Batavia native added to journalists memorial

WASHINGTON -- The journalism and free speech museum called the Newseum has added 77 names to its Journalists Memorial, including a Southern Illinois University student from Batavia.

The memorial honors reporters photographers and broadcasters who died while covering the news.

The youngest journalist's name added to the wall on Monday was 22-year-old Ryan Rendleman.

Rendleman, a 2004 Batavia High School graduate, was on assignment for the Daily Egyptian student newspaper at SIU in April last year when a tractor-tractor slammed into his stopped car at a construction zone.

The memorial includes 1,913 names dating back to 1837.

It began in 1996 with less than 1,000 names.

More than 500,000 visitors have passed by the Journalists Memorial since the Newseum reopened in its new home in April 2008.