KATE SMITH. The mention of her name evokes a warm feeling of nostalgia in the hearts of millions who are old enough recall her thrilling renditions of popular ballads and her outgoing personality and infectious laughter. Her autographed publicity photo shown here is a prized part of my radio memorabilia collection.

An untiring patriot, Kate Smith was honored by every President from Roosevelt, who called her an "American treasure", to Reagan, who gave her the highest civilian award in the nation, the Medal of Freedom. During the Second World War, she was personally credited with selling six hundred million dollars in Defense Bonds. Do you have any idea of what $ 600,000,000 was in the early 1940's?

Kate was called the "First Lady of Song" or "America's Southern Songbird" by her peers. Voted one of the three most beloved and important women of her time, Kate Smith was the very embodiment of the American spirit and an inspiration to millions everywhere. Her popularity and her music transcended a half century, all the way from vaudeville to soft rock. She introduced over six hundred popular songs. Yes, you read correctly -- 600 popular songs! More than twenty of her records were million sellers -- back in a population where a million sales really meant something.

As a true pioneer in both radio and television, her importance as a public personality is unsurpassed in the annals of broadcasting history. She is undeniably an American original! Can you believe that Kate Smith was more powerful as leader, entertainer, and spokesperson for all America than any one since including Ophra Winfrey, Elizabeth Dole or Sen. Hillary Clinton. Hard to believe, but it's very true.

She had been making records since 1926 but was discovered in 1930 by Columbia Records vice president Ted Collins, who became her partner and manager who developed her public career which included her radio programs. Kate was an immediate success on radio and she soon broke the record for the number of continous performances at the legendary Palace Theatre.

She soon had the most popular radio variety program, The Kate Smith Hour, which aired weekly from 1937-45. At the same time she had the No. 1 daytime radio show, the midday Kate Smith Speaks, a news and commentary program. Everyone listened to this show which she did with her agent, sidekick, and beloved friend, Ted Collins. She talked about issues before talk radio, gave the editorialized news, entertained and interviewed guests. In 1950 Kate entered television with a Monday-Friday afternoon variety show, The Kate Smith Hour (1950-54). It proved so popular that NBC gave her a prime-time show on Wednesday evenings, The Kate Smith Evening Hour. Her last TV series was CBS’s The Kate Smith Show, a weekly half-hour musical series in 1960.

Kate's biggest hits were River, Stay ’Way From My Door (1931), The Woodpecker Song (1940), The White Cliffs of Dover (1941), I Don’t Want to Walk Without You (1942), There Goes That Song Again (1944), Seems Like Old Times (1946), and Now Is the Hour (1947).

Her theme song was When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain, whose lyrics she helped write. Irving Berlin regarded the song she made most famous, God Bless America, as his most important composition. In 1938 Kate predicted that the song would still be sung long after all of us are gone—and it surely will.

In the fifties and sixties, she began making LP albums, with such best sellers as Kate Smith at Carnegie Hall (1963), How Great Thou Art (1965), and America’s Favorites: Kate Smith/Arthur Fiedler/Boston Pops (1967). You can hear the entire Kate Smith at Carnagie Hall on Norm's Radio. My prize collection of "mint" LP albums includes all of Kate Smith's albums from the 1950's and 1960's as well as many of her 78's and some of the sheet music that used to be on every piano. I also have a full collection of Guy Lombardo, Wayne King, and Fred Waring LP's. I'd be honored to send you a CD of some of them.

Kate was a regular part of the home I grew up in -- we had her receipe books, 78rpm records, sheet music, books, listened to her radio programs, and watched her television shows. Her photo was in in all the magazines and on billboards endorsing various products as Michael Jordon or Tiger Woods are today.

Kate Smith had a voice you never forgot once you've heard it.

…and we are in him who is true, in his son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
I John 5:20b

Prayerfully read, and reread as necessary, the verse printed above then read the Lenten Devotional that follows written by Dr. Thomas Q. Robbins. That’s all it takes to have a "quiet time" – something, regretfully, unique to most believers.

Think About It
Mankind’s restless quest for absolute truth and real life has been satisfied by God and God alone who has given us his son, Jesus Christ. Jesus spoke on the cross, “It is finished!” Through faith in him, God has given us the gift that was first given to Adam and Eve. A life lived in his image where peace, contentment, wholeness and holiness are its hallmarks. Jesus Christ is the answer to each and every human condition. It’s he and he alone who is the final and full answer to every question kwe can find in the human race.

