Betsy Was a Junior and Betsy and Joe

by Maud Hart Lovelace

  Joe’s expression changed to gravity.

  “I know why you say that,” he said. “You understand, I think, that I’ve always had a Plan for my life. In order to carry it out, I had to rule out girls, and I didn’t mind. Even last fall, although I liked you a lot, I wouldn’t let you come into my Plan.

  “But I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, Betsy. That Plan has been twisted about to let you in. You’re in it, now, that’s all. I wouldn’t like it without you. I wouldn’t give a darn for my old Plan if you couldn’t be in it.”

  They looked into each other’s eyes and Betsy felt tears in her own.

  Joe kissed her again. He took the wild rose, drooping now from the heat, out of her hair, and put it in his wallet and put the wallet in his pocket.

  Betsy jumped up. She shook out the skirts of the plaid gingham dress that she had worn because it was Joe’s favorite. She picked up the brown straw hat covered with red poppies.

  “We must be going,” she said. “Your train leaves this afternoon. Remember?”

  “I hope you’re going to write me lots of letters,” said Joe. “The kind you wrote last year, sealed with green sealing wax and smelling sweet.”

  “Of course I will.”

  Hand in hand they went back through the Secret Lane, to the steep road that led down to Hill Street.

  But there, at the top of the hill, Joe stopped. They paused and looked out over the town—the red turret of the high school, the leafy streets, the rooftops, the river, the shining rails that would take him away.

  “After Commencement Day, the World!” Joe said. “With Betsy.”

  Maud Hart Lovelace and Her World

  (Adapted from The Betsy-Tacy Companion: A Biography

  of Maud Hart Lovelace by Sharla Scannell Whalen)

  Maud Palmer Hart circa 1906

  Estate of Merian Kirchner

  MAUD HART LOVELACE was born on April 25, 1892, in Mankato, Minnesota. Shortly after Maud’s high school graduation in 1910, the Hart family left Mankato and settled in Minneapolis, where Maud attended the University of Minnesota. In 1917 she married Delos W. Lovelace, a newspaper reporter who later became a popular writer of short stories. The Lovelaces’ daughter, Merian, was born in 1931.

  Maud would tell her daughter bedtime stories about her childhood in Minnesota, and it was these stories that gave her the idea of writing the Betsy-Tacy books. She did not intend to write an entire series when Betsy-Tacy, the first book, was published in 1940, but readers asked for more stories. So Maud took Betsy through high school and beyond college to the “great world” and marriage. The final book in the series, Betsy’s Wedding, was published in 1955.

  The Betsy-Tacy books are based very closely upon Maud’s own life. “I could make it all up, but in these Betsy-Tacy stories, I love to work from real incidents,” Maud wrote. This is especially true of the four high school books. We know a lot about her life during this period because Maud kept diaries (one for each high school year, just like Betsy) as well as a scrapbook during high school. As she wrote to a cousin in 1964: “In writing the high school books my diaries were extremely helpful. The family life, customs, jokes, traditions are all true and the general pattern of the years is also accurate.”

  Almost every character in the high school books, even the most minor, can be matched to an actual person living in Mankato in the early years of the twentieth century. (See page 317 for a list of characters and their real-life counterparts.) But there are exceptions. As Maud wrote: “A small and amusing complication is that while some of the characters are absolutely based on one person—for example Tacy, Tib, Cab, Carney—others were merely suggested by some person and some characters are combinations of two real persons.” For example, the character Winona Root is based on two people. In Betsy and Tacy Go Downtown and Winona’s Pony Cart, Maud’s childhood friend Beulah Hunt was the model for Winona. The Winona Root we encounter in the high school books, however, was based on Maud’s high school friend Mary Eleanor Johnson, known as “El.”

  Another exception is the character Joe Willard, who is based on Maud’s husband, Delos Wheeler Lovelace. In real life, Delos did not attend Mankato High School with Maud. He was two years Maud’s junior, and the two didn’t meet until after high school. But as Maud said, “Delos came into my life much later than Joe Willard came into Betsy’s, and yet he is Joe Willard to the life.” This is because Maud asked her husband to give her a description of his boyhood. She then gave his history to Joe.

