David Liston, 66, of Palestine, IL, passed away at home on July 25, 2026. He was born on May 8, 1960, in Robinson, with a condition they called “flat neck,” which meant he couldn’t turn his head and could move only his shoulders. It affected his hearing as well. He carried those limits his whole life, and yet anyone who knew him would tell you they were never the first thing you noticed about him.
What you noticed instead was the warmth. David hugged everybody and never met a stranger. He didn’t have it in him to dislike people and simply wanted friends rather than enemies. He tried to be funny, and his success rate was, honestly, mixed. But either way, the real comedy was watching David commit to the telling of it. He was happy to take the laugh however it came. It wasn’t just people who took to him. Animals did too. He never kept a pet of his own, but his sister, Star, had dogs that adored him, and he’d put himself out to care for any creature that crossed his path. Whatever it was that drew people to him, animals felt it too.
That kind of warmth usually comes with reliability, and it showed in how he worked. David started at the IGA in 1977 as a bagger and a stocker and gave the grocery store twenty-two years. He spent the next stretch at Lexel, then landed at Hershey, where he stayed from 2004 until 2019. It all added up to more than forty years of showing up, which was really just his friendliness pointed at a job.
Off the clock, David was happiest around a game. He bowled for a good several years, and he umpired men’s fastpitch softball in the local leagues, glad to be part of the action. He was a devoted Cubs and Bears fan, too. He’d been to a fair number of Cubs games through the years and watched them faithfully on television, cheering for teams that tested a person’s loyalty and getting his money’s worth out of loving them anyway.
David loved the outdoors just as much as he loved a ballgame. He used to tent camp with his good friend Mike, and he’d fish wherever he could find them biting, happy to spend a day chasing whatever was on the other end of the line. In his later years, after his health took a turn, he couldn’t get out the way he once had. But he never lost the love of it. He was content just to sit and take nature in, letting the quiet of it be enough.
The turn came in 2019. That year, David suffered a brain bleed that ended his working days at Hershey and set his health on a slow decline. Through it all, his family was there. For example, Star would pick him up in the morning and bring him home again at night so that his days were spent in good company rather than alone. Meals on Wheels became a real blessing to him in this stretch, looking after him faithfully when he needed the help. He was cared for, and he knew it.
There was something fitting in that. For sixty-six years David gave his warmth away without keeping count, to friends and strangers and even to animals that belonged to someone else. He never asked for much in return, but it came anyway, the way it tends to for people who live like he did. A life like that doesn’t really end. It just goes on in everyone who was blessed to have known him.
He is survived by his siblings, Phyllis Fancil of Oblong, IL, Melody Carter of Robinson, IL, Star (Mike) Hoskins of Palestine, IL, and Todd (Julie) Liston of Robinson, IL; by several nieces and nephews; and by his aunt, Elizabeth Dressback, who was another mother to David. He was preceded in death by his father, Phillip LaVon Liston; his beloved aunt, Carol Maggard; his sisters, Jackaline Liston, in infancy, and Vicki Simpson; and his brother-in-law, Mike Fancil.
A time of visitation will be held from 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. on Thursday, July 30th, at the Goodwine Funeral Home in Palestine. Funeral services will immediately follow at 11:00 a.m., with Pastor Lee Gurley officiating. For those unable to attend, a live stream of the service will be available at https://www.goodwinefuneralhomes.com/live-stream/live-stream.
In honor of the help they provided him in the twilight years of his life, memorial contributions may be made to Meals on Wheels, with envelopes available at the funeral home. Burial will be in the Palestine Cemetery.
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