VINCENNES, Ind. (AP) — The proposed Red Skelton Museum and Education Center at Vincennes University has received a $1 million grant from the Lilly Endowment Inc.
Bernie Niehaus of the Red Skelton Foundation said Tuesday the fundraising campaign has nearly reached its $4 million goal with the gift.
The southwestern Indiana school plans to open the museum next year, which is the 100th anniversary year of the comedian’s birth in Vincennes. Skelton died in 1997.
Plans are for the museum to feature memorabilia and displays Skelton’s influence on early television and comedy. A theater will show Skelton’s movies.
The Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment is a private philanthropic foundation created in 1937 by three members of the Lilly family through gifts of stock in pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co.
