Sweet MUMories Oral History Project - Dianne Stapleton Robinson
Title
Sweet MUMories Oral History Project - Dianne Stapleton Robinson
Description
Date
August 26, 2016
Duration
38:55 minutes
Transcription
Sweet MUMories Oral History Project
Transcript: Dianne Stapleton Robinson, interviewed August 26, 2016
Donation record #Stapleton-Robinson.D.7122016.1
Transcribed by Erika Nisbet 05/25/2017. Approved for deposit by Marsha Robinson 03/30/2018.
Copyright Miami University. All rights reserved.
0.07 MRR My name is Marsha Robinson and we are recording an oral history with Dianne Stapleton Robinson as part of the Sweet MUMories Oral History Project to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Miami University Middletown, Ohio, campus. This interview is taking place on August 26, 2016, at Johnston Hall. Ms. Robinson, do I have your consent to proceed with this interview?
0.32 DSR Yes, you do.
0.33 MRR Thank you. Could you tell us about your connection to Miami University Middletown? How are you connected?
0.41 DSR I entered the fall of 1967 as an education major and then I switched to English and Speech shortly thereafter and I ultimately graduated from Miami Middletown because I was able to get all of my classes here, St. Patrick’s Day 1972.
1.09 MRR That’s an exciting time to be here. So you’re part of the first generation to create a personality for this campus. How did you and your colleagues do that? What did you do to make this place?
1.25 DSR I think in an effort to be a cohesive unit there were a lot of activities and, like high school, you learn that the more you got involved the more fun it was. Sometimes I’d like to go back and take my classes again because I was so busy with the extracurriculars that, yes, maybe I slanted those a little.
1.51 MRR So, what activities got your attention?
1.55 DSR The first one was choir because I have been singing all my life and then cheerleading because everybody wants to be a cheerleader, right? So, they were having a basketball team and they wanted cheerleaders so I tried out for cheerleading. My sophomore year, Student Senate and then later theater once, especially once Finkelman was built and the Campus Community Players became a reality. And I worked part-time for different staff members as part of the work-study program.
2.40 MRR Many people say that MUM was an opportunity to get an education. It was the access gate. Can you speak about this from your group of peers, or from yourself?
2.56 DSR There were 4, I had 4 brothers at home and so my parents, you know, financially things were tight and I had actually enrolled in Eastern Kentucky but there was very little communication. You know, I got my dorm assignment but money, we had no idea where the money was coming from. And finding Middletown, it was time to register so we went. Someone told me that a degree from Miami meant more than a degree from other schools so we decided to do this. My father could drop me off on his way to work because I didn’t have a car and pick me up on his way home. So I stayed here from eight to five that first term. So this was a second home and then once I was on my own it was definitely my second home. I was here probably twelve hours a day, if not more. So, it was a chance to go to school because my mother did not go to college and I was the first of my generation, of my family to graduate from college. And I always wanted to be a teacher so.
4.19 MRR Alright, well let’s go through these activities and maybe get some more details. Let’s start with the cheerleading. So how did the squad work?
4.36 DSR I think Lynn Darbyshire was the new athletic director and the team coach and I’m sure he had something to do with it. I have, I don’t recall. All I remember is tryouts and we did have quite a few girls come out. Are we allowed to name the five or not?
4.58 MRR Cannot name them, no.
4.59 DSR Ok, well there were five of us and we were from different vicinities which was interesting. And, so we were the first group of cheerleaders from Miami Middletown and I did that for two years.
5.12 MRR Was it only home games?
5.16 DSR Home games and the tournament. And I don’t recall if there were any other away games because there weren’t any other campuses close by, so I don’t recall.
5.29 MRR Alright.
5.30 DSR But we did go to the campus tournament every year up at Stark County. I know it was one. And I think there was one, well there was one here too. And by that time the third, I think that was the third one, the third campus community, or regionals campus basketball tournament. I was the one who organized the Queen competition and the cheerleading competition because I wasn’t a cheerleader anymore. So, I helped arrange the extra things that they had going on.
6.07 MRR Was this a homecoming celebration or…?
6.12 DSR It’s more like each regional campus selected a Queen candidate and then there was a luncheon and an interview and somebody was crowned queen of the tourney. And there was a cheerleading competition between the various squads and there was a trophy awarded for that. Besides the tournament, you know the basketball tournament, in terms of who won, there were also players from each team who were selected to an all-team, an all-tournament team, yes.