  Maud eventually donated her high school scrapbook and many photographs to the Blue Earth County Historical Society in Mankato, where they still reside today. But she destroyed her diaries sometime after she had finished writing the Betsy-Tacy books, in the late 1950s. We can’t be sure why, but we do know that, as Maud confessed once in an interview, they “were full of boys, boys, boys.” She may not have felt comfortable about bequeathing them to posterity!

  Maud Hart Lovelace died on March 11, 1980. But her legacy lives on in the beloved series she created and in her legions of fans, many of whom are members of the Betsy-Tacy Society and the Maud Hart Lovelace Society. For more information, write to:

  The Betsy-Tacy Society

  P.O. Box 94

  Mankato, MN 56002-0094

  www.betsy-tacysociety.org

  The Maud Hart Lovelace Society

  277 Hamline Avenue South

  St. Paul, MN 55105

  www.maudhartlovelacesociety.com

  Murmuring Lake Inn, where the Rays vacation, is based on Point Pleasant Inn at Madison Lake, Minnesota. There is an inn called Point Pleasant on the same site today, although it’s not the same one.

  Collection of Point Pleasant

  Maud’s older sister, Kathleen, at the lake.

  Estate of Merian Kirchner

  About Betsy Was a Junior

  THE PERIOD from 1908 TO 1909, which corresponds to the account of Betsy Ray’s junior year in Betsy Was a Junior, was an eventful one in Maud’s life. As is the case with all of the Betsy-Tacy books, much that happened to Maud made its way into the story—although at least one major event did not.

  Betsy Was a Junior opens at the end of an idyllic summer spent by the Rays at Murmuring Lake. But the summer of 1908 was not quite as idyllic for Maud or her friends. A typhoid epidemic caused by contaminated water struck Mankato in June. The situation was so serious that the head of the public works board was forced to resign and the city engineer was removed from office, accused of dereliction of duty.

  Maud’s family, vacationing at Madison Lake, was far enough away from Mankato to be relatively safe. But several of Maud’s friends and their families were affected: Mildred Oleson (Irma) and her parents, Bick’s (Tacy’s) father, and Marney’s (Carney’s) father were struck with the fever. Fortunately, they all survived. But Paul Ford (Dennie) lost his father, and Tom Fox (Tom Slade) lost his mother—a blow to the Harts, who had always been close to the Fox family. Although the typhoid epidemic is not mentioned in the story, it may have found fictional form in the death of Cab’s father and Betsy’s new-found maturity at the end of the book.

  Like Betsy, it appears that Maud and her crowd had lots of fun during their junior year—perhaps as a reaction to the sobering events of the summer. A happy occurrence at the beginning of the book is Tib’s return to Deep Valley. Although it didn’t happen in quite the same dramatic fashion, Midge Gerlach, one of Maud’s closest friends, did return to Mankato after spending several years in Milwaukee. Midge instantly became one of the Crowd and was often right in the thick of things, as can be seen in many Crowd photographs of that time.

  Another important factor in Crowd fun was the Willard family auto. As his fictional counterpart, Mr. Sibley, said he would do in Heaven to Betsy, Marney’s father, W. D. Willard, purchased an auto at around this time. In an unpublished memoir, he described it as follows: “We bought our first automobile—a two-cylinder Buick, two seater, engine under the floor, right side steering, shift outside, acetylene lamps
(which were very uncertain).” It cost Mr. Willard a grand total of $1,178.95.

  Some of the Crowd in the Willard (Sibley) family’s second auto. Midge (Tib) is at the wheel with El (Winona II) at her side. Bick (Tacy) is in the backseat, at the far left.

  Estate of Merian Kirchner

  The Oktw Deltas, from left: Midge (Tib); Mildred (Irma); Bick (Tacy); Maud (Betsy); El (Winona II); Marney (Carney); Ruth (Alice); and Tess (Katie).

  Estate of Merian Kirchner

  This is the year that Maud’s sister Kathleen left Mankato to attend the University of Minnesota—or the “U,” as it is still called by state residents today. Like Julia, she was swept up in the sorority rush—she pledged Gamma Phi Beta in real life, not the fictional Epsilon Iota.

