{"id":31388,"date":"2026-02-24T06:26:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T12:26:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/?p=31388"},"modified":"2026-02-24T07:11:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T13:11:06","slug":"gary-neil-washburn-77-of-effingham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/31388-gary-neil-washburn-77-of-effingham\/","title":{"rendered":"Gary Neil Washburn (77) of Effingham"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"pdfprnt-buttons pdfprnt-buttons-post pdfprnt-top-right\"><a href=\"javascript: window.print()\" class=\"pdfprnt-button pdfprnt-button-print\" target=\"_self\" ><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/print.png\" alt=\"image_print\" title=\"Print Content\" \/><span class=\"pdfprnt-button-title pdfprnt-button-print-title\">Print<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>Gary Neil Washburn, age 77, of Effingham, Illinois passed away, Sunday, February 22, 2026, in his home, surrounded by loved ones.<\/p>\n<p>Funeral service will be held at 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, February 28, 2026, at the Pagel Funeral Home, Edgewood, Illinois with visitation one prior to the start of service. Richard Artis will be officiating. Burial will take place in the Edgewood Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Friday, February 27, 2026, at the Pagel Funeral Home, Edgewood, Illinois. In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to the donor\u2019s choice.<\/p>\n<p>Gary was born October 11, 1948, in Paris, Illinois, the son of Harold N. Washburn and Gilberta \u201cMadge\u201d (Thompson) Washburn. He married Margaret Webster on November 3, 1997, in Effingham, Illinois. Gary enjoyed collecting and shooting guns, camping, and spending time with family and friends. He was a member of the NRA and Effingham County Sportsman\u2019s club. He retired after 35 years of employment at the Newton Power Plant.<\/p>\n<p>He is survived by his wife; Margaret Washburn of Effingham, Illinois, children; Tammie (husband, Kelly) Line of Effingham, IL; Shawn (wife, Crystal) Washburn of Martinsville, IL; Brian (wife, Amy) Washburn of Martinsville, IL; Kelli Washburn of Georgetown, IL; Anthony (wife, Lathie) Washburn of Elgin, IL, brothers: Leon Washburn of Tolono, IL; David (wife, Regina) Washburn of Martinsville, IL, grandchildren; Jessica Wolfert, Devin Wolfert, Kody Line, Kage Line, Bryant Washburn, Blaine Washburn, Shawna Lowe, Payne Washburn, Storm Washburn, Naomi Washburn, Ruby Washburn, Jude Washburn, 9-great-grandchildren, step-children, former step-children, nieces, nephews.<\/p>\n<p>He was preceded by his parents, Gerald and Madge Washburn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Gary Neil Washburn, age 77, of Effingham, Illinois passed away, Sunday, February 22, 2026, in his home, surrounded by loved ones. Funeral service will be held at 12:00 p.m. on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":31390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obits"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Gary Neil Washburn (77) of Effingham - Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader, 979XFM and KJ Country 102.3<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effingham&#039;s News and Sports Leader\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.thexradio.com\/news\/obits\/31388-gary-neil-washburn-77-of-effingham\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gary Neil Washburn (77) of Effingham - 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