The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.

Meet Your Neighbor

Meet your neighbor Heidi Benson who lives in Macomb.

Heidi was raised in Stanford, IL (population 600) and attended Olympia High School in rural McClean County.

Heidi's mom, Donna Leber, works at OSF as an Occupational Therapist.

Her brother, Paul Walliker, works at Caterpillar in Peoria.

Heidi graduated from Olympia High School in 1990 and went to Knox College. After graduation from Knox in 1994, she attended law school at the University of Illinois, graduating in 1997.

Heidi has been married to Macomb High School teacher, David Benson, for over 20 years. Heidi and David have two sons. Carter is a freshman in high school. Owen is in fifth grade at St. Paul school. Both boys play soccer, basketball and baseball. Carter plays in the band as well.

Heidi started practicing law in Macomb in 1997. While she was in private practice she did family law and criminal defense. Heidi also represented Western Illinois University. For seven years she taught part time at WIU in the Law Enforcement Department.

Heidi has been an associate judge since January of 2011.

Heidi and her family attend St. Paul's Catholic Church in Macomb.

She is the scoutmaster of Carter's Boy Scout troop. In 2014 she climbed Pike's Peak with the troop.

Heidi is the den leader for Owen's Cub Scout den. She took the Cub Scouts to Space Camp.

Heidi and her husband have coached soccer, basketball and baseball teams for their two boys.

As a family the Benson's enjoy camping and hiking. The best vacation they ever took was to Yellowstone Park.

Heidi tries to treat everyone with respect and follow the law at all times.

In this upcoming election, there are two circuit judge spots open so Heidi is not running against Ray Cavanaugh. Their circuit has ten total Circuit Judges. They are all men. If she is elected, Heidi would be the first female circuit judge in the history of the circuit. This circuit is the last circuit in the State of Illinois to not have at least one female circuit judge.