  As in the book, sororities also became part of Maud’s life. Dazzled by Kathleen’s description of sororities, Maud and some of the rest of the Crowd formed Oktw Delta. (Maud used this spelling, but the word appears as “Okto” in the book.) The eight girls who joined were the same as their counterparts in the book. Maud’s scrapbook contained many Oktw Delta souvenirs such as placecards from a progressive dinner and a program from a party given by eight of the boys for the sorority.

  We can guess that the real-life Oktw Delta did not create such bad feeling in the high school as the fictional one did. Unlike Betsy, Maud was named head of the entertainment committee for the Junior-Senior banquet, and the Oktw Delta organization was not disbanded at the end of Maud’s junior year. A December 1910 article in the Mankato Free Press reads: “The Oktw Delta club gave its annual progressive dinner last evening…. On Monday evening, the club gave its annual Christmas tree.” Evidently, the club survived for at least another two years.

  The sheet music for the “Morning Cy Barn Dance.”

  Betsy-Tacy Society Archives

  This cartoon of Maud was pasted in her high school scrapbook. The labels point to “naturally curly hair,” “red dress,” and “red socks,” and the name on the dance card is “Bob.”

  Blue Earth County Historical Society

  A new member of the Crowd and Betsy’s love interest in the book is the silent Dave Hunt. During her junior year, Maud dated a boy named Robert (Bob) W. Hughes, who appears to have been the inspiration for Dave. We don’t know for sure if he, too, was the strong, silent type, but it seems quite likely.

  Maud appears just as pleased about her Christmas furs as Betsy is in the story.

  Collection of Minnesota Valley Regional Library

  Betsy’s silent beau, Dave Hunt, was based on Bob Hughes.

  1910 Annual

  Maud also received a curling iron as a joke present at a class assembly. Pasted in her high school scrap-book is a card signed “Class 09,” which reads: “Miss Maude Rosemond Palmer Hart Jones Gifford Hodson Wells Hoerr Morehart Ford Hughes Weed & etc. We would like to see you curl that new crop of whiskers now flourishing on your lily-white intellectual brow.” Maud appears to have been even more popular with boys than Betsy!

  Crowd members on the 1908 Mankato High School Football Team pictured here include: Bob Hughes (Dave Hunt) in the back row, second from left; Paul Ford (Dennie) in the middle row, second from right; and Jab Lloyd (Cab) in the front row, third from left.

  Estate of Merian Kirchner

  At the end of the book, Betsy reflects on the past year of silliness and resolves to be more grown-up. We don’t know if Maud made a similar resolution, but like Betsy, Maud certainly had a rollicking junior year.

  About Betsy and Joe

  MAUD’S SENIOR YEAR in high school, fictionalized in Betsy and Joe, took place from September 1909 to June 1910. It was a time of great change for Maud, just as it is for her alter ego, Betsy, and it began with two of her best friends leaving Mankato.

  At the beginning of the book, we learn that Betsy’s sister Julia has departed Deep Valley for “the Great World” at last, to spend the summer traveling in Europe before settling down in Berlin to study opera. Readers will not be surprised to learn that Maud’s older sister, Kathleen, also took part in a European tour. The June 30, 1909, issue of the Mankato Free Press reported: “Miss Kathleen Hart, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. T. W. Hart of this city, left this morning for Boston, Mass., from which city she will sail on Saturday for Europe. She will join a party going to Europe under the guidance of Rev. Willisford of this city. Miss Hart will make a three months’ tour of that country [sic] and then go to Berlin, Germany, where she will receive instructions in vocal music for a year.”

  Reading and re-reading Kathleen’s letters was a big part of the Harts’ home life during this period, just as it was for the Rays. And almost every time Betsy quotes passages from Julia’s letters in the story, Maud is really quoting from Kathleen’s. Kathleen was eventually offered a position at the Hamburg Opera, but, like Julia, she returned to America, having decided to pursue her career at home.

  Maud is reading aloud front one of Kathleen’s letters while her parents, little sister, Helen, and grandmother listen.

  Collection of Minnesota Valley Regional Library

  In 1909, the Harts pasted a series of photos into a book as a Christmas gift for homesick Kathleen in Berlin. This photo shows Stella Hart weeping as the mailman walks away. The inscription reads, “No mail from Kathleen.”

