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Third graders at took part in a birthday celebration for author Gertrude Warner. More photos on page 8. Linda Lemmon photo.
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Sierra Mainville shows off her shadowbox tribute to the Boxcar Children, left. Right: A page from Miss Warner's notebook. Below: A third-graders Boxcar storyboard.. Linda Lemmon photos.
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM --- Happy 120th, Miss Gertrude Chandler Warner!
The life of Putnam's most beloved "favorite daughter," children's author Warner was celebrated with a big birthday party at the Putnam Elementary School April 11.
Historians in Putnam, plus members of the Gertrude Warner Boxcar Museum in Putnam, welcomed a standing-room only crowd at the Warner Library at the school. Warner, author of the Boxcar Children series for youngsters, was "the most caring, loving person" said Sandra Ames, who had Miss Warner for a teacher. Calling her a mentor, Ames said the reason she became a teacher was because she was inspired by Warner's love of her job.
Ames said although the four children in the Boxcar series were Warner's "family," "We all felt like family, too. She said her 19 classmates from Warner's class remain a solid core to this day. "We've stayed together since then. We're family," she said.
Ames said Warner thought the Dick and Jane series to teach reading in school was "not interesting" and thought writing children's books with "high interest" would be much better for kids. A classic New Englander, Warner would always make due with what she had. "If you don't have something, make it," Ames remembers Warner telling the students. Barbara Scalise, the new director of the Warner Boxcar Museum next to Union Square, recalled Warner writing about coming up with a way to create scissors for her dollhouse. She didn't have any toy scissors and decided to make a pair from two needles crossed and then placed on the railroad track. She figured that the heat from the train would meld the needles together. The train obliterated the needles. Undeterred, Warner placed two more needles, crossed, on the trolley track. That worked like a charm. She was creative and caring her whole life.
Fred Hedenberg of the Aspinock Historical Society and the first director of the museum, recalled the years-long challenge to find a box car to serve as a fitting museum to one of Putnam's most famous. Donations of labor and materials and even the boxcar, plus delivery services finally came together and the museum was born. The museum group plans to hold training for volunteers who'd like to serve the museum.
Third graders at the elementary school created colorful and creative homages to Warner and her Boxcar children from stick puppet shows videotaped to shadow boxes to storyboards. And there was cake and balloons, all honoring Putnam's favorite author.
Miss Warner would have been proud.