2025 Cemetery Walk: Lloyd Earl Hight & Trinity Lutheran Church

Lloyd Earl Hight Script-Trinity Lutheran Church

Good evening. My name is Lloyd Earl Hight. I was born on October 15, 1898, in Cedar Rapids Iowa. My grandparents were part of the many New Englanders who had moved west after the Civil War. My family settled in Iowa where we lived for three generations until my wife Lena, and I decided to move to Illinois to start our family. When our two sons were born, Lloyd Junior and Ted, in the 1930s here in Warrenville we did not yet have a Lutheran Church in town, but I am proud to say I helped create the flourishing community church that still lives on today. 

I was a proud founding member of Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church. We formally organized May 10, 1942, with 54 charter members.

Trinity Lutheran Church held its first service in the community building on Sunday mornings. The community building was a very active place, so all other church meetings and classes were held in the homes of our members. Most of those events started at 8pm, way later than the church does things now.

The young people’s Lutheran League met almost every Sunday and did many activities, sometimes meeting at the Community Baptist Church with their youth group. We had a strong bond of fellowship with Community Baptist Church in our early days, and I’m glad to hear it is still that way in this wonderfully connected community.

Although our church was busy growing and establishing our own building, the 1940s were a hard time for our community and country. When World War II broke out, like many churches across the country, we answered the call. Our church, like other local churches had done for previous wars and all the wars since, stepped up to hold meetings to make bandages for the World War II efforts of the Red Cross and to send letters to our many Warrenville soldiers filled with special prayers. Our church was a mission church so we were always in fundraising mode, but it was well worth the impact we could make, and I am so glad to hear that the Trinity still continues its outreach into the community in so many ways.

I sat on the Trinity Church Council when we broke ground on September 21, 1947, for our new church building just down the street at the corner of Warrenville Road and Curtiss Avenue. On January 18, 1948, the corner stone was laid in zero-degree weather, and on November 7, 1948 the first regular service was held in the new building. My fellow church council members that helped shepherd the new building into existence were A. C. Buck, Sr. and Jr., Fred Bevier, J. E. Johnson, Hartley Nelson, G. A. Runstrom, Martin Wille, and James Vavruska.

I passed way in 1962 the same year that ground was broken for the Christian Education Wing. That very next year the Sunday School was dedicated on June 30, 1963. After my time more improvements were made to the church, including a new organ in 1975 replacing the one that had been played by the likes of Maxine Wagner and many more community members, and in 1986 new worship facilities were dedicated with a new sanctuary. I am grateful to rest eternally here in the Warrenville Cemetery so close to the church that provided such a wonderful community home for our family. Thank you