6.51 MRR Alright. Cheering is a long way from being in a choir. Were you…
6.58 DSR Yes, I was given specific instructions how, what to do and what not to do, yes.
7.01 MRR Did Chris Parker have anything to do with that?
7.03 DSR Yes she did.
7.04 MRR Tell me, tell us about that.
7.07 DSR She was just, probably the best choir director I’ve ever worked with. And there was something in her method that was different from any other choir I had ever been in. In the exercises, in where the sound comes from, in how you hold yourself when you sing, when you relax when you sing. And if you’ve ever seen her conduct, she works just as hard as the singers if not, if not harder. And she made me realize that everything I learned wasn’t necessarily correct so I asked her once if she would teach me, give me vocal lessons, to pay extra, to pay for vocal lessons and she says “I don’t teach private lessons”, I said “you should.” Because she was so good and we tried. We worked together quite some time until ultimately Helen Gerber Ramsdell was part of the university family and she then gave lessons. And Chris’s choirs were, it was always a pleasure. The music from all ages. We actually went to, we combined with the Miami University choirs and sang with the Cincinnati Symphony under Max Rudolf the great Max Rudolf, oh, what a conductor, the German Requiem by Brahms and that was an experience because we all had to learn the German pronunciation and the, just the special techniques and to blend with other choirs. And it was pretty special.
9.09 MRR I’d like to continue with the arts. You mentioned that Dave Finkelman Auditorium was built and, so could you tell us about being part of the theater community?
9.26 DSR Being part of the theater community in Middletown was special because Middletown High School had a fabulous theater program so it was kind of a theater and some of those directors worked with us. I was only involved in a couple productions here. The first was Malcom Sedam’s play The Twentieth Mission, which he wrote and Malcom was an English teacher here on campus.
9.58 MRR What was that about?
9.59 DSR That was about a fighter pilot and what he went through from going into the service until being asked to shoot down other pilots. And then the people that he missed from home and how all this played into his life. It was a very, and it was all in poetry. It was all in poetry, Malcom’s poetry, and it was lovely. Dave Ballard directed it. And it was the first production at Dave Finkelman Auditorium. I didn’t do any of the drama. I sang. I did things from the back of the auditorium and different places. The acoustics in Dave Finkelman Auditorium are the best. A Didn’t use microphones. Didn’t need microphones. It was so I just added musical notes in various places throughout that production.
11.13 MRR You mentioned, before we started recording, you mentioned a couple of other productions. Was there a Pirates of Penzance?
11.22 DSR 1974 the Campus Community Players and the Middletown Symphony did a joint production of Pirates of Penzance. And of course none of us had ever done Gilbert and Sullivan and, you know, that boarders on opera for those of us who only sing musical theater. It was an amazing production. It was a challenging production. It was directed by Jim Martin, he was the symphony director at that time. It was double cast. I played Edith some performances. I played Mable some performances. And another student played the other. So we had, we enjoyed that. And we rehearsed at the Gardner House, which at that time belonged to the University and it was this beautiful mansion, with these rooms that echoed. It was, so that was where we did most of our rehearsal until it came time to
12.42 MRR Where is that?
12.43 DSR It’s on Tytus, I believe. It was down by the Barnitz Bank. It was a big yellow house with built in cabinets, and built in, oh, it was just lovely.
12.49 MRR It sounds like MUM not only gave people an opportunity for education but also an opportunity for culture.
13.07 DSR Yes. Clare Easton, who was the director of, what’s the term?
13.21 MRR The Artist and Lecture Series?
13.23 DSR Well, she was the Director of Artist and Lecture Series and the Continuing, oh, the Continuing Education Program. She brought in all of these groups that, of course, none of us had ever seen or heard. And many times they would give a performance in the afternoon in Johnston Hall and then they would have an evening performance at Johnston Hall or later Finkelman. But she opened doors for many, many students. There was a Social Board to arrange dances and concerts and things like that on campus and the Social Board. And Clare, one day she came to me and said, “We have this thing about a Miss Southwestern Ohio Pageant to send a representative. You could do that. You sing.” And I said, “I don’t think so.” You know, it was not something I aspired to and she says, “Oh try it.” So I went to the interview and came back and could enter and I said, “But it’s a fifty dollar entry fee.” This is 1970, so that’s a lot of money and she says, “Well, we got you into this we can take care of that.” So Social Board paid my fee. And I was able to use the advertising space on my page then for Filsons Department Store which, who gave me a gown and McAlpins who gave me a swim suit and McAlpins Hair Salon who taught me how to do my hair. And so I could use that in exchange. And I went. It was in Wilmington. And I took second runner-up the first year and that paid for part of next term. And I kind of liked that idea so I entered the next year as well and won Miss Southwestern Ohio which was a bigger scholarship and then went on to compete at Miss Ohio in Sandusky. But all because Clare says “You can do this.” And that’s what this campus did. All the professors said, “You can do this. Try this.” I didn’t do much on stage but I did a lot on the Forensics team which was. For me it was reading poetry aloud, reading drama scenes, reading short stories aloud with a little bit of interpretation. And I was offered a scholarship to another university, which shall remain nameless, because of one poem. And because Diane Buerkle and Sue DeWine organized this team and encouraged us from their speech classes to try this. And every school that we went to had different criteria. One year I did what they called a pentathlon where you had to do five different things. You had to do a Halloween, you had to do a ghost story. You had to do something from Shakespeare. You had to do an American poet. You know, just five and then you entered all of those pieces at different times. And then I made finals for that one. I qualified for state the first National Forensics Team Competition was at Ohio Northern in Ada, Ohio. And Miami Middletown had a very strong Forensics team. We kept up with the big guys from the other campuses. We were even more successful than some of the larger schools.
