial service for former longtime mayor and YMCA director Gary Niebur, who died suddenly on Saturday of “natural causes,” according to his family. He was 64.
The family will hold a private visitation and burial on Thursday with fewer than 10 people, said Mike Weber, funeral director and co-owner of Weber & Rodney Funeral Home, which is handling arrangements.
But the public will play a role in Niebur’s farewell.
“We’re going to have a procession (on Thursday morning) that goes past both the YMCAs that he was director of, and they’re going to have a lot of police cars and fire trucks along the way and block all the intersections,” Weber said. “And they’re asking people to pay tribute to Gary by kind of lining the route, but we’re going to do social distancing.”
Niebur was Edwardsville’s mayor from 1993 to 2013, when he decided not to seek a sixth term. He was the longest-serving mayor in the city’s 200-year history, according to an Illinois General Assembly resolution passed in honor of his YMCA retirement in 2018.
Later that year, the YMCA’s Esic Center was renamed the Niebur Center. His death was first announced Sunday on the YMCA’s Facebook page.
“It is with a heavy heart that we announce that Gary Niebur, our former CEO of 35 years, has passed away,” the post stated. “He made a tremendous impact in the lives of so many not only at the Y, but throughout the Edwardsville community. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his wife Debby and their four children and their families. He will be missed by his YMCA family.”
Niebur had re-entered politics recently. On March 17, he won the Democratic primary as a District 17 candidate for Madison County Board. He defeated incumbent Victor Valentine Jr., who was appointed last summer to fill the seat vacated by Ann Gorman.
The Niebur family released the following statement:
“With broken hearts and profound sadness, we regret to inform the community of the unexpected passing of our beloved husband, father and “Papa” Gary Niebur. Gary passed away peacefully at his home on Saturday, May 2. Arrangements are pending. We thank the entire community — which he loved so dearly — for your love and support at this time, and respectfully ask for privacy as we mourn this unexpected loss.”
Nieber died at home but was taken to Anderson Hospital in Maryville, according to his daughter, Ashley. Confirmation on cause of death is pending.
Illinois funeral homes have been limiting the number of mourners since mid-March to slow the spread of the coronavirus, which causes the respiratory disease COVID-19.
Thursday’s procession for Niebur will leave Weber & Rodney Funeral Home at 11 a.m. and go south on Main, right on St. Louis Street, left on West Street, right on Illinois 157, left on Esic (past the Neibur Center), left on Governor’s Parkway, right on Ridge View Road, right on Goshen Road (past the Meyer Center), which runs into Center Grove Road, and left on Illinois 157 to Calvary Catholic Cemetery.
“They’re planning to hold a memorial celebration and a memorial Mass at a later date,” Weber said.
The Illinois General Assembly resolution credited Neibur for helping to grow Edwardsville’s population from 14,000 to 25,000 and noted that Family Circle magazine had named the city one of the Top 10 places to raise a family on his watch.
“He also worked tirelessly to develop and expand Illinois State Routes 159 and 157, to promote safety and business growth,” the resolution stated. “And through his persistence, he received nearly $50 million to fund these projects.”
This story was originally published May 4, 2020 at 1:49 PM.
