Springs pleased with birthday Helen Springs wants lots of presence for her birthday. Yes, that’s right, presence.
Turning 90 next month, Springs has planned a unique birthday party for herself. It will involve one of her favorite second-graders, a few dummies and, hopefully, dozens of others wanting to share a special day with her. But, just show up, and don’t bring any presents.
On Nov. 10, Fohs Hall will host its first ventriloquist act in the person of Dale Brown, a well-mannered boy in Springs’ second-grade classroom who grew up to head his own marketing firm and entertain others with his talent. Seeing Brown perform with his puppets is exactly what Springs wants 90 years to the day after she was born.
“I’m sure glad he wasn’t a ventriloquist in second grade,” the former teacher said. “That would have driven me crazy.”
It was four years later at the Whitewater, Wisc., school that Brown would pick up his trade, learning the gift from a book in the library.
“Ventriloquism is a hobby that got out of hand,” Brown wrote in a letter to Springs.
He went on to perform professionally, appearing at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and other venues across the country. He has been on “60 Minutes,” “Entertainment Tonight” and “Good Morning America.”
But what added Marion to his busy November show schedule was a summer appearance on NBC’s “Today Show”.
Springs was having breakfast with her son Jay Silvernail in Wisconsin when the morning talk show introduced a segment on ventriloquists at a convention in Louisville, Ky. One of the guests was 60-year-old Dale Brown from Wisconsin.
“We perked up our ears, and there was Dale,” said Springs, whose 63-year-old son remembered a much younger Brown from school.
“How she knew it was me, I’ll never know,” Brown said on the phone Tuesday from his Waukesha, Wisc., office.
Once Springs realized the ventriloquist was the same Dale Brown she had in Room 104 in 1955, the same Dale Brown she saw pictured two years ago with one of his puppets in the Whitewater newspaper, she knew what she wanted on her 90th birthday. She just needed to find Dale Brown.
So, she turned to Dottie Winn, secretary at Marion United Methodist Church where Springs attends and volunteers. Winn Googled “Dale Brown” and was able to get his contact information. What followed was a two-page, hand-written letter to Brown, dated Aug. 9.
“You probably will be as surprised to get a letter from your 2nd grade teacher as I was to see you on the Today Show...,” she wrote.
Surprised Brown was. He remembered Springs as Mrs. Silvernail, the married name of Helen Carter, who grew up on the family farm with her siblings in the Crittenden County community of Hebron near the Ohio River. Carter would wed Jake Silvernail after a blind date set up by her friend, the late Thomas Tucker. She would eventually move to the Badger State where she taught second grade for 30 years.
“What a nice surprise to receive your letter.. and even nicer that you remembered me from way back in 1955,” he responded just days later.
What exactly does Springs remember about Brown five decades after teaching him to read and write at Westside School in Whitewater, Wisc.?
“That he was a good little kid. He never talked out of turn.”
She glows as she gloats about how handsome Brown was in his senior photo. And, like the 850 other students she taught at the school, she still has some mementos of Brown, including his grades – which, by the way, improved 1.4 points to 3.5 under her. Brown would eventually follow in Springs’ footsteps for a period, teaching English and journalism at Sheboygan North High School.
“She was a great teacher,” Brown said on the phone.
Moving ahead with Springs’ letter to Brown, she put her name in the hat for a future show, specifically at Fohs Hall.
“The old mind of a teacher is always looking ahead,” she wrote, requesting a performance for her 90th birthday.
Brown accepted, working out a brief stopover in Marion next month during what is traditionally his busiest time in order to help an old teacher celebrate nine decades of life
“If she hadn’t told me she was 90, I wouldn’t have ever guessed,” Brown said after talking with Springs and discovering her hectic volunteer and social schedule. “She’s busier than I am.”
Brown offered to work his professional act for expenses... as a gift to his former teacher. Likewise, Springs has agreed to reimburse Fohs Hall Inc., any of the cost not covered by receipts from admission to the show.
Springs, who moved away from Wisconsin after her first husband died and eventually married old sweetheart Charlie Springs, chose Fohs Hall for the show because of the meaning it holds for her.
“I was 8 years old in the balcony the day it was dedicated,” she said of the 81-year-old building. “Fohs Hall has meant a lot to me over the years.”
Indeed. She even snuck her first kiss there.
Reserve tickets for the Nov. 10 show are $15 and general admission is $10. Tickets can be reserved by calling Susan Alexander at 965-5983.