Purple bunting and a purple wreath adorned the front of the Pekin City Council meeting room Monday. Plants were spread throughout the room.
At the seat where Sue McMillan sat with other city staff members during council meetings were white and purple flowers and a framed photo.
McMillan, Pekin's city clerk for 30 years, died April 28 at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria after a short battle with cancer. She was 73.
"This is a bittersweet night," Mayor Mary Burress said Monday at the beginning of the council meeting, referencing her swearing in of three newly elected and re-elected council members, and the honoring of two departing council members that would take place later that evening.
"Sue was a beautiful lady, and the only city clerk this building (Pekin City Hall) has ever seen," Burress said. "She swore in every active police officer and firefighter in the city. And every mayor and council member over the last 30 years."
City operations moved into the newly built City Hall in 2004.
Burress said McMillan's last communication with City Manager John Dossey and herself was a text message sent at 4:19 p.m. April 28, shortly before she went into surgery.
"The message said, 'I love you all and the city of Pekin,' Burress said.
The council met that night. McMillan died at 9:12 p.m., shortly after the council meeting ended.
Michael Ritchason, pastor of Riverside Community Church in Peoria and a former Pekin City Council member, spoke about McMillan from the public comment podium Monday and said a prayer for McMillan and her family.
Ritchason had known McMillan since he was a child.
"No one was more excited than Sue when I was elected to the council," he said.
Lloyd Orrick, whose final council meeting was Monday after serving as a council member for 24 years, said in retrospect, it was a blessing that he didn't run for re-election April 1 "because my best friend (McMillan) is no longer with us. But she's in a better place."
Matthew Johnson, a council candidate in the April 1 election, said after urging the new council to aggressively attack the city's pension crisis that he always appreciated McMillan's help and the council meeting room should be named for her because of her longtime service to the city.
In response, Burress said there are plans are in the works to honor McMillan.
Memorial contributions in McMillan's name can be made to the American Cancer Society, 4234 N. Knoxville Ave., Peoria, IL 61614.
