Life Remembered: Cross 'really loved the community' - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette
CHAMPAIGN — Before he passed away, Jim Cross picked Mount Hope Cemetery as his final resting place, specifically for its location — along the Freedom Celebration parade route. "He said he wanted a good view of the parade every year," Chris Cross said of his dad, a retired Champaign firefighter and longtime owner of Huber's bar who'll be memorialized this morning and toasted to this afternoon. He died Monday at 72. A self-described gearhead since age 15, when he bought a 1957 Ford Ranchero, Mr. Cross would always drive one of his collection of cars in the annual Freedom Celebration show. The Fourth of July fixture featured several of his favorite things, all rolled into one must-see event — Mr. Cross loved to show off his cars, loved a parade, loved Champaign-Urbana and really loved fireworks, his son said. "He really loved the community, and owning Huber's kind of reinforced that," Chris Cross said. An Urbana native, Mr. Cross worked for his father's appliance business after graduating from Urbana High School in 1961. He served in the National Guard and eventually joined the Champaign fire department in 1970, where he spent nearly 30 years,... He was already a 20-year veteran when Roger Cruse joined the department in his early 20s. "He was probably the most honest, loyal person you would ever meet," Cruse said. Source: www.news-gazette.com
