Roald Tweet
Writer and Narrator of 'Rock Island Lines'Beginning 1995, historian and folklorist Dr. Roald Tweet spun his stories of the Mississippi Valley to a devoted audience on WVIK. Dr. Tweet published three books as well as numerous literary articles and recorded segments of "Rock Island Lines." His inspiration was that "kidney-shaped limestone island plunked down in the middle of the Mississippi River," a logical site for a storyteller like Dr. Tweet.
It was from Rock Island’s rich heritage that Dr. Tweet spun his histories, biographies and "stretchers." Among his favorite topics were railroads and riverboats, which he combined on a CD in celebration of the Grand Excursion in 2004. "Rock Island Lines with Roald Tweet" received awards from the Illinois Historical Society as well as the Towner Award from the Illinois Humanities Council.
Dr. Tweet was professor emeritus, retired from the Augustana College English department, where he was professor and Conrad Bergendoff Chair in the Humanities. A writer and radio personality, Dr. Tweet was also an accomplished woodcarver and whittler.
Dr. Tweet left us in November of 2020, but his legacy lives on. You can hear many of his Rock Island Lines in podcast form here and also in a forthcoming book from WVIK and East Hall Press.
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Perhaps love really is blind, as Shakespeare claimed in The Merchant of Venice. How else to explain the epic poem Henry…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.The announcement that Elizbeth Cady Stanton, the famous campaigner for women's rights, was coming to speak at the…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.If a simple fence can make the grass greener on the other side, just think what a river like the Mississippi can do.…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.I wonder whatever possessed several young Rock Island ladies to demand equal rights back in 1916.That summer, Rock…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.John P. Newburg of Rock Island had an almost ideal job for a tinkerer. He was manager of the Watch Tower Inn, high on a…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.I am confident that the quality of education in Rock Island County jumped dramatically in the fall of 1891. Just a look…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.You may want to take notes for the following two and one-half minutes. I'm going to ask you to judge the innocence or…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Had the weather been a bit more cooperative during the 1904 baseball season, today's annual award for the best…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.Perhaps July 1st, 1891, was a slow day in the Illinois Legislature. Or perhaps the Republicans and Democrats were…
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CommunityThis is Roald Tweet on Rock Island.The Tri-City Street Railway Company would have been more than happy to share the roads with those few newfangled…