Wayman Presley

Wayman Presley (1896-1990) was a rural mail carrier in Makanda, Illinois. He was the principal founder, organizer and inspiration behind the construction of the Bald Knob Cross of Peace in Alto Pass, Illinois. He was featured on Ralph Edward's TV show, This is Your Life, in April, 1955. After retiring from the Postal Service, he started a multi-million dollar tourism company. He is remembered as a humanitarian, an entrepreneur and a tireless promoter of southern Illinois.
Early life.
Wayman Presley was born July 15, 1896 in Cobden, Illinois. He was the oldest of 7 children in the family of sharecroppers, Jim and Gertie Presley. Following eighth grade, Presley attended Southern Illinois Normal College in Carbondale, Illinois. Following college, he became a grade school teacher in a one-room schoolhouse in 1915. In November, 1917, Presley joined the United States Air Corps. He worked as a rigger at a Royal Air Force field in Scotland until his return to the United States in November, 1918. After World War 1, Presley returned home to find his sister in a St. Louis hospital. He sold photos of General Pershing door to door to raise the money for his sister's medical bills. He married Tressie Rowan in 1922 and worked as a fruit and vegetable salesman until 1942. As Postmaster for the Makanda, Illinois area, he consolidated the rural mail route and became the sole mail carrier on the 60 mile route in 1942.
Bald Knob Cross.
On Easter Sunday, 1937, Presley and Rev. William Lirely of Makanda, Illinois, organized a non-denominational Christian service on the top of Bald Knob, in Alto Pass, Illinois. Bald Knob is the highest peak in the area. In 1938, Presley and Lirely erected a small cross on Bald Knob for the Easter service. The Bald Knob Easter service with the small lighted cross became an annual tradition.
Presley began a campaign to build a large, permanent cross on Bald Knob. He secured $100 pledges from many local residents to buy the land at the summit of Bald Knob. Presley was the chief fund raiser, organizer and promoter for the Bald Knob Foundation. He convinced many of the farmers along his 60 mile rural mail route to raise a couple of pigs and donate the proceeds from the sale of those pigs to help build the Bald Knob Cross. In 3 years, $30,000 was raised selling these pigs.
In 1954, the Bald Knob Foundation hired a Chicago-based public relations firm to help promote the Cross project. The General Federation of Women's Clubs also stepped forward to help the promotion efforts. As a result of their efforts, Wayman Presley was featured on the television show This is Your Life, hosted by Ralph Edwards. The episode aired on 6 April 1955. Within weeks of the airing, the Bald Knob Foundation received over $100,000 in donations, mostly in the form of one or two dollars stuffed in an envelope. The structural steel framework for the Cross was completed and dedicated in 1959 and the white porcelain panels were installed in 1963.
Presley Tours.
Wayman Presley enjoyed taking fellow Southern Illinoisans on nature hikes in the scenic wooded areas of Southern Illinois. His first hikes were with his Sunday school students. In 1956, he organized a series of train excursions which stopped in Carbondale, Illinois, St. Louis, Missouri and Grand Tower, Illinois on the Mississippi River. When he retired from the Post Office, he and his oldest son organized an excursion train to Miami, Florida for 146 people. The success of this excursion marked the beginning of Presley Tours. Presley Tours has taken thousands of tour groups to the United States, Canada, Mexico and 50 other countries in the world. When a new country was added to the portfolio, Presley would scout out the new locations himself.