Noted Fayette author Eva Monfort Ridenour was honored as a Distinguished Alumni for the 2024 class at Arcola High School in Arcola, Illinois, on October 19. 

Eva said her writing was inspired by her high school English teacher, who guided her life as an accomplished author of fiction, poetry, and history. 

Eva’s work has been published in national magazines, including Grit, Boys Life, Family Motor Coaching, and Persimmon Hill. Her poetry appeared in Well Versed, Columbia Chapter, Missouri Writers Guild, and Mid-America Poetry Review at Central Missouri University. She researched and wrote her mother’s family history, Sorghum and Quilts: The Ancestors and Descendents of Charles Harvey and Nancy Hall Butler. Additionally, she was the 30-year author of the family newsletter, “Butler Babblings.” 

Eva published 10 fiction books under the pen name “Elizabeth Butler .”Many of these books drew from her memories of her childhood in Arcola. Not to be confined by local color, Eva took a trail ride on a working ranch in Montana. The result was the book JDs Rustler, which features a silhouette of her brother, Doug Monfort, on the cover. Several of her books bear her original photography and design.

In 2004, the Missouri Writers Guild awarded her its highest honor, The Walter Williams Major Work Award, for her novel Libby.

Eva’s interest in her hometown history was sparked by a historical pageant at the Arcola 1955 centennial. Fifty years later, at the time of the Arcola Sesquicentennial, her book, Amazing Arcola: The Little Town That Could – And Did!, premiered. The 350-page book resulted from countless hours of research and interviews with Arcola citizens and covers the first 150 years of the town’s history. This book received the Missouri Writers Guild, Walter Williams Honorable Mention. As an invaluable research tool, the book remains a staple in the Arcola City Library and the Arcola Elementary and High School libraries.

Upon retirement from the University of Illinois, Champaign Urbana, Eva was involved in her community. She served on the Armstrong City Council and the Armstrong Revitalization Committee and was Secretary of the Armstrong Literary Club and the Howard County Hazardous Waste Committee. She also served as the past president, administrative secretary, and treasurer of the Columbia Chapter of the Missouri Writers Guild.

Eva currently lives in Fayette near family members Wade, Angel, and Lesley Monckton. She is predeceased by her husband, Robert Ridenour, grandson Erik Monckton, and parents, Vide and Frieda Monfort, of Arcola, Illinois.