17.41 MRR So the quality of education that you were told about materialized?
17.47 DSR Yes, it did.
17.51 MRR The activities that you’re describing feed into the major that you considered. Can you tell us about that decision to choose the major? [tape/segment2]
0.01 DSR Originally, I was going into English and Social Studies and someone said it would be better, a better job if I had related fields like English and Speech, Social Studies and Government. So I took English and Speech because I had a marvelous high school teacher that encouraged. And then I was in education but I sang back at my hometown one weekend. And I stayed all night with the organist and her husband at her home and we were chatting after dinner and the judge says, “So what’s your major?” And I told him. And I said I might want to go into law later. And he says, “You don’t want to be in education.” He said, “You need a bachelor of arts to go to law school.” Okay. So, Monday morning I switched my major to Arts and Science instead of Education and got a degree in English and Speech rather than education. And then I loved it when my students told me over the years, because I did do a lot of reading aloud with novels and poetry, “This wasn’t hard to read last night, Mrs. Robinson. I just heard your voice reading it to me.” So, I would read Huck Finn aloud and I would read portions of The Grapes of Wrath aloud and try to. I think that students don’t practice. If they never hear people reading aloud to them, they don’t realize how much it opens doors. I had trouble with essays in Esther William’s class, the English 111. You would read an essay and then you would have to write a paper on it. And at eighteen you’re going, “What’s this mean.” And when I was living in Springboro we were living in an old parsonage and there was an empty church next door. We had the key. So I’d go over, stand at the pulpit, and read this essay out loud, trying to figure out what it meant. And so that’s a device I told my students. If you don’t understand it reading, try it out loud. Sometimes you understand things a bit better that way.
2.38 MRR So the forensics team training carried forward into your career. What career did you pursue?
2.44 DSR I taught English and Speech and Drama at Fairfield High School in Fairfield, Ohio, for thirty-five years and sponsored just as many activities as I had been involved in over the years here and in high school.
3.08 MRR So it paid forward into the community?
3.10 DSR I hope so. I hope so. I tried, because I worked with drama. Well, I worked on the fringes of drama until late in my career because we had two outstanding drama people at Fairfield. And so I worked in their program as a choreographer or doing hair and makeup and you know, however you could help because it was family and you did what you could. And where was I going with that?
3.40 MRR Career and paying it forward.
3.41 DSR Career and paying forward. I was a drill team sponsor for a dance line. Whatever skill I had I picked up at Northmont High School under that band director. May I say his name? He’s passed on and he’s a legend. His name is Richard Cool, Dick Cool, and he was a dynamic director. He had, was the head of the program there for years and years. And I had some time with his team before I moved. So I was the dance line sponsor at Fairfield. My girls were, went from nothing the first year we took it over until we created a plan and then became ranked state and nationally the next two years while I was there. And then the next three years I worked with Miami Shakerettes under Dr. Jack Liles. So extracurriculars have been good to me just in terms of that kind of activity.
4.50 MRR There’s one track we haven’t talked about. You had considered a government major but there’s student organizations that you were involved in that might have led to that interest. Could you talk about student government here?
5.05 DSR Student government here.
5.08 MRR Student senate?
5.12 DSR I think being involved in Student Senate was just another way to help focus activities in the direction that we wanted things to go. The year I was on it, I believe our president of the Student Senate was a Vietnam Vet, former pilot, so we had somebody a little older, a little more mature in terms of focal points. And there was a lot of campus activism at the time regarding the Vietnam War. And I think these were people who saw that there is something beyond campus life and we need to be preparing for whatever that is beyond campus life. I just wanted to be involved and help where I could.
5.18 MRR In the last
5.18 DSR [inaudible]
5.21 MRR No, no I’m trying to formulate the question here. In the group discussion we spent a little time talking about the Vietnam War and the changes in the draft but we didn’t get in depth into that. Aand so it’s news to me that there was a veteran who was president of Student Senate. Without naming any names are you able to recall any of the demonstrations or activities for or against the war?
5.55 DSR The one that comes to mind and I really don’t, I want to say that it was probably my junior year, maybe my senior year, there was a very large day long protest, or out, just out here outside the library and with music and speakers. Many of the professors spoke. It’s just expressing the concern. And I was talking to Ms. [Ruth] Orth about the newspapers. The newspaper staff was highly intelligent, the kind of people who looked for in-depth stories and tried to make it matter. Because sometimes I think people don’t understand how important the war is, the government, the activities in government. We don’t understand until somebody with the right, with the right articulation explains it to us. And we had very strong KAOS staff at the time that tried to do that—very outspoken, very articulate, just very important to that activity.
6.34 MRR You did not grow up in Middletown, so you may not have heard about the conversations about starting the campus. Is that correct?