  Estate of Merian Kirchner

  Maud’s good friend Marion Willard (Carney) also left Mankato in 1909. But unlike Carney, Marion first spent a year at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, before being admitted to Vassar the following year as a freshman. It was probably simpler for fictional purposes to send Carney to Vassar in the fall of 1909, without the one-year detour to Carleton. Readers can follow Carney’s story in Carney’s House Party, one of the three Deep Valley books, which is set during the summer between her sophomore and junior years at Vassar and tells what happens when Larry Humphreys finally comes back into her life. And as in the Betsy-Tacy books, Maud based much of the story on real-life events, down to the smallest detail. While writing the book, Maud wrote to Marion: “I’ll send you a copy of Betsy and Joe as soon as I can get my hands on one, or a set of galleys. For in that book Carney goes off to college, Vassar, in the clothes you described for me. Since I used them for fall of 1909…you’ll have to tell me about some more clothes.”

  Maud’s friend Marion Willard (Carney) is shown here in her graduation photo.

  Blue Earth County Historical Society

  Maud is wearing the necklace of Venetian beads from Kathleen in her graduation photo.

  Estate of Merian Kirchner

  This cartoon of Maud pasted in her high school scrapbook is labeled, “Miss M. R. P. Hart in her senior year, her hair as curly as ever, still the object of devotion of all the H.S. boys.”

  Blue Earth County Historical Society

  In spite of these losses, Maud still managed to have a fun senior year. She and Midge Gerlach (Tib) were cast for a part in a show called Up and Down Broadway. Maud had a small part, but Midge did a dance number. The newspaper review of the show said Midge was “a bewitching little personage in her part, and her dancing brought forth a round of applause, which was well deserved.” However, neither Bick Kenney (Tacy) nor Mike Parker (Tony) took part in the show as their fictional counterparts did. Mike Parker left high school well before the end of the year, but he didn’t go off to Broadway like Tony does. We don’t know if Mike rivaled someone for Maud’s affections during her senior year, though we do know it couldn’t have been Delos (Joe), because they had not yet met.

  This is the year that Betsy finally beats Joe and wins the essay contest. In reality, Maud’s rivals in the essay contests, far from being Delos or any other boy, seem to have been other girls. Maud lost to fellow Crowd member Ruth Williams (Alice Morrison) in her junior year, and to a girl named Alice Alworth in her senior year. We don’t know if Maud competed in her freshman or sophomore years because, contrary to the description of the yearly contest in the books, contestants were not selected from each high school class—they t
ended to be mostly seniors.

  Maud graduated from high school on June 3, 1910. Just like Betsy, Maud gave an oration entitled “The Heroines of Shakespeare.” Bick Kenney (Tacy) sang a solo. The president of the school board spoke. And the chapter of Maud’s school days in Mankato came to a close, leaving her looking forward to “the Great World.”

  Fictional Characters and Their Real-Life Counterparts

  Betsy Ray: Maud Palmer Hart

  Julia Ray: Kathleen Albertine Hart

  Margaret Ray: Helen Hart

  Bob Ray: Thomas Walden Hart

  Jule Ray: Stella Palmer Hart

  Tacy Kelly: Frances “Bick” Vivian Kenney

  Tib Muller: Marjorie “Midge” Gerlach

  Bonnie Andrews: Constance “Connie” Davis

  Irma Biscay: Florence Mildred Oleson

  Phil Brandish: Carl George Hoerr

  Mamie Dodd: Mamie Skuse

  Cab Edwards: Jabez “Jab” Alvin Lloyd

  Dennie Farisy: Paul Gerald Ford

  E. Lloyd Harrington: James H. Baker Jr.

  Herbert Humphreys: Helmus Weddel Andrews

  Larry Humphreys: Robert Burke Andrews

  Dave Hunt: Robert William Hughes

  Katie Kelly: Theresa “Tess” Catherine Kenney

  Harry Kerr: Charles Eugene Kirch

  Al Larson: Henry Orlando Lee

  Tony Markham: Clarence “Mike” Lindon Parker

  Stan Moore: Herman Hayward

  Alice Morrison: Ruth Fallie Williams

  Pin: Charles Ernest “Pin” Jones

  Winona Root I: Beulah Ariel Hunt

  Winona Root II: Mary Eleanor Johnson