Prayer
Why, Lord, do we continuously look for answers and fulfillment elsewhere? I want so to refocus my life toward Christ and allow me to know the truth and live eternal.

Think About This
Isn’t that amazing? God allows me, even me, to “be in Christ!”

Dr. Thomas Q. Robbins, Senior Pastor
University Park Methodist, Dallas, Texas

Remember these rhymes? For those who never saw the Burma shave signs, here is a quick lesson in our history of the 1930s and '40's. Before the Interstates, when everyone drove the old 2 lane roads, (and even the few and far between four lanes like 41 between Chicago and Milwaukee) Burma Shave signs would be posted all over the countryside in farmers' fields -- often on the fence posts. An old classmate of mine from Wauwautosa High School, Bob Berend, reminded me of them recently.

The Burma Shave advertisements were small red signs with white letters. Five signs, about 100 feet apart, each containing 1 line of a 4 line couplet and the obligatory 5th sign advertising Burma Shave, a popular shaving cream. Here is a brief history from the www.fiftieswebsite.com:

Way back in 1925 young Allan Odell pitched this great sales idea to his father, Clinton. Use small, wooden roadside signs to pitch their product, Burma-Shave, a brushless shaving cream. Dad wasn't wild about the idea but eventually gave Allan $200 to give it a try.

Didn't take long for sales to soar. Soon Allan and his brother Leonard were putting up signs all over the dang place. At first the signs were pure sales pitch but as the years passed they found their sense of humor extending to safety tips and pure fun. And some good old-fashioned down home wisdom.

At their height of popularity there were 7,000 Burma-Shave signs stretching across America. The familiar white on red signs, grouped by four and five, were as much a part of a family trip as irritating your kid brother in the back seat of the car. You'd read first one, then another, anticpating the punch line on number four and the familiar Burma-Shave on the fifth.

The signs cheered us during the Depression and the dark days of World War II. But things began to change in the late Fifties. Cars got faster and superhighways got built to accomodate them. The fun little signs were being replaced by huge, unsightly billboards. 1963 was the last year for new Burma Shave signs.

No more red and white nuggets of roadside wisdom to ease the journey. That's the main reason the following slogans are new to you. See what you missed!

DON'T LOSE YOUR HEAD
TO GAIN A MINUTE
YOU NEED YOUR HEAD
YOUR BRAINS ARE IN IT
Burma Shave

DROVE TOO LONG
DRIVER SNOOZING
WHAT HAPPENED NEXT
IS NOT AMUSING
Burma Shave

BROTHER SPEEDER
LET'S REHEARSE
ALL TOGETHER
GOOD MORNING NURSE
Burma Shave

SPEED WAS HIGH
WEATHER WAS NOT
TIRES WERE THIN
X MARKS THE SPOT
Burma Shave

THE MIDNIGHT RIDE
OF PAUL FOR BEER
LED TO A WARMER
HEMISPHERE
Burma Shave

AROUND THE CURVE
LICKETY-SPLIT
ITS A BEAUTIFUL CAR
WASN'T IT?
Burma Shave

NO MATTER THE PRICE
NO MATTER HOW NEW
THE BEST SAFETY DEVICE
IN THE CAR IS YOU
Burma Shave

AT INTERSECTIONS
LOOK EACH WAY
A HARP SOUNDS NICE
BUT ITS HARD TO PLAY
Burma Shave

(My all time favorite)
CAR IN DITCH
DRIVER IN TREE
THE MOON WAS FULL
AND SO WAS HE.
Burma Shave

(And my second all time favorite:)
PASSING SCHOOL ZONE
TAKE IT SLOW
LET OUR LITTLE
SHAVERS GROW
Burma Shave

"Since I cared for my mother during several years of of Alzheimer Disease until the Lord called her home, and am now very involved with my only remaining sister as she too drifts into the final stages of this horrible disease, this story touched me so deeply that I could hardly bear to read it. I do hope you all will gain an understanding of the fact that the patient is not the only victim of this disease, everyone who loves them are victims too. Pray for the day that the medical research teams will find a help."

A NURSE'S STORY OF A DAY AT THE OFFICE."

It was a busy morning when an elderly gentleman, in his 80's, arrived to have sutures (stitches) removed from his thumb.

He stated that he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 11:00 am. I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him.

I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound. On exam it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors, got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound.

While taking care of his wound, we began to engage in conversation. I asked him if he had another medical appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry.

The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I then inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for awhile and that she was a victim of Alzheimer Disease.

