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Touch
of Gray - April / May 2003
Mary
Rogers - A Great-grandmother and her Marionettes
Support for Legal Protections Came Early
from Local Retirement Communities
Mary
Rogers - A Great-grandmother and her Marionettes
When
the children from the OPC Foundation for Mental Health come
back to Camp MeadowWood this summer they will once again plunge
into a full round of activities, including swimming, bocce,
golf, tennis, treasure hunts, handcrafts and storytelling.
Among last year's favorites was 93-year old Mary Rogers with
her marionettes. Not only did Mary help the campers make their
own hand puppets, but aided by Maggie Ryan and Bunny Norwood
she set up and acted out Punch and Judy type shows with her
colorful figures.
"Mary
seems like everybody's grandmother to these kids," Pat
Ballard, the Camp Coordinator, commented. "She has such
creative enthusiasm for her hobby. The youngsters just love
watching Mary shape the puppets out of Styrofoam, then add
features, mount the puppets on sticks, put up a curtain and
run the show. I'm sure she will draw even bigger numbers this
summer."
But
adults love her programs too. Her on-campus marionette shows
over the past eight years have drawn record crowds. Downtown
her annual visits with her puppet friends to Charles House
in Chapel Hill draw enthusiastic audiences of staff and residents.
Mary
originally hails from Philadelphia. Trained as a singer, she
composed and appeared in musicals and was a member of the
Philadelphia Savoy Opera Company. Her mother was a concert
singer and Mary recalls the time they sang together at the
opening of Philadelphia's first radio station, WFIL. Mary
and her mother were the first mother and daughter duo ever
to go on the air there.
Marionettes
are puppets operated from above by nine or more strings, just
as Mary does. Puppets have a long history. Written records
of puppets in Europe date back to the fifth century B.C. They
were traditional in China, Africa and with the American Indians,
commonly as masked figures. The Italian Pulcinella of the
17th century evolved into the popular English Punch and Judy
show. Puppets were made popular here early in the last century
by Tony Sarg and the tradition was continued later on television
by such artists as Bill Baird, Shari Lewis and Jim Henson.
Mary
Rogers continues in that tradition. She first tried her hand
at puppetry in the mid-forties. "It started with my granddaughter
to amuse her," she recalls. Sixty years later, still
very active and involved - she recently renewed her driver's
license - she loves to entertain her three great-grandchildren
with her puppets. She studied puppetry - both construction
and performance - under masters of the art and became an active
member of the National Puppeteers of America.
When
she "retired" to Coral Gables in Florida in the
eighties, she took her puppets with her and with three other
ladies organized the Peppermint Puppeteers. "We called
them that because we gave the youngsters peppermint candies
at the end of our shows to thank them for watching and listening."
Mary said.
In
Florida, over a ten year period, Mary and her puppeteers performed
in countless elementary schools, in children's wards in area
hospitals and in country and yacht clubs. The children loved
her shows. Teachers asked them to write thank-you notes. Today,
sitting in her sunny patio overlooking the Carolina Meadows
Memorial Garden, Mary loves to browse through her scrapbooks
reading the more than 2,000 letters she received from those
youngsters. Photos and clippings of many of the classes line
the walls.
Her
work with children, especially in hospitals and with the handicapped,
received wide acclaim. Nancy Reagan and the President honored
her for her dedication in helping children learn about drug
and alcohol abuse through her puppet show, "No, No, Pinocchio".
This was a modern version of the classic story of a wooden
puppet. This time instead of lying, he was tempted by drugs.
Each time it looked as though Pinocchio was about to get into
trouble with drugs, a puppeteer held up a sign that read "No,
No, Pinocchio." Soon the children started calling out
the phrase, Mary recalls.
The
anti-drug show was just one of her many productions in Florida.
The children loved her Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the
Beanstalk and the Frog Prince. Speaking of frogs, when you
visit Mary's apartment you will be greeted at the door by
a large white ceramic frog and flower holder, just one of
her interesting collection of frogs. Be sure and ask her when
you visit to let you check through the closet and trunk full
of marionettes and puppets - many made by herself - with which
she has performed over the years, including lifelike figures
of Sally Rand and, Gypsy Rose Lee.
Many
Carolina Meadows residents from the North come here after
first checking out Florida as a retirement possibility. Mary
Rogers was one of these. She has two sons who both graduated
from Duke and one of them, David, now lives and works in Durham.
She moved here in 1995. Since then she has been fascinating
audiences, old as well as young, with her lively marionette
shows where she manipulates lifelike figures of celebrities
to the accompaniment of appropriate music.
Her
first Carolina Meadows performance was at a Sunday Sing-Along
concert when her miniature Victor Borge, clad in tails and
seated at the piano, performed to the taped sounds of Borge's
inimitable patter and sprightly melodies. Soon afterwards
she performed for the Women's Group, presenting Liberace in
his sequins and complete with his famed candelabra. Warming
up with "Rainbows Are Falling on My Head", Mary's skillful
synchronization with the taped music sparkled in Liberace's
tap dance to "Me and My Shadow" and his eight-to-the-bar boogie
on the keyboard.
Betty
McMahan, retired professor emeritus of biology at UNC-CH and
Carolina Meadows resident cartoonist, sketched the Liberace
performance for our campus newsletter, The Meadowlark.
Mary
is still helping kids with her puppets. Harold and Miriam
Murdock, Mary's Carolina Meadows neighbors, have a daughter,
Sara Hart, who is a missionary in Bolivia. Mary puts together
several puppets as well as kits for making puppets which the
Murdocks sends to their daughter for use in her school. Mary
and her puppets continue to make life brighter for kids though
the magic of puppetry. -- Des Reilly, Resident
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Support
for Legal Protections Came Early from Local Retirement Communities
Most residents of retirement communities
can recall shocking reports in the 1960's of senior citizens
losing large parts of their nest eggs in failed real estate
ventures, ostensibly created to glorify those "golden
years."
