Courthouse to be dedicated Monday

The name Rush Hudson Limbaugh Sr. is finally on display at the new federal courthouse in Cape Girardeau. And just in time.

On Monday, anywhere from 500 to 700 invited guests are expected to gather on the lawn of the new courthouse, opened in June after years of delay and millions in cost overruns, to dedicate the $62 million facility. They will hear from the courthouse namesake's grandson, U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr., as well as more than half a dozen other local and federal officials.

The event, which begins at 10:30 a.m., is limited to those who have received invitations because of considerations of security and parking, said Charlie Cook, spokesman for the U.S. General Services Administration in Kansas City.

The courthouse at 555 Independence St. will also be open for guided public tours from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday.

The courthouse was named for Limbaugh because his is one of the most prominent names in legal circles in Southeast Missouri. Along with the legacy of the law firm that bears his name, Limbaugh himself is remembered as tireless, a practitioner of the law who spent almost 80 years working at his profession until just a few months before his 1996 death at age 104.

His son, retired U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh Sr., will also speak at Monday's dedication, and it will be a family reunion for about 60 members of the Limbaugh clan including the best-known Limbaugh, radio host Rush Limbaugh.

"We have people coming in from Los Angeles, from California, from Texas and Florida and all over," Stephen Limbaugh Jr. said Friday. His keynote speech for the dedication will focus on what it means to the family to have their forebear honored.

Lettering with the name was added last week to the brick and concrete monument at the corner of Independence and Frederick streets. The monument, like the courthouse itself, has a short but checkered history. Letters previously set in the concrete have been vandalized, and earlier this year the monument was struck by a motorist.

Two of the largest groups of invited guests are the Rotary Club, of which Rush H. Limbaugh Sr. was a member and past president, and the congregation of the Centenary United Methodist Church, which he joined in 1910 as a student.

Stephen Limbaugh Jr. has been permanently assigned to the Southeast Division of the Eastern District of Missouri, which means he is the first federal judge whose main responsibility will be working in Southeast Missouri. He will handle just more than 60 percent of the criminal cases in the division and half the civil cases. He will also have a docket to cover in St. Louis.

"I anticipate I will be in Cape Girardeau 85 percent of the time," he said.

Along with the two Limbaughs, other speakers include James A. Williams, administrator of the GSA; U.S. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo.; U.S. Rep. Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo.; Judge James B. Loken, chief judge of the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals; and Mayor Jay Knudtson.

rkeller@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 126

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