Funeral service set for James Musgrove, a former Belleville alderman and zoning board chairman
The funeral service has been set for James Musgrove, who served on the Belleville City Council for 16 years and as chairman of the city’s zoning board for 16 years before he was elected alderman.
Musgrove died Dec. 7 at Keystone Place at Richland Creek in O’Fallon. His wife, Dallas, was by his side. He was 87.
Dallas Musgrove said her husband loved his community and family.
“As an alderman or as a person, he went out of his way to help people of the community,” she said.
“When we would go out to places, people would talk to him about different complaints about the city and he always listened to them and made sure their complaints were” relayed to the council, she said.
Musgrove’s son, Jim Musgrove, shared a message from his daughter, Faith Musgrove, about how she remembers her grandfather always supporting local businesses.
“She was impressed how he always wanted to eat at places in the city,” he said. “That was always important to him.”
After his tenure as chairman of the zoning board, Musgrove was a Ward 8 alderman from 2001 to 2017 on the west side of Belleville. He chose not to run for re-election in 2017.
Musgrove was an alderman under the administrations of former Mayor Mark Kern and former Mayor Mark Eckert. Both Kern and Eckert praised Musgrove for his dedication to residents in his ward.
Kern, who is now the St. Clair County Board chairman, was the mayor when Musgrove was first elected to the city council in 2001.
That was the year that the late Henry Beykirch retired from the council after serving for 36 years as an alderman for Ward 8.
“He and Henry were quite a team and they accomplished a lot for the west end,” Kern said of Musgrove and Beykirch.
“Jim was always especially interested in infrastructure,” Kern said. “He was a guy who liked to get the potholes filled and the sewers fixed. And he always was calling the mayor’s office to see what more we could do for the 8th Ward.”
Eckert said Musgrove was “a gentleman of gentlemen.”
“He served his ward well,” Eckert said. “He always responded to his people. That’s why he was elected to four terms.
“He was a great public servant.”
The visitation will be 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Friday at the Kurrus Funeral Home at 1773 Frank Scott Parkway West in Belleville.
The funeral service will be at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Kurrus Funeral Home.
This story was originally published December 13, 2022 at 5:31 PM.
