A group of us TCP Members (Diane Rains, Paul Eide, Kurt Hunter, Edna & Bill Garrison, and Karen Backes) gathered together with family and friends, at the beautiful Lakewood Cemetery Chapel for Virginia Upson Houghtaling's memorial service on September 18, 1999. She passed away of heart failure only six days before her 91 st birthday. After the service, we went out into the sunshine, and reminisced about our experiences with Virginia. She was born on September 16, 1908 in Billings, Montana. She often laughed about the tact that she was born in a barn, that was used as the house, and next to another barn tor the family livestock. Besides Virginia, her family included two sisters (one was Naomi who was a member of TCP in the 40's), a brother, mother, and father who went to his law office in town, on the family horse. The family returned to Minneapolis in 1912, and lived with grandparents for awhile, until they moved into their own place.

In the summer of 1924, Virginia who was now a YWCA Girl Reserve, went on a trip to Lake Okoboji in lowa. There, she met Margaret Skewis a swimming instructor, who performed a wonderful marionette show for the group, and later married Rubus Rose. Virginia was so inspired that when she got back home, she started to make a character. She went to her grandmother's woodpile, cut pieces for a body with a butcher knife (including the tip of her finger), and heated knitting needles on the hot stove to burn holes tor joints. The first marionette that she made was a six inch high man with a fabric stuffed head. She used her hair for his beard and hair, scraps of fabric for his clothes, and heavy thread tor the strings that connected to the control bar, which was made out of sticks. When her grandmother saw the little man, she said, "Oh, you mean poppets".

Virginia continued making marionettes that were soon 18 inches high, with heads moulded in clay and finished in Plaster Paris. She painted the heads, and carved arms and legs from Balsawood. She performed her first show for the Journalism Class at school which was Red Riding Hood. The wolf was made from the fur collar of her winter coat. She graduated from high school in 1926, and walked with a cane, as she had just recovered trom Rheumatic Fever and a heart complication. That fall, she joined a puppet making class, headed by Cedric Lindholm, and the small group made marionettes and performed "Why The Chimes Rang" at a couple Christmas events. Virginia collected fabric from friends and bought remenant pieces at sales, for the costumes of her puppets. She made dancers, performers of all kinds, Mr. Toad (one of her favorites), and many characters from stories such as, Sleeping Beauty, The Three Wishes, Paul Bunyan, and many more. In the 1 940's, she made character brides of every decade, starting with 1840. She performed shows in Powers appliance department, but the customers scratched the merchandise while watching the shows. The following year, she was put in the window to perform, and was soon getting shows all around St. Paul, and Minneapolis. She even performed with her marionettes at the State Fair, and sister Naomi drove Virginia and all her equipment to the shows.

Articles on her performances filled two scrapbooks, and Virginia wrote a monthly newspaper column on puppetry in 1936 for the Minneapolis Journal. She sent a character
(not one of her best, as they were needed in the show) to a display that Paul McPharlin requested.

Virginia and Naomi were at the first Twin Cities Puppeteers meeting in the fall of 1939, at Lem Williams house along with Bob Longfield and other puppeteer friends. Virginia continued performing, and married Hal Houghtaling in I 945. ln 1947, her only child, Bob, was born, and Virginia commented many times that he was her greatest achievement. With Bob to raise, she got a job as a proof reader at Daytons, and later bought a house. Bob married Patty and they had two daughters, Angie and Alissa. Virginia retired at age 62, and gave away or sold most of her marionettes. In 1987, she took them out of storage, and started performing, again. She drove to churches and nursing homes in her old white stationwagon. In 1989, a group of TCP members visited her at her home, and watched her stand up on a platform and joyfully perform a variety show. She attended several meetings in later years, and enjoyed our Mini-National in 1994. We visited her at her 90th birthday party in 1998, where she once again talked about her wonderful life with puppets, and commented, "My puppets are people to me, and it difficult to part with them".