As we talked, and I finished dressing his wound, I asked if she would be worried if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now.

I was surprised, and asked him. "And you still going every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?" He smiled as he patted my hand and said, "She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is."

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Harlan Kreklow, Maude's son-in-law and one Polski from Milwaukee we all tease, captured the meaning of Maude's life in a beautiful way. I want to share it with you:

Maude, you've lived through the terms of 18 presidents from Theodore Roosevelt to George W. Bush. You've lived through six major wars beginnng with World War I. The Titantic sunk when you were six years old and the last Tzar was thrown out of Russia when you were 11. Names like Man of War, Calvin Coolidge, Enrico Caruso, Fritz Crysler, Al Jolson, Babe Ruth, Albert Schweitzer and a host of thousands of others including the Beetles are not just names in history books for you. They have been your contemporaries. You experienced primitive telephones, gas light, horse travel and crystal radio sets to cell phones, cyber space, hundreds of millions of vehicles of every description, television, the Internet and space travel. What has past before your eyes and enteredinto your mind is truly the "stuff" of great novels. You've lived through the most exciting, exhilarating, wonderful, difficult, tragic, and challenging time in the history of the planet. You have live through 43% of our nation's history. What an incredible run you've had! And, we all so proud of you."

And this is what I have to say about Mom: What a woman -- that Maude Elsie Parfit Plunkett. Born in a small coal mining town just east of Pittsburgh where her dad, Tom Parfit, was an electrical engineer responsible for "air and light" in the mine back when 1800 turned into 1900. Tom was a Welsh coal miner who had the traditional golden singing voice and was a lay Bible teacher. He was the first Parfit to immigrate from the British Isles and was responsible for paying for all of his relatives who wanted to come to the Land of Opportunity and Promise. Two of his sisters tried it and didn't like it so he had to pay for their return passage. I'm not sure I would have done that.

The family later moved to McKee's Rocks where my grandfather served as an electrical engineer for the City of Pittsburgh Water Department. After high school, Maude began working for the dressmaking department of Horne's Department Store in Pittsburgh when she was 16 and in a matter of months became a buyer for all the materials the custom dressmakers used. They then had her traveling all over the back streets and warehouse areas of downtown Pittsburgh searching for materials used in dressmaking from buttons to bows. They were training her to become a buyer.

A woman, a young girl, a big city, a large corporation, an employee in training. My conservative mother didn't know it then and doesn't recognize it now, but she was a trail breaker. There were few women and especially young girls in the work force in the early 20's. She was in this job at Horne's when the Lord directed her to further her education at Moody Bible Institute -- again, not many women involved in higher education at that time in our culture.

In 1923, at age 17, she was on her way to Chicago by train to attend the Moody Bible Institute and enter the mission education program with thoughts of India. That first year she had ministries in downtown Chicago at such historic places as Pacific Garden Mission and Madison Avenue. That first year, sh met my Dad and the "Plunketts of Chicago." I'm so glad she did! From the thousands of feet of 16mm film my Dad took it's so easy to recognize how beautiful, self assured, and vivacious she was even as a teenager. No wonder my Dad fell for her. She was athletic, intelligent, committed to living for the Lord, and so very beautiful.

In 1972, arbitrary remodeling was done that removed the school's tower and the "plastering over" of the WPA murals in the main entrance lobby. Our friend, Ray Py, whom has been featured many times in Norm's Ramblins, did some investigating and discovered that the murals were not removed before plastering but just covered over with a half inch of the stuff and the wire that holds everything in place. In addition, drywall covered the beautiful art deco tile and a dropped ceiling covered the stunning multi-level ceiling and the gorgious sunburst where the original chandelier hung. Wonder who got that?

Ray Py began agitating, which he is an expert at doing, and three years ago began the movement to remove the plaster and restore the artwork. It's a great story you might be interested in reading. Use the link below to go to the Web site Peachtree Media does for my old high school. The home page of The Raider Room has an article that appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that gives an account of the last year of discovery and restoration of the mural.

The Dedication of the Mural Restoration was just held last Sunday, March 6, at 2 p.m. Have not received a report or any photos of the event yet.

For more historical information check out the link to the Raider Room page at the bottom of this article. While you're at that site, click the TOSA ALERT navigation button to learn about the events as they happened -- there are several monthly ALERTS that are written by Ray Py. Ray is a retired investigative reporter for UPI and was based in D.C. for many years. It will be a fun trip for you and an exciting one for those interested in art.

If you click the photos, you can get a larger view and really examine the detail.