Railsplitter redux: Decatur's Lonn Pressnall finds Mr. Lincoln's skin a comfortable fit

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Aug. 26--FORSYTH -- Looking back, it seems inevitable that Lonn Pressnall and Abraham Lincoln would wind up touring together.

Pressnall, 63, has been bumping into the 197-year-old memory of Lincoln since he first learned to recite the Gettysburg Address by heart in grade school. But he really got up close and personal with the 16th president while at college in his home state of Nebraska and performing in a play called the "World of Carl Sandburg," based on the work of one of the first and most important Lincoln biographers.

"I used to be kind of 'methody' you might say in my preparation back then, and I read a lot about Lincoln and got very interested in him," said Pressnall, who lives in Forsyth. "But then I kind of drifted away with all the other things I was doing as I pursued my theater education."

He would meet Lincoln again in 2001 when, as professor of speech and theater at Richland Community College, he revived the "World of Carl Sandburg" and did a Lincoln cameo role. And then he took the stage as the Great Emancipator in "The Last Great Hope," a play he wrote about Lincoln's friendship with Frederick Douglass, the former slave who spoke and wrote with a muse of fire. Busy researching Lincoln's dealings with Douglass and just delving deeper into the Lincoln mystique in general, Pressnall soon found himself held in the gravitational field of the Railsplitter's fascinating personality.

"I also discovered by happy accident that Lincoln was well- versed and knowledgeable in Shakespeare, and I've had a love affair with Shakespeare since my days as an undergraduate English major," Pressnall said. "Lincoln loved going to the theater, and he loved plays and, of course, he was killed by an actor in a theater. There is just so much irony and beauty in the Lincoln saga, and it was easy for me to get caught up in it."

So much so he started becoming Lincoln professionally after the Richland performances, dying his hair dark and elevating his 6-foot- 1 frame an extra few inches with thick-heeled boots to get closer to his alter ego's 6-foot-3-plus. Cosmetically, the professor was already almost there: His long face resembles Lincoln's, and he even has a mole on the same spot on the right side of the face where Lincoln had one.

Some rigorous exercise gave him the gauntish looks necessary to complete the effect, and then he was off: His first paying gig was portraying Lincoln at the opening of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield in 2005. Since then, he's appeared as the costumed Lincoln at everything from Republican dinners to the Windy City's "Taste of Chicago" and has loved every minute of it, much to his wife Mary's nonsurprise.

"I'm not really sure just what the fascination with Lincoln is, but it's a deep one," said Mary Pressnall, who has slipstreamed behind her wide-eyed husband on pilgrimages to just about every Lincoln site in Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. She's too tall to be Mrs. Lincoln, by the way, and has no desire to play her. "We went to New Salem again the other week, and I do find that part of the history fascinating, whether it's Lincoln or anyone else," she said. "The day-to-day struggle and the primitive conditions they lived in, it was hard."

Lonn Pressnall tries to capture some of the flavor of a man who could rise from that prairie frontier to become a self-taught lawyer, lover of literature and a man widely seen as the greatest president. The thespian offers a Lincoln portrayal for all seasons, too, available for hire in character to just meet and greet and shake hands, or appear as the great orator thundering out the Gettysburg Address or performing a piece he calls "A. Lincoln: A Touch of the Poet," looking at the president's fascination with great literature. "There's something in Lincoln for everybody," he said.

His performances have attracted much attention and praise. His latest honor is the most prized: the 2006 Rail-splitter Award from the Association of Lincoln Presenters, a 150-strong group of nationwide enthusiasts who portray Lincoln, which came in the form of a handmade, hand-painted whirligig that shows an ax-swinging Lincoln splitting a log.

"It's very cool, and I'm very proud of it," Pressnall said.

Now the Lincoln performer is hoping to take his presidential show on the road and is contemplating the perfect alignment of means, motive and opportunity.

After a 27-year-career at Richland, he retired July 31 and plans to make overseas travel a big part of his golden years. He can't afford to take off on some global grand tour but, with his friend Lincoln along for the ride, the possibility looms of working his ticket by spending some time overseas in character: target countries for presidential performances range from Scotland to Japan, Russia and Greece.

"You know something?" Pressnall said. "I've heard that in every country, even if there are people who have absolutely no English, there is one word they all know: Lincoln."

Tony Reid can be reached at treid@herald-review.com or 421-7977.

Credit: Herald & Review, Decatur, Ill.