6.42 DSR Correct.
6.43 MRR Ok.
6.43 DSR It was here when I walked in. It was like, “Thank you Middletown.”
6.49 MRR Did other people from your hometown attend this school?
6.53 DSR No. I walked in here the first day. I moved. I attended high school in Dayton, moved to Washington Courthouse Ohio and attended Miami Trace High School, graduated from there. And the summer after I graduated we moved to Springboro. And that’s when I enrolled in the campus. And then my father had a job transfer, again and my family moved to Mt. Vernon, Ohio. So I was already enrolled and I was very concerned. What I mean, Mt. Vernon had an area campus but it wasn’t Miami. It was Ohio State. And so the minister found me a lady in the town, Springboro, and I roomed with her. She was 78 years old and her family wanted somebody in the house with her at night. And it was this big Victorian house. Her name, I’ll tell you her name her family wouldn’t care, Sarah Fry. She was just the kindest, funniest woman, oh, she was just dear, just dear. Charged me seven dollars a week room and board, eight if she did my laundry. Taught me to turn off lights and TVs. Taught me to look at the bright side because she had a lot of tragedies in her life and learned, you know, when you need to move forward and what attitude you should take. She was, she was wonderful. She would shovel her walks, seventy-eight years old. She would read teenage romance novels because they were big print. Back then there wasn’t quite the focus on larger print so because they had big print she’d read it. She never knew on Sunday whether she’d have three of us for dinner or whether there’d be thirty. She cooked dinner and whoever came and sometimes there were thirty. She had to go to her room sometimes to rest because there was so much going on at her house. And when you think about a lot of people who are lonely, Sarah was never lonely. She lived to be ninety-seven. I sang at her funeral. They told stories about her and you’d just laugh and laugh. Her farm in Springboro used to be at the [Route] 73 Springboro exit. I think there’s a Hampton Inn up there now, that used to be her farm. And I met her family became my second family and they took care of me. We’re still friends. We’re still second family. But I only had to have, I didn’t drive, I didn’t have a car. So by living in Springboro I only had to have a ride to and from campus. The rest of the places I needed, like a grocery store, drug store, doctor, laundromat were all within walking distance so that worked well.
10.29 MRR We were about to discuss the family environment here at Miami Middletown. How would you explain that and who would be other members to lead that family besides Chris Parker and Clare Easton?
10.43 DSR My Miami family included Malcom Sedam. The first year I worked as a student helper for Christine. The second year I worked for Malcom and Dave Ballard and Clare Easton, between them they gave me twenty hours a week and I made posters because we didn’t have the printers and the computers. So I made Artist and Lecture Series posters to get myself through school. Malcom saw that I was here, when I was here helping my friend Christine my freshman year. And Malcom saw that I was here ten, twelve hours a day and he’s one who said, “Well come here, sit down.” And he let me go in the teachers’ lounge and he’d share the lunch meat and cheese that he bought for his, cause he had been there for his evening class and he had gone out and bought this stuff and “Come, come” you know. Always made sure I had a meal. Always, always Clare, Dr. Bennett, all of them just looked after me. Joe, the campus security guard. I can’t think of his last name but Joe was a minister also and he did a lot of counseling up in that corner, you know, where the kids sat around and talked. But he was everybody’s go to person when they needed somebody to talk to. I had friends who complained about how large their classes were. The largest class I had was Dr. Bergstrom’s biology lecture and maybe a hundred people. But he still knew us, answered questions that we had. I always felt comfortable going up to the third floor or the second floor and asking for help and getting help with my class. Esther Williams was my very first English teacher in the introductory composition class and Esther was a retired high school English teacher. So for me, I mean what a role model! I mean professional and amazing, articulate, not like me. And she was also my advisor and my student teaching supervisor. So and she was probably the English teacher that I aspired to be. They all knew you. They knew us all by name. And so many of our classes were small, you know, ten, twelve people just sitting around discussing the subject. But like I said, I wish now I could go back and reread, relearn now that I’ve had time. You don’t know some subjects until you teach them. And then you start learning all the background material. But Phil Hines’ American Lit class introduced me to Mark Twain and I have become, yeah, a “Twainiack” as they call us. And one of my great joy since I retired is I see as many of the Hal Holbrook “Mark Twain Tonight” shows as I can because to see this icon, well they’re both icons now, Mark Twain and Hal Holbrook, to see it come to life. But I saw my first Mark Twain show on a date with a friend from Miami Middletown in 1971
14.57 MRR Awesome. Is there anything else that you would like to share with us, to the record for future readers of this interview?
