Jim Henson focus of Study Club for April

By Carole Kelly

Jenta Boone, Roland Roberts and Christina Burns (l to r) welcomed special guest Kermit the Frog to the April Clinton Study Club meeting. Boone and Burns served as hostesses, and Roberts presented the life of puppeteer Jim Henson, the eighth in a series of the club’s programs for the year, concentrating on Mississippi celebrities.

A guest appearance by a well-known Muppet brought smiles to members of the Clinton Study Club when Roland Roberts discussed the life of James Maury “Jim” Henson, American puppeteer. The presentation is the eighth in the club year’s “Mississippi celebrities” theme.

Roberts introduced the subject by sharing a history of puppetry, noting discoveries of puppets from thousands of years ago and continuing into the present, when 2,400-year-old puppet-type figures were discovered in March of this year in El Salvador.

With a replica of the famous frog Kermit that she and her granddaughter Allie made, Roberts’ presentation covered the evolving of string-controlled puppets to hand movements. Famous names such as Punch and Judy marionettes that began in the 1700s in Italy to Howdy Doody on American television led to the career of puppeteer Jim Henson, a native of Greenville born in 1936.  He spent his early years in Leland and moved to College Park, Maryland, where his father worked in the Department of Agriculture. He graduated from the University of Maryland, majoring in home economics.

Henson made Kermit from a discarded green felt coat and blue jeans, with ping pong balls for eyes.   A puppet class was the setting where he met fellow classmate Jane Neville, with whom he collaborated on projects. They married in 1959 and became the parents of five children, all involved in the Henson business.

From a five-minute twice-a-day television program, Sam and Friends, he and his wife co-founded Muppets, Inc., later the Jim Henson Company. In 1969, a children’s television program, Sesame Street, was designed to educate and entertain small children and became the instrument that brought fame to the Henson Muppet corps. Kermit was joined by Bert and Ernie, Miss Piggy and Cookie Monster, among many others.  From television shows, the Muppets moved into motion pictures, starring first in The Muppet Movie, released in 1979.

Roberts revealed that the original Kermit resides in the Smithsonian Institution, but he will be the guest speaker at the University of Maryland graduation ceremony this year.

Study Club president Christina Burns was hostess for the April meeting at her home, with co-hostess Jenna Boone.

Present were Jenta Boone, Christina Burns, Betty Byrne, Carolyn Cannon, Kathy Cannon, Vee Deshpanode, Margaret Drummond, Sharon Feaster, Emily Fokeladeh, Judy Gearhart, Sabrina Hagerman, Carole Kelly, Dixie Lloyd, Mary Lundgren, Robin McCormick, Susan Meadors, Doreen Moore, Mary Ann Parke, Barbara Parks, Roland Roberts, Mary Simpson and Lynda Williams.

Bylaws of the club, which was formed in the 1940s, call for meetings to be held on the second Tuesday of each month September through May at 2 p.m.  The membership roll is set at twenty-seven, with new members selected by a membership committee from names submitted by club members. The number allows for a rotation schedule for program presentations and hostesses through the nine months of meetings.