Promised food services, recreation areas and the full range
of health services called for immense funding with only slowly
developing patronage to meet payments. Some groups went bankrupt.
Others were victims of promoters or contractors who left residents
with sub- standard housing and no plan for upkeep.
Today's seniors enjoying the guaranteed amenities of continuing
care retirement communities of North Carolina realize their
financial security and the quality of their health facilities
are under the legal purview of the state. Indeed, legislation
created here was among the earliest for these purposes in
the nation.
The prime mover behind the effort to secure state protection
was Harry E. Groves, the Henry Brandis Professor of Law Emeritus
at UNC-CH. He and his wife, Evelyn,had retired in 1987 to
the Springmoor continuing care community in Raleigh.
"When I realized...that residents of continuing care
communities in North Carolina had no legal protection whatever
for themselves and their investments," he says, "I
determined to try to rectify that situation I drafted what
I thought was a good law and set on a course of interesting
state legislators in its enactment."
Knowing that he needed support beyond his own community, Dr.
Groves visited Carolina Meadows where he found enthusiastic
encouragement from Dr. Charles Weller and from the Residents
Association of which Weller was president.
To provide an effective lobbying tool, Dr. Groves drew up
incorporation papers for the Continuing Care Community Residents
of North Carolina (CCCRNC), with Weller, Ann Kelley of Springmoor,
and himself as initial officers. Quickly, a large number of
residents joined from Springmoor, Carolina Meadows and Carol
Woods.
Without the means to hire a lobbyist, Dr. Groves made the
rounds of powerful committee chairmen and some legislators
he had become acquainted with during his years with law schools
in the state. CCCRNC members were urged to contact politicians
well-known to them. Residents packed the galleries when the
proposed legislation was being debated. Remarkably, North
Carolina General Statutes, Chapter 58, Article 64, covering
continuing care retirement communities, was enacted the same
year it was introduced and virtually without change from the
way it had been drafted by Dr.Groves. The Department of Insurance
was given responsibility for administration.
Moving to Carolina Meadows in 1989, Harry Groves became president
of the Residents Association and continued his active role
in the development of CCCRNC membership and functions until
he and Evelyn moved to Washington, D.C. three years ago to
be near family members.
What are the features of state oversight, assuring financial
security and promised health services for retirees?
Rob Boening, Executive Director of Carolina Meadows, says,
"The most immediate impact of the legislation was the
requirement of a reserve fund equal to 50% of the annual operating
expenses for each Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC)
-reduced to 25% if the facility is 90% occupied. In 1992 our
lesser amount was raised to the 25% figure by adding $75 to
monthly charges."
Release of reserves for any purpose must have approval from
the Insurance Commissioner.
Added Boening: "The North Carolina Association of Non-Profit
Health Agencies which antedates the CCCRNC joined in the drive
to secure state supervision, assuring the endorsement of the
legislation by retirement community administrations."
Nevertheless, there were community managements, especially
for-profit types, that resisted the controls.
Groves and his ardent supporter, Weller, held the presidency
of CCCRNC for the first five years. More recent presidents,
each serving for two years, include Myles Walburn and Bill
Koehnline of Carolina Meadows.
Walburn notes that beyond the requirements for financial stability
the initial legislation dealt with these among many issues:
- Licensing
for start-up, to be renewed annually. No retirement community
is allowed to call itself a continuing care community unless
qualified under Department of Insurance requirements. The
license may be revoked if standards are not maintained.
And the license is not transferable without permission from
the Commissioner of Insurance.
- Financial
disclosure statements to the Commission, updated annually,
must also be made available to residents and to prospective
residents.
- Conditions
for contracts entered into by residents are defined.
- Residents
have the right to organize and to have opportunity to question
Boards of Directors or their spokesmen.
- The
Department of Insurance has the right to initiate investigations
to determine if provisions of the legislation are being
adhered to. Civil liabilities and criminal penalties are
defined.
The statewide organization now counts thirty CCRC's and over
3,300 individuals in its membership, of whom 400 are from
Carolina Meadows. Included on the rolls are 400 residents
statewide who have paid life memberships of $50.
Delegates, visitors and hosts participated in the quarterly
board meeting March 19 at Tryon Estates, Columbus, N.C. Another
board meeting will take place May 21 at Croasdaile Village
in Durham.
Says Bill Koehnline: "Recent developments call for basic
changes in the law protecting residents in communities which
are part of larger entities. An ad hoc committee of the CCCRNC
has been formed to propose such legislation.
"Quarterly Board meetings have increasingly provided
opportunities for sharing concerns and accomplishments among
the communities. For those who don't attend, the quarterly
newsletter, The Hotline, distributed to over 6000 persons
statewide, provides a print equivalent. The organization maintains
a web site at cccrofnc.org for all computer users."
In addition to the four presidents, Carolina Meadows has strongly
supported the CCCRNC through the years with a large number
of enrolled residents plus officers and committee members.
Former editors of the quarterly "Hot Line" publication
include Calvin Kytle and Des Reilly. Bob Buzenberg and Betty
Kent have served as vice-presidents promoting membership.
Ted White and the late Karl Weber were on the board of directors.
Harriet Churchill, Edith Arthur and Evelyn Baas have been
treasurers.
It is not surprising that Harry Groves and Myles Walburn have
become active in The American Association of Homes and Services
for the Aging and in the National Continuing Care Residents
Association. At its annual meeting last April in Falls Church,
Virginia, Myles was elected one of three vice-presidents of
the NCCRA. And Evelyn Baas was chosen treasurer of this growing
organization representing retirement communities nationwide.
-- John Banks, Resident
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