15.07 DSR Wow. Oh, I’ll always be grateful for the way the staff took us under their wings, showed us that college wasn’t quite as scary. We didn’t, we didn’t have the diversions that kids that live on campus do. Most of our life was here or maybe up at the Student Center but with that hill for student center! Lots of times it was Johnston Hall, nobody wanted to walk up there. I don’t think I would have been able to go to college without Miami Middletown. And they looked after us. The second term that I, winter of ‘68, my parents, because we had you know what times were, they couldn’t get a loan for my winter tuition. And we’re talking two hundred and fifty dollars. But no, the banks all said no. So I walked into Mr. Walter’s office and I said, “What do I do? Do I withdraw or?” I didn’t know what to do and he said, “Wait a minute.” And he sat down and looked through some papers and said, “Here, we can do something about this.” And he took out a checkbook from a foundation wrote me two hundred and fifty dollar check to cover tuition and I didn’t have to pay it back until after I graduated. But if I hadn’t felt secure enough to go in and talk to him, and for many people administrations and teachers are, they’re up there. You just don’t go. You don’t go in their offices. And I would’ve dropped out. And he says “No, we got it. This is fine. You’ll be alright.” When my parents moved and I was having, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. Dr. Bennett offered, asked me if I wanted to come into his home and help his wife with the children. Wow! Now, I was in too many activities to be a babysitter as well so that didn’t work out but just the fact that they cared enough to help us find solutions. That, that’s what I’ll remember is that they cared enough to help us find a way to get to our goals and to get that degree. It was a very special time for me here.
18.17 MRR Thank you. Do I have your permission to end this recording?
18.21 DSR Yes.
18.22 MRR Thank you.
Indexing Terms:
Artist and Lecture Series
Barnitz Bank
Campus Community Players
Cheerleading
Choir
Parker, Christine
Easton, Clare
Continuing Education Program
Ballard, Dave
Dave Finkelman Auditorium
Dayton
Buerkle, Diane
Bennett, Eugene (Gene)
Liles, Jack
Eastern Kentucky University
Williams, Esther
Extracurricular activities
Fairfield High School
Fighter Pilot
Forensics team
Gardner House
German Requiem
Hampton Inn
Ramsdell, Helen Gerber
Homecoming Celebration
Martin, Jim
Joe
Johnston Hall
KAOS
Parker, Christine
Law school
Darbyshire, Lynn
Sedam, Malcom
Rudolf, Max
McAlpins Department Store
Miami Shakerettes
Miami Trace High School
Middletown High School
Middletown Symphony
Miss Southwestern Ohio Pageant
Walter, Mr.
Mt. Vernon
Newspaper
Northmont High School
Cool, Richard “Dick”
Ohio State University
Opera
Organist
Pentathalon
Filsons Department Store
Pirates of Penzance
Protest
Queen Competition
Regionals Campus Basketball Tournament
Saint Patrick’s Day
Sandusky, Ohio
Fry, Sarah
Social Board
Stark County
Student Center
Student Senate
DeWine, Sue
The Grapes of Wrath
The Twentieth Mission
Theater
Tytus
Vietnam War
Washington Courthouse, Ohio
Wilmington, Ohio
Transcript: Dianne Stapleton Robinson, interviewed August 26, 2016
Donation record #Stapleton-Robinson.D.7122016.1
Transcribed by Erika Nisbet 05/25/2017. Approved for deposit by Marsha Robinson 03/30/2018.
Copyright Miami University. All rights reserved.
0.07 MRR My name is Marsha Robinson and we are recording an oral history with Dianne Stapleton Robinson as part of the Sweet MUMories Oral History Project to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Miami University Middletown, Ohio, campus. This interview is taking place on August 26, 2016, at Johnston Hall. Ms. Robinson, do I have your consent to proceed with this interview?
0.32 DSR Yes, you do.
0.33 MRR Thank you. Could you tell us about your connection to Miami University Middletown? How are you connected?
0.41 DSR I entered the fall of 1967 as an education major and then I switched to English and Speech shortly thereafter and I ultimately graduated from Miami Middletown because I was able to get all of my classes here, St. Patrick’s Day 1972.
1.09 MRR That’s an exciting time to be here. So you’re part of the first generation to create a personality for this campus. How did you and your colleagues do that? What did you do to make this place?
1.25 DSR I think in an effort to be a cohesive unit there were a lot of activities and, like high school, you learn that the more you got involved the more fun it was. Sometimes I’d like to go back and take my classes again because I was so busy with the extracurriculars that, yes, maybe I slanted those a little.
1.51 MRR So, what activities got your attention?
1.55 DSR The first one was choir because I have been singing all my life and then cheerleading because everybody wants to be a cheerleader, right? So, they were having a basketball team and they wanted cheerleaders so I tried out for cheerleading. My sophomore year, Student Senate and then later theater once, especially once Finkelman was built and the Campus Community Players became a reality. And I worked part-time for different staff members as part of the work-study program.
2.40 MRR Many people say that MUM was an opportunity to get an education. It was the access gate. Can you speak about this from your group of peers, or from yourself?
2.56 DSR There were 4, I had 4 brothers at home and so my parents, you know, financially things were tight and I had actually enrolled in Eastern Kentucky but there was very little communication. You know, I got my dorm assignment but money, we had no idea where the money was coming from. And finding Middletown, it was time to register so we went. Someone told me that a degree from Miami meant more than a degree from other schools so we decided to do this. My father could drop me off on his way to work because I didn’t have a car and pick me up on his way home. So I stayed here from eight to five that first term. So this was a second home and then once I was on my own it was definitely my second home. I was here probably twelve hours a day, if not more. So, it was a chance to go to school because my mother did not go to college and I was the first of my generation, of my family to graduate from college. And I always wanted to be a teacher so.
