Logan County IL Archives Biographies.....Apel, Harold Gene ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Bill Stephenson woodart@srbfl.com August 18, 2006, 7:03 pm Author: History of Logan Co IL 1982 Biography of Harold Gene Apel Transcription by William L. Stephenson, Jr. – Historian, Bock Family Assocation History of Logan County, 1982 Harold Gene Apel Harold Gene Apel, second son of a family of four (Gary, Harold Gene, Gail Ann Apel Sasse, and Garret Lee), was born to Harold Albert and Rosemary LaForge Apel in the Mennonite Hospital, Bloomington, Illinois, on April 17, 1951. He was educated in the Logan County Schools. Upon graduation from Lincoln High School in 1969 he attended Millikin University where he received a Bachelor of Music degree with the main emphasis in opera and church music. He also received the Most Outstanding Musician award from Milikin. There he met Karen Lynne Paradiso from Elmwood Park, Illinois who also received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Music and Theatre from Milikin University. Upon graduation she received the Most Outstanding Senior award from Milikin. She is presently (1982) engaged in rehearsal for her Broadway debut in New York with the show “The Last of the Red Hot Mamas,” the life of Sophie Tucker. Karen’s parents, Nicholas John and Betty Mae Orpha Peters Paradiso, presently hail from Union, Illinois near Rockford where her brother, Keane Joseph Paradiso, resides. Keane and Karen are both graduates of Interlocken Arts Academy (high school in Interlocken, Michigan). Keane then attended the Tyler School of Art, Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where he received a Bachelor of Artes in Metal Smithing and the President’s Art award. He has his own studio and shop in Belvidere, Illinois. He is presently engaged in the design and construction of a chain for the President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. Karen’s dad is of Italian origin: his parents, Asunta and Pasquale Parasido, came directly to the United States from Italy in 1927. Karen’s mother, on the other hand, is a descendant of James Cook who discovered Hawaii in 1779. From her long linage came two presidents of the United States, Howard Taft and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. President Roosevelt was her grandmother’s, Erma Cook Peters, third cousin. Gene is the Grandson of Dorcus Channing and Bessie Galagher LaForge and Albert Henry and Anna Schrauf Apel from Lincoln. His parents are presently engaged in farming outside of Lincoln. Gene also is a farmer outside of Chestnut, Illinois. Presently he farms and raises livestock (520 acres, 500 hogs, 169 feeder pigs, and 40 head of cattle). In his spare time he and Karen sing, at the Grace Methodist Church, where he has sung the lead tenor roles in Handel’s Messiah, Brahm’s requi9em, Shubert’s Mass in G, and the Nativity According to St. Luke, and many others. He received the part of second tenor with the Chicago Symphony Chorus. Later he decided that he’d rather farm and bring home the bacon. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/logan/bios/apel1079nbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/ File size: 3.4 Kb