Alton’s Vintage Voices opens ticket sales for October tours

By Managing Editor | September 25, 2025 |

All photos courtesy of Pete Basola Photography

The 24th annual Vintage Voices walking tours will be held in the Alton Cemetery (5th and Vine Streets, Alton, IL 62002).

Mark your calendars for the first two weekends in October: 4, 5, 11, 12, 2025.

The hour-long walking tours begin at noon every day and leave from the main gate on Vine Street in Alton, departing every 15 to 20 minutes.

Tickets are on sale now online at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/vintagevoicestours/tours. Pricing remains at $15 for adults and $10 for students with ID.

A non-walking performance will be held on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025. The one-hour performance begins at 5 p.m. at the Parish Center at St. Mary’s Middle School on Milton Road in Alton, Ill. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased online at https://www.ticketleap.events/tickets/vintagevoicestours/vintage-voices-non-walking-performance.

Tickets will be sold at both locations with cash.

Information about this year’s decedent portrayals:

Gail Drillinger will portray Jane Watson Bassett, head librarian of Hayner Memorial Library from 1925 to 1952.
Kerry Miller will portray Martin Beem, who served in the Union Army and went on to become a prominent Chicago attorney.
Reinhold Gossrau will be portrayed by John Kirkpatrick. Gossrau was a prominent Alton musician and businessman.
Debbie Maneke will portray Bertha A. Neermann Yoxall, who was in charge of the ready-to-wear department of the Gates-Clark Dry Goods Co.
Latasha LeFlore-Porter will portray First Lieutenant Dorothy H. Scott, a member of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, nicknamed the “Six Triple Eight,” the first and only all-Black female unit to be deployed overseas during World War II.
Cary Langley Waples will be portrayed by Caleb Kelehan. Lieutenant Waples will talk about World War I and war horses.
Sean Williams will portray Joseph Henry Price, who worked for library benefactor John E. Hayner, was a janitor at City Hall, and was a fireman for the lead works.
Virginia C. Quigley and Alice E. Quigley will be portrayed by Diana Kay and Jean Heil. The Quigleys were twins who were never apart until Virginia died.