A couple praised as pillars of the Cameron/Coldbrook and Lake Bracken communities are being remembered by the many family and friends whose lives they touched.
Steven Youngquist was a lifelong farmer and successful seed salesman. Friends say he was the type of guy who would give the shirt off his back for those in need. His wife Christine was a dedicated longtime teacher. One of her best friends says she was feisty, enjoyed working to beautify her home, and loved a good serving of scallops.
Tragically, the Lake Bracken couple were both killed in the early morning hours of Jan. 31 when a wrong-way driver struck their vehicle on I-74 near Gilson in Knox County. They were en route to the Peoria airport to begin an extended vacation in Florida.
Steven, 70, was pronounced dead on the scene, while Christine, 72, was flown to a regional hospital where she later died as a result of her injuries.
Obituary: Steven H. Youngquist
Obituary: Christine F. Youngquist
They had three children: Zack (Jaclyn) Youngquist of Monmouth, Hannah (Ben) Dingman of Rock Island, and Carissa (Preston) Powell of Overland Park, Kansas.
“I have a really, really solid foundation in faith, so I guess that’s kept me in a pretty good space for what’s happened,” Zack said. “I always felt Mom would outlive Dad, but I’m not sure Mom would have done well without Dad. Obviously it’s a tragedy, but this way, they could go together.
“They were going to the beach, but actually they ended up going to a better beach overall, right?”
Steve Youngquist also owned and operated the SeedHouse in Cameron for many years and continued to work with his son at Youngquist Ag. He and Christine lived for many years in the Cameron area before recently moving to Lake Bracken. Chris was a longtime retired educator who taught in both the Galesburg and Monmouth-Roseville school districts.
Couple was excited about their Florida vacation
According to Zack, his parents spent the last five or six years wintering in Florida.
“They usually drove, but this was the first year they decided to fly. So in typical Steve fashion and trying to find the least expensive flight, they got an early early one out of Peoria,” Zack said. “They were driving to the airport and yeah, the driver driving in the wrong lane without his lights on just ran into them.
“Dad died instantly, and honestly, I don’t think Mom was conscious. She got life-flighted to Peoria, and we got to be with her before she passed, but there was really no bringing her back from that.”
The Youngquists were excited about their upcoming trip to Florida, according to friends.
Deb Westrom, a college roommate of Chris who now lives in Geneva, said she and her lifelong friend shared weekly phone calls, and the warm weather adventure was a topic of conversation when they last spoke the day before the accident.
“We talked about an hour and a half,” Westrom recalled, “We talked about her getting ready for Florida and how excited they were. She didn’t like to fly and she was a little apprehensive about that, but she was doing OK.
“I’m so glad they didn’t see anything coming, and they were happy when it happened. I just can’t believe she’s gone.”
News stuns tight-knit farming community
Keith Morling, who farms west of Galesburg in the Coldbrook area, said he’s known Steve Youngquist for nearly 40 years.
“Steve was one of a kind,” Morling said. “He really worked hard at it, and was really into it. And you soon realized it was the love of his live to be a seed salesman. But he was not just a salesman, he KNEW you. He always wanted to know about you before he would start to sell or do business.
“Two days before the accident he was on my farm, and we spent an hour or more together, just visiting. He was telling me about going to Florida and what they were going to be doing.”
Morling said the news of Steve and Chris’ deaths made the way through their tight-knit farming community “in a matter of hours.
“Everybody knew of the Youngquists and the contributions to our little community. They both were pillars.”
‘He built his business around trust’
Steve was a lifelong farmer who sold seed for 38 years.
Zack, who has followed in the footsteps of his father in the seed business, said in some ways, his father was an unlikely salesperson.
“People ask what made Dad a good salesman, and I say, the fact that he wasn’t a salesman,” Zack said. “He built his business around trust and really took everything incredibly personal. I mean everything that he did was personal. It was always the other person first.
“Everyone has told me Dad was the type of guy who would pretty much give the shirt off his back for someone, and that’s what I experienced, too. He was constantly looking at how he could help me.”
Mom, according to Zack, was the disciplinarian among his parents. She was an elementary teacher for over 30 years, teaching in Galesburg at Steele Elementary School and the Monmouth-Roseville District, retiring in 2014.
“Mom loved being a teacher,” he said.
Deb Westrom said she and Chris were destined to be lifelong friends from the day they met as freshmen at Western Illinois University. They both ended up having a boy and two girls.
“We got to know each other pretty quickly,” Westrom said. “Neither one of us had a biological sister, so we just kind of went on the adventure of life together.
“We lived 3 hours apart, so we were on the phone a lot. But we’d get together lot, especially in the last 10 years after we retired. We just had a lot of fun. A lot of giggles.
“We were confidants trying to navigate parenthood and grandparenthood together.”
Westrom noted she and her husband Dean would make trips to visit the Youngquists on the family farm near Cameron, and later would vacation together in the Ozarks and Florida.
“She was just a lot of fun,” Deb said.”She was a very passionate person. I’d call her a little feisty. Should could never sit down — she was always moving.
“She just loved working on their new house at Lake Bracken. And she loved to try new recipes.”
What was Chris’ favorite food?
“She LOVED scallops when we’d go out in Florida,” Deb said. “And she would rate them when we went to different restaurants.”
‘Western Illinois lost two of the best’
Brian Robinson got to know the Youngquist family when he starting farming in Cameron area in 1993, noting he was always impressed with how Steve and Chris were able “to balance community, church and business.”
“Steve and Chris were just good Christian individuals who were involved in their community,” Robinson said. “For a young farmer just starting out, you look for the people who show up and do things, and they were easy people to look up to.
“Steve was hard of hearing like a lot of farmers are, but he was an especially good listener. He had a passion for agronomy. And Chris always had a smile on her face, and I think that rubbed off on Steve, as well.”
Robinson added, “Western Illinois lost two of the best, that’s what it amounts to. Way too early, The whole community is feeling for Zack, his two sisters and everybody at their farm.”
A gathering of family and friends for Steven and Christine Youngquist will be 4-7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 7 at the Lake Bracken Country Club Clubhouse. A Celebration of Life will be at 10:30 a.m., Saturday, Feb. 8, 2025, at McGuire & Davies Funeral Home and Crematory, Monmouth.
