Betsy-Tacy Stories – Books to Grow On

“Maud Lovelace is a person with a sincere likable manner and a happy youthful personality. There is a sparkle about her that makes it easy to see that she and fun-loving Betsy are practically one and the same. Born in Mankato, Minnesota, Maud Hart lived in a small yellow house just as Betsy did. She had two sisters and lived across the street from a large Irish family. This family had a little girl her age who had long red curls and used to hide her face with her hair when she felt especially shy. These are only a few of the similarities between the lives of Maud Hart and Betsy Ray.

Just as Betsy has, Mrs. Lovelace has almost always been busy writing something. Poetry or short stories were her earliest tries and later she became interested in historical novels for adults, and wrote five by herself and two others in which she collaborated with her husband.

Though in an old-fashioned setting, there is an ageless charm about the Betsy-Tacy books that makes them as modern as rock and roll. Years don’t make much difference in the behavior of teenagers. Girls still get excited over clothes and parties and have their secret methods with boys. And boys are still maddeningly unpredictable.

It wasn’t long after the first Betsy-Tacy book came out that Mrs. Lovelace began to hear from her readers. To her delight, Betsy was making so many friends that from ten to twelve letters were coming in every week … a figure that has remained fairly consistent throughout the years.

Mrs. Lovelace smiles when she speaks of the friends she and Betsy have made. Her childhood was an extraordinarily happy one and she feels deeply gratified to have been able to share it with so many children. She is genuinely proud of her collection of letters and snapshots. Always the letters are chummy and confiding as if Maud Lovelace were actually Betsy and their own age.”

Excerpts from an article written by Valerie Beardwood and printed in Elementary English, November 1959

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Betsy-Tacy Tea at the Library

I had the pleasure of sharing Maud Hart Lovelace and her Betsy-Tacy books at a “Betsy-Tacy Tea” children’s summer reading program at the Blue Earth County Library in Mankato this week. A wonderful group of girls ages five and up attended the “Betsy Meets Tacy” program. We talked about Maud and Bick (Betsy and Tacy) and the adventures they had growing up on Hill Street. At the end of the program we had “tea” and cookies, just like Betsy and Tacy did when they went calling on Mrs. Benson.

“Betsy” reads “Calling on Mrs. Benson” (chapter 10 from Betsy-Tacy)

“Betsy” was joined by her little sister, “Margaret”.

We talked about calling cards and everyone made their own calling cards to take home.

 

Happy Birthday Bick

Frances “Bick” Kenney

“Tacy got to be ten first because her birthday came in January. They didn’t have many birthday parties at Tacy’s house. There were too many children in the family. Mrs. Kelly would have been giving birthday parties every month in the year, almost, if every child at the Kelly house had had a party every birthday. But when Tacy was ten, Betsy and Tib were invited to supper. There was a cake with candles on it.” From Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill

Maud strayed from the facts a bit when it came to the month of Tacy’s birthday in Betsy and Tacy Go Over the Big Hill. Bick was born July 13, 1891 in Minneapolis, MN. Bick (Tacy) did get to be ten first, but it wasn’t because her birthday was in January, it was actually because Bick was born a year before Maud.

I spent a lovely Saturday afternoon last weekend at Tacy’s house (332 Center Street in Mankato) celebrating Bick’s 122^nd birthday hosted by the Betsy-Tacy Society.

Tacy and her sister Katie served punch and cupcakes and played “Pin the Tail on the Donkey” with the children.

BTS president Lona Falenczykowski led the tours of Betsy’s and Tacy’s houses.

Mrs. Benson and Tacy visit on Betsy’s house porch and helped children fill bottles of sand to take home.

New at Betsy’s house is the piano box. “Betsy and Tacy soon had places which belonged to them. The bench on the hill was the first one. The second one, and the dearest for several years, was the piano box. This was their headquarters, their playhouse, the center of all their games.” From Betsy-Tacy

Party guests included visitors from Mississippi, Kansas and the twin cities area. KSMQ (www.ksmq.org), a public broadcasting station from Austin, MN, was there filming for a future broadcast of their program “Off 90”. I’ll keep you posted on when this episode will air.

“Willie Putt”

When Maud Hart Lovelace’s book Betsy-Tacy was released in 1940, her hometown newspaper printed a book review stating, “Even if Maud Hart Lovelace had not admitted on the jacket of her forthcoming book that Mankato is the setting of the story, Mankato would have known. Nothing quite like this story has been written about Mankato before. And nothing before has ever revealed so clearly the Mankato which is a community with personality and charm.”

Certainly all of Mankato was interested in reading about the people and places mentioned in the book. One of those readers was Thomas C. Edwards.

Thomas C. Edwards, born in December 1878, was 12 years older than Maud. He was impressed with Betsy-Tacy because it brought back many of his own childhood memories of growing up in Mankato.

Tom was a life insurance agent and a charter member of the Mankato Golf Club. He wrote a golfing column for the local newspaper, the Mankato Free Press, under the by-line of “Willie Putt”. He wrote an article for the Free Press entitled “Willie Putt Remembers Betsy-Tacy Neighborhood” (September 7, 1940) about the memories the Betsy-Tacy book stirred for him.

He wrote, “We who live, and have lived in Mankato and knew Tom and Mrs. Hart, will be entertained thoroughly, and at times when we read this little book we think of the Knights of Pythias Lodge dances, the aristocratic demeanor of “Tom,” and the happy, friendly atmosphere of Mrs. Hart. The book was written at a time in my life when Maud Hart Lovelace and her friends were too wee for a person of my mature age – I must have been 16 or 18!”

More on the relationship between Maud and “Willie Putt” to follow.

It’s a Girl!

Novel Announcement of Birth

Maud and Delos Lovelace announced the birth of their 6 pound, 14 ounce, blond-haired, blue-eyed baby girl born Sunday, January 18, 1931 in Manhattan, New York at ten forty-two a.m.  The newspaper announcement reported the couple named the baby, Merian Hart Lovelace, after Merian C. Cooper, a long-time personal friend of Delos.

Maud with her daughter, Merian.
© Estate of Merian Lovelace Kirchner

Merian Hart Lovelace was the little girl who inspired the Betsy-Tacy books. It was Merian, growing up in the 1930s in Garden City, Long Island, who first demonstrated that her mother’s childhood had more than passing appeal. By the time Merian was six years old, Maud was telling her stories about her childhood in Mankato. She pestered her mother so often for a new story about Betsy Ray and her friend Tacy Kelly that Maud, who had concentrated on short stories and historical novels, decided to put Betsy and Tacy on paper in 1938.

When Betsy-Tacy was published in 1940, Merian was nine years old. The book was never intended to be a series, but Delos and Merian encouraged Maud to continue. Old letters, diaries, photographs, and other mementos provided research material, but most importantly, Merian helped her mother remember what it was like to be a certain age. Merian graduated from high school the same year Maud was writing about Betsy’s graduation in Betsy and Joe, and when Merian went to college Maud was writing Carney’s House Party. During the writing of Betsy’s Wedding, Merian married Englebert Kirchner, a German-born writer.

It was little Merian Lovelace whose pleadings for just one more bedtime story gave birth to a beloved series of children’s books.

Mankato Free Press, January 26, 1931

Mankato Free Press, February 14, 1931