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Friday, June 20, 2025

Sam

I met Sam Featherstone a few days before Christmas. For more than a year, I carried in my briefcase a small book of my family history written by my great-grandmother. My intentions were to drop it by a printer, a friend, to be reprinted for gifts for my sisters and stepfather.  Finally, just a few days before Christmas, I ran into his shop without an appointment with my late request. I was met by the printer, Bob, and introduced to a family – Andy, Tammy, Susan, and Sam Featherstone – gathered around a computer proofing a book.

A few days later, my family history book was delivered to my office. Two days after Christmas, our family volunteered at SamStrong: Search for the Cure. My husband and our employees were very involved helping to market and promote the event the 19-year-old Reitz Memorial High School 2012 co-valedictorian with incurable medulloblastoma organized to raise awareness and money for pediatric brain cancer research.  Still, I personally had not been involved, nor had I met the Featherstones until that day in Bob’s office.

Not quite a week later, on Jan. 2, Sam passed away. His book, “SamStrong” – the book the family was proofing – is a collection of drawings and poetry he created during his three-year fight with brain cancer. It includes a moving forward by his mother, Tammy. Sam’s speech, delivered at Memorial High School in late November, also is reprinted.  Sam’s event, SamStrong: Search for the Cure, raised more than $200,000 for St. Jude Children’s Research. Also, the Sam Featherstone Memorial Scholarship has been established at The Catholic Foundation of Southwestern Indiana, Inc., for a Memorial High School graduating senior who succeeded in high school while overcoming challenges. Sam Featherstone’s light will long shine on our close community. I am grateful to have met him.

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Kristen K. Tucker
Kristen K. Tucker
Kristen K. Tucker formed Tucker Publishing Group, Inc., along with her husband, Todd, in September 1999 and published the first issue of Evansville Living in March 2000. Kristen, publisher and editor of Evansville Living, holds a bachelor’s degree in public relations and English from Western Kentucky University and a master’s degree in liberal studies from the University of Southern Indiana. Kristen has recently served on the board of directors of The Catholic Foundation of Evansville, the Board of Advisors for the IU Medical School Evansville, and Indiana Landmarks. In 2007, she helped found the Women’s Fund of Vanderburgh County. She also is a member of the 125-year-old Social Literary Club. Kristen is the 2003 Athena Award recipient and the 2006 recipient of the Indiana Commission for Women’s Torchbearer Award. Tucker Publishing Group, Inc., magazines have won dozens of awards through the years from the City & Regional Magazine Association, the Advertising Federation of Evansville, the Evansville Design Group, and the Indiana Society of Professional Journalists. A native of Des Moines, Iowa, Kristen moved with her family to Evansville, her father’s hometown, in 1971. She attended Caze Elementary School, and Castle Jr. and Castle Sr. High Schools in Newburgh, Indiana. Kristen and Todd have two adult sons, Maxwell and Jackson. Kristen enjoys walking, travel, Pilates, and reading.

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