4.19 MRR Alright, well let’s go through these activities and maybe get some more details. Let’s start with the cheerleading. So how did the squad work?
4.36 DSR I think Lynn Darbyshire was the new athletic director and the team coach and I’m sure he had something to do with it. I have, I don’t recall. All I remember is tryouts and we did have quite a few girls come out. Are we allowed to name the five or not?
4.58 MRR Cannot name them, no.
4.59 DSR Ok, well there were five of us and we were from different vicinities which was interesting. And, so we were the first group of cheerleaders from Miami Middletown and I did that for two years.
5.12 MRR Was it only home games?
5.16 DSR Home games and the tournament. And I don’t recall if there were any other away games because there weren’t any other campuses close by, so I don’t recall.
5.29 MRR Alright.
5.30 DSR But we did go to the campus tournament every year up at Stark County. I know it was one. And I think there was one, well there was one here too. And by that time the third, I think that was the third one, the third campus community, or regionals campus basketball tournament. I was the one who organized the Queen competition and the cheerleading competition because I wasn’t a cheerleader anymore. So, I helped arrange the extra things that they had going on.
6.07 MRR Was this a homecoming celebration or…?
6.12 DSR It’s more like each regional campus selected a Queen candidate and then there was a luncheon and an interview and somebody was crowned queen of the tourney. And there was a cheerleading competition between the various squads and there was a trophy awarded for that. Besides the tournament, you know the basketball tournament, in terms of who won, there were also players from each team who were selected to an all-team, an all-tournament team, yes.
6.51 MRR Alright. Cheering is a long way from being in a choir. Were you…
6.58 DSR Yes, I was given specific instructions how, what to do and what not to do, yes.
7.01 MRR Did Chris Parker have anything to do with that?
7.03 DSR Yes she did.
7.04 MRR Tell me, tell us about that.
7.07 DSR She was just, probably the best choir director I’ve ever worked with. And there was something in her method that was different from any other choir I had ever been in. In the exercises, in where the sound comes from, in how you hold yourself when you sing, when you relax when you sing. And if you’ve ever seen her conduct, she works just as hard as the singers if not, if not harder. And she made me realize that everything I learned wasn’t necessarily correct so I asked her once if she would teach me, give me vocal lessons, to pay extra, to pay for vocal lessons and she says “I don’t teach private lessons”, I said “you should.” Because she was so good and we tried. We worked together quite some time until ultimately Helen Gerber Ramsdell was part of the university family and she then gave lessons. And Chris’s choirs were, it was always a pleasure. The music from all ages. We actually went to, we combined with the Miami University choirs and sang with the Cincinnati Symphony under Max Rudolf the great Max Rudolf, oh, what a conductor, the German Requiem by Brahms and that was an experience because we all had to learn the German pronunciation and the, just the special techniques and to blend with other choirs. And it was pretty special.
9.09 MRR I’d like to continue with the arts. You mentioned that Dave Finkelman Auditorium was built and, so could you tell us about being part of the theater community?
9.26 DSR Being part of the theater community in Middletown was special because Middletown High School had a fabulous theater program so it was kind of a theater and some of those directors worked with us. I was only involved in a couple productions here. The first was Malcom Sedam’s play The Twentieth Mission, which he wrote and Malcom was an English teacher here on campus.
9.58 MRR What was that about?
9.59 DSR That was about a fighter pilot and what he went through from going into the service until being asked to shoot down other pilots. And then the people that he missed from home and how all this played into his life. It was a very, and it was all in poetry. It was all in poetry, Malcom’s poetry, and it was lovely. Dave Ballard directed it. And it was the first production at Dave Finkelman Auditorium. I didn’t do any of the drama. I sang. I did things from the back of the auditorium and different places. The acoustics in Dave Finkelman Auditorium are the best. A Didn’t use microphones. Didn’t need microphones. It was so I just added musical notes in various places throughout that production.
11.13 MRR You mentioned, before we started recording, you mentioned a couple of other productions. Was there a Pirates of Penzance?
11.22 DSR 1974 the Campus Community Players and the Middletown Symphony did a joint production of Pirates of Penzance. And of course none of us had ever done Gilbert and Sullivan and, you know, that boarders on opera for those of us who only sing musical theater. It was an amazing production. It was a challenging production. It was directed by Jim Martin, he was the symphony director at that time. It was double cast. I played Edith some performances. I played Mable some performances. And another student played the other. So we had, we enjoyed that. And we rehearsed at the Gardner House, which at that time belonged to the University and it was this beautiful mansion, with these rooms that echoed. It was, so that was where we did most of our rehearsal until it came time to
12.42 MRR Where is that?
12.43 DSR It’s on Tytus, I believe. It was down by the Barnitz Bank. It was a big yellow house with built in cabinets, and built in, oh, it was just lovely.
