Union County Museum to celebrate Apollo 11 anniversary

Union County Museum in Cobden, Illinois, is set to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing with a display of more than 20 personal artifacts from then-Kennedy Space Center employee and Navy veteran Galen Weakley.

The mission July 20, 1969, took U.S. astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin to the moon, marking man’s first successful landing.

Weakley was the manager of the Guidance and Control Systems project at IBM Corp.’s Cape Kennedy facility.

As a member of the KSG Government/Industry team that launched Apollo 11 — and from 1971 to his death Feb. 4, 1995 — Weakley worked at the IBM facility in Manassas, Virginia.

His widow, Mary Anna Weakley, loaned the items to the Union County Museum, according to Patrick Brumleve, president of the Union County Historical Society.

An Apollo 11 presentation item is seen at the Union County Museum in Cobden, Illinois.Submitted photo

“She’s a neighbor of mine,” he said. “Her daughter told me about her husband working for NASA and that he had a few things. I thought, ‘Well, since this is the 50th anniversary, this will be a good time to do this display.’”

Brumleve said there aren’t any extremely rare or “wow pieces,” within the display, “but it’s a nice display honoring the moon landing.”

The exhibit includes official Kennedy Space Center patches, plaques received by Weakley for his service, photos, booklets and a newspaper dated July 20, 1969.

“Three or four times a year, we try to do different things,” he said. “It’s a way of reminding people that the museum is there and to come back and look at this.”

Brumleve said, “There’s always something a little bit different there they can see.”

An issue of The Denver Post from July 21, 1969, is seen at the Union County Museum in Cobden, Illinois.Submitted photo

The museum also houses a large collection of Native American artifacts, Anna Pottery items and information on local history, he said.

In 2006, the museum and contents were turned over to the Union County Historical Society.

The Apollo 11 exhibit will open 1 p.m. Saturday and continue through August.

Museum hours are 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

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A special collectors' edition of "Man on the Moon" record album is seen at the Union County Museum in Cobden, Illinois.Submitted photo