PEORIA — We lost you, Wes Huett, a little more than a month ago, and still the heartache is unrelenting, the shock is heavy.
As the Journal Star sports editor you liked to tell us, when talking through a story idea, that something was an easy lift. But your death, at just 48, is the toughest carry.
We see you everywhere, your name on stories as we sift through our daily work in the Journal Star archives, your talent for creating visual pieces there for us to copy and use and learn from.
Your wry, journalist’s wit surfacing in old social media posts, and in endless old messages on our phones.
No one ever thought we’d lose you, not so young, not with your talent and your career still growing and blooming and trying to keep pace with your magnificent love for your wife and two teenage sons and siblings and enormous circle of friends and colleagues.
In our newspaper business, your life was a great read, a multi-part series that will forever be unfinished.
Wes Huett’s journey
Wes Huett was the Journal Star sports editor and a local news editor when he died unexpectedly on Feb. 3, 2026, eight days after a planned cardiac surgical procedure to replace a faulty valve and repair an aortic aneurysm.
“They still don’t know what happened,” said his wife, Melinda Huett. “The surgeon said the surgery was a success and everything went well. They believe there was another underlying problem they could not figure out and control that caused his decline. They did everything possible to save him.
“We wanted answers, the surgeon wanted answers. OSF doesn’t do autopsies anymore. We called the coroner’s office and talked to them about it, but the reality is there were so many unknowns in even doing an autopsy there were no answers guaranteed.
“We have to accept the reality that we just won’t know.”
Wes Huett grew up in central Illinois, an East Peoria High School graduate who lived with his family in Washington.
He earned an associate’s degree in journalism from Illinois Central College in 1999, then went on to finish a bachelor’s in communications with a minor in writing from Illinois State in 2001.
He started working as a reporter and eventual sports editor at Chillicothe’s weekly in 1998. In 2001, he won a job with the Journal Star sports department, worked as a reporter and later was brought inside as a splendid desk editor and page designer until 2015.
He was elevated to assistant sports editor from 2015-18, then served as sports editor from 2018 until this year, at times coordinating sports coverage around Illinois with the Journal Star’s sister newspapers. He took on more responsibility in the last three years, serving as sports editor and helping supervise news coverage.
He is survived by his wife, Melinda, their two sons, Jake (19) and Drew (13), his mother, Gaynell (his father Rick, predeceased); his brother, Rick (Jennifer) and sisters Autumn (Greg) and Amber; and a large extended family of nieces and nephews.
Huett was a Buffalo Bills fan. He loved pop culture and movies and could talk about anything that was ever filmed, present or long past, weighing in every year on Oscar nominations and trying to go see the movies that were nominated.
He learned to play poker from his father and his brother, joined some games around the area, and every year gave us updates on the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
He was fun. His go-to drink was an Old Fashioned. He kept a Masters of the Universe action figure on his work desk. His personality and his talent had big range. And he was passionate about journalism, and journalists, in an era when newspapers require a lot from those who keep them going.
He did the lifting. Literally, in fact. Huett’s actual first Journal Star job was a side-gig throwing newspaper bundles on Saturday nights.
The family is working with Illini Cremation.
Huett didn’t want a formal funeral or visitation. But he did want a party. The family promises dancing at a celebration of life from noon-4 p.m. March 22 at the Distillery Labs in Downtown Peoria.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks donations be made to Wes’ children’s education fund at any CEFCU location. Help can also be given via monetary donations, meals and other assistance via a GiveInKind link set up online.
How we remember him
Wes Huett had a team in a Peoria fantasy football league stacked with current and former Journal Star sports writers.
We would have our annual draft on the porch of then-PJS assistant sports editor Bill Liesse, in the wee hours of the morning in a neighborhood bordering Bradley University and with lots of food and drink on hand.
When Huett died, his son, Jake, asked Wes’ brother, Rick, to tell him a funny story about his father.
As they drove away from the hospital, Rick Huett recalled a moment during one of those late-night football league drafts.
“I told him about the time we were on Bill Liesse’s porch during the draft, and a black sedan with tinted windows rolls up in front of the house (at 2 a.m.),” Huett said. “Wes leans over to (former PJS sports writer) Ryan Ori and says, ‘If I see a weapon, I’m going to grab you around the waist and use you for a shield. Sorry, but I can’t lift any of the other guys.’ “
Former Journal Star reporter Andy Kravetz:
“I wasn’t a sports guy. Oh, I would walk over and talk about sports but I wasn’t part of that crew. Being a news guy, we worked on the other side of the room.
But beginning in 2019-ish, I was made the night editor and covered things at night. It was Wes, Katie Gaston and I most nights in the newsroom. To pass the time and to indulge our own goofy senses of humor, we threw around a football or a frisbee. Wes was better in his aim than I. Those who know me know that I often blame others for random things.
Well, Google has this thing that allows you to type in a phrase and it would say it back to you in a nasal computer voice. All kinds of things were typed into Google over those nights. and it was hilarious. It made those long nights great and Wes’ sense of humor added greatly to it. It began a challenge to come up with obscure words and at times, obscene phrases. Quite funny.
It’s not very deep or meaningful, I guess, but it was something that I will cherish. It made the time fun, we talked about movies, sports and youth sports. We’d mock each other’s favorite sports, for him, basketball, for me, hockey. It was great fun and showed his incredible breadth of knowledge about things. Fair winds, Wes. You will be missed.”
Former Journal Star executive sports editor Kirk Wessler:
“Being a film buff of the highest order, Wes would appreciate this.
There’s a line in “Butch Cassidy & The Sundance Kid.” Butch, played by Paul Newman, has just explained the benefits of moving to Bolivia. Sundance praises his partner’s acumen, and Butch replies: “Boy, I got vision and rest of the world wears bifocals.”
That’s how I remember Wes Huett. He had vision and the rest of us who worked with him just shook our heads in awe.
The pages and sections he designed for Journal Star Sports were works of art. We had a talented staff, and our sections always looked good. But reviewing back issues, you can always pick out the ones Wes designed. We gave him stories and photos and whatever number of pages, and he combined them into daily masterpieces. Great stories and great photos in his hands became even greater on the printed page.
Wes refused to accept anything but the best of himself. He worked until he got it right, and then he worked more. Writing. Editing. Designing. Picking up slack. Filling holes. Taking time to be a friend and confidant – and I mean that rare one you could trust with anything. He did it all, and he did it well.”
Wes Huett’s wife, Melinda:
“We used to have an office desk down in our basement with a bulletin board. He had written a story, something on girls basketball. He got a statistic wrong in it. They called him out on it. Well he cut that out and had it next to the desk. It read, “Not 21, but 22.” A constant reminder to him to always double-check his work, get kids names spelled correctly.
That hung on that board for a decade at least. He wanted to make sure everything was right for the kids.”
Journal Star sports writer Adam Duvall:
“He’s a great player.”
“Anytime we would drop this phrase to each other, we would share a laugh. That quote stemmed from Wes’ days on the high school football beat where he gave Mid-Illini and Mid-State 6 conference schools the type of coverage most pro teams would envy.
A now-retired football coach had supplied that one-liner after his star player had an all-time game. Wes tells the story that he tried to get more out of the old ball coach, but he just replayed that same refrain. So, Wes gave up and went with what he had been told.
Years later, I covered the same team, and a similar individual effort emerged. Several attempts by me to talk about the performance resulted in nearly the exact response.
Wes shared his experience and thus was born our go-to phrase when talking about the dozens of Division-I prospects about their outstanding prep performances.
“He’s a great player.”
Wes inadvertently gave me imposter syndrome. His trust in me as an up-and-coming reporter provided me with opportunity after opportunity to tell the stories of athletes and teams throughout central Illinois.
It’s no secret that the Journal Star has gone under a lot of changes over the last 10 years. But Wes remained a positive, passionate, guiding light through it all. He made all of us better, more polished reporters, and mentoring while editing copy, plus providing subtle improvements.
I remember him sharing the news of Jake and Drew’s births – no one was prouder of his sons. Wes and I discussed movies, played poker and shared the joys of our families.
To me, Wes was more than a boss, but a friend and gave off an older brother-like presence. And above all else, Wes was a great player.”
Katie Gaston, Journal Star manager of print and digital operations:
From social media: “I worked with Wes for over two decades at the Journal Star. Anyone with a “Masters of the Universe” action figure on his desk was bound to be someone I’d get along with.
I’m so very sorry to his family for their loss. This one hurts like hell. There’s no other good way to say it.
We rarely get to tell a person what they mean before they’re gone. I hope Wes had even a small notion of the impact he had on others.
Go watch a good (or even bad) movie. Give someone a hug. Laugh at a stupid joke with your friends. Curse if you need to. Let yourself cry. Blast a few Barenaked Ladies songs. And be kind. Be a little more like Wes.”
Former Journal Star sports part-timer John Komosa:
“I’m truly heartbroken. Wes Huett and I had conversations about sports, movies and life, both inside and outside of the newsroom. He always knew how to make those around him feel accepted and appreciated. I’m forever grateful for the memories. Rest easy, my friend.”
He would have blushed hearing all this
There is a wealth of reaction to Wes Huett’s death, and we could go on.
What would we say to him if given one last chance?
He made the stories he edited, the graphics he created, the news packages he presented, so much better with his touch and vision.
And he did the same with all the people in his life.
“He would be so touched by what everyone is saying about him,” Melinda Huett said. “He never thought of himself as important or special. It’s really shown the rest of us he was the heart of our family.
“The house is so quiet without him.”
Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men’s basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on X.com @icetimecleve.
This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Wes Huett: A family man, a journalist and inspiration in life and death
Reporting by Dave Eminian, Peoria Journal Star / Journal Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