12.49 MRR It sounds like MUM not only gave people an opportunity for education but also an opportunity for culture.
13.07 DSR Yes. Clare Easton, who was the director of, what’s the term?
13.21 MRR The Artist and Lecture Series?
13.23 DSR Well, she was the Director of Artist and Lecture Series and the Continuing, oh, the Continuing Education Program. She brought in all of these groups that, of course, none of us had ever seen or heard. And many times they would give a performance in the afternoon in Johnston Hall and then they would have an evening performance at Johnston Hall or later Finkelman. But she opened doors for many, many students. There was a Social Board to arrange dances and concerts and things like that on campus and the Social Board. And Clare, one day she came to me and said, “We have this thing about a Miss Southwestern Ohio Pageant to send a representative. You could do that. You sing.” And I said, “I don’t think so.” You know, it was not something I aspired to and she says, “Oh try it.” So I went to the interview and came back and could enter and I said, “But it’s a fifty dollar entry fee.” This is 1970, so that’s a lot of money and she says, “Well, we got you into this we can take care of that.” So Social Board paid my fee. And I was able to use the advertising space on my page then for Filsons Department Store which, who gave me a gown and McAlpins who gave me a swim suit and McAlpins Hair Salon who taught me how to do my hair. And so I could use that in exchange. And I went. It was in Wilmington. And I took second runner-up the first year and that paid for part of next term. And I kind of liked that idea so I entered the next year as well and won Miss Southwestern Ohio which was a bigger scholarship and then went on to compete at Miss Ohio in Sandusky. But all because Clare says “You can do this.” And that’s what this campus did. All the professors said, “You can do this. Try this.” I didn’t do much on stage but I did a lot on the Forensics team which was. For me it was reading poetry aloud, reading drama scenes, reading short stories aloud with a little bit of interpretation. And I was offered a scholarship to another university, which shall remain nameless, because of one poem. And because Diane Buerkle and Sue DeWine organized this team and encouraged us from their speech classes to try this. And every school that we went to had different criteria. One year I did what they called a pentathlon where you had to do five different things. You had to do a Halloween, you had to do a ghost story. You had to do something from Shakespeare. You had to do an American poet. You know, just five and then you entered all of those pieces at different times. And then I made finals for that one. I qualified for state the first National Forensics Team Competition was at Ohio Northern in Ada, Ohio. And Miami Middletown had a very strong Forensics team. We kept up with the big guys from the other campuses. We were even more successful than some of the larger schools.
17.41 MRR So the quality of education that you were told about materialized?
17.47 DSR Yes, it did.
17.51 MRR The activities that you’re describing feed into the major that you considered. Can you tell us about that decision to choose the major? [tape/segment2]
0.01 DSR Originally, I was going into English and Social Studies and someone said it would be better, a better job if I had related fields like English and Speech, Social Studies and Government. So I took English and Speech because I had a marvelous high school teacher that encouraged. And then I was in education but I sang back at my hometown one weekend. And I stayed all night with the organist and her husband at her home and we were chatting after dinner and the judge says, “So what’s your major?” And I told him. And I said I might want to go into law later. And he says, “You don’t want to be in education.” He said, “You need a bachelor of arts to go to law school.” Okay. So, Monday morning I switched my major to Arts and Science instead of Education and got a degree in English and Speech rather than education. And then I loved it when my students told me over the years, because I did do a lot of reading aloud with novels and poetry, “This wasn’t hard to read last night, Mrs. Robinson. I just heard your voice reading it to me.” So, I would read Huck Finn aloud and I would read portions of The Grapes of Wrath aloud and try to. I think that students don’t practice. If they never hear people reading aloud to them, they don’t realize how much it opens doors. I had trouble with essays in Esther William’s class, the English 111. You would read an essay and then you would have to write a paper on it. And at eighteen you’re going, “What’s this mean.” And when I was living in Springboro we were living in an old parsonage and there was an empty church next door. We had the key. So I’d go over, stand at the pulpit, and read this essay out loud, trying to figure out what it meant. And so that’s a device I told my students. If you don’t understand it reading, try it out loud. Sometimes you understand things a bit better that way.
2.38 MRR So the forensics team training carried forward into your career. What career did you pursue?
2.44 DSR I taught English and Speech and Drama at Fairfield High School in Fairfield, Ohio, for thirty-five years and sponsored just as many activities as I had been involved in over the years here and in high school.
3.08 MRR So it paid forward into the community?
3.10 DSR I hope so. I hope so. I tried, because I worked with drama. Well, I worked on the fringes of drama until late in my career because we had two outstanding drama people at Fairfield. And so I worked in their program as a choreographer or doing hair and makeup and you know, however you could help because it was family and you did what you could. And where was I going with that?
3.40 MRR Career and paying it forward.
3.41 DSR Career and paying forward. I was a drill team sponsor for a dance line. Whatever skill I had I picked up at Northmont High School under that band director. May I say his name? He’s passed on and he’s a legend. His name is Richard Cool, Dick Cool, and he was a dynamic director. He had, was the head of the program there for years and years. And I had some time with his team before I moved. So I was the dance line sponsor at Fairfield. My girls were, went from nothing the first year we took it over until we created a plan and then became ranked state and nationally the next two years while I was there. And then the next three years I worked with Miami Shakerettes under Dr. Jack Liles. So extracurriculars have been good to me just in terms of that kind of activity.
4.50 MRR There’s one track we haven’t talked about. You had considered a government major but there’s student organizations that you were involved in that might have led to that interest. Could you talk about student government here?
5.05 DSR Student government here.
5.08 MRR Student senate?
5.12 DSR I think being involved in Student Senate was just another way to help focus activities in the direction that we wanted things to go. The year I was on it, I believe our president of the Student Senate was a Vietnam Vet, former pilot, so we had somebody a little older, a little more mature in terms of focal points. And there was a lot of campus activism at the time regarding the Vietnam War. And I think these were people who saw that there is something beyond campus life and we need to be preparing for whatever that is beyond campus life. I just wanted to be involved and help where I could.
5.18 MRR In the last
5.18 DSR [inaudible]
5.21 MRR No, no I’m trying to formulate the question here. In the group discussion we spent a little time talking about the Vietnam War and the changes in the draft but we didn’t get in depth into that. Aand so it’s news to me that there was a veteran who was president of Student Senate. Without naming any names are you able to recall any of the demonstrations or activities for or against the war?
5.55 DSR The one that comes to mind and I really don’t, I want to say that it was probably my junior year, maybe my senior year, there was a very large day long protest, or out, just out here outside the library and with music and speakers. Many of the professors spoke. It’s just expressing the concern. And I was talking to Ms. [Ruth] Orth about the newspapers. The newspaper staff was highly intelligent, the kind of people who looked for in-depth stories and tried to make it matter. Because sometimes I think people don’t understand how important the war is, the government, the activities in government. We don’t understand until somebody with the right, with the right articulation explains it to us. And we had very strong KAOS staff at the time that tried to do that—very outspoken, very articulate, just very important to that activity.
6.34 MRR You did not grow up in Middletown, so you may not have heard about the conversations about starting the campus. Is that correct?
6.42 DSR Correct.
6.43 MRR Ok.
6.43 DSR It was here when I walked in. It was like, “Thank you Middletown.”
6.49 MRR Did other people from your hometown attend this school?
6.53 DSR No. I walked in here the first day. I moved. I attended high school in Dayton, moved to Washington Courthouse Ohio and attended Miami Trace High School, graduated from there. And the summer after I graduated we moved to Springboro. And that’s when I enrolled in the campus. And then my father had a job transfer, again and my family moved to Mt. Vernon, Ohio. So I was already enrolled and I was very concerned. What I mean, Mt. Vernon had an area campus but it wasn’t Miami. It was Ohio State. And so the minister found me a lady in the town, Springboro, and I roomed with her. She was 78 years old and her family wanted somebody in the house with her at night. And it was this big Victorian house. Her name, I’ll tell you her name her family wouldn’t care, Sarah Fry. She was just the kindest, funniest woman, oh, she was just dear, just dear. Charged me seven dollars a week room and board, eight if she did my laundry. Taught me to turn off lights and TVs. Taught me to look at the bright side because she had a lot of tragedies in her life and learned, you know, when you need to move forward and what attitude you should take. She was, she was wonderful. She would shovel her walks, seventy-eight years old. She would read teenage romance novels because they were big print. Back then there wasn’t quite the focus on larger print so because they had big print she’d read it. She never knew on Sunday whether she’d have three of us for dinner or whether there’d be thirty. She cooked dinner and whoever came and sometimes there were thirty. She had to go to her room sometimes to rest because there was so much going on at her house. And when you think about a lot of people who are lonely, Sarah was never lonely. She lived to be ninety-seven. I sang at her funeral. They told stories about her and you’d just laugh and laugh. Her farm in Springboro used to be at the [Route] 73 Springboro exit. I think there’s a Hampton Inn up there now, that used to be her farm. And I met her family became my second family and they took care of me. We’re still friends. We’re still second family. But I only had to have, I didn’t drive, I didn’t have a car. So by living in Springboro I only had to have a ride to and from campus. The rest of the places I needed, like a grocery store, drug store, doctor, laundromat were all within walking distance so that worked well.
10.29 MRR We were about to discuss the family environment here at Miami Middletown. How would you explain that and who would be other members to lead that family besides Chris Parker and Clare Easton?
10.43 DSR My Miami family included Malcom Sedam. The first year I worked as a student helper for Christine. The second year I worked for Malcom and Dave Ballard and Clare Easton, between them they gave me twenty hours a week and I made posters because we didn’t have the printers and the computers. So I made Artist and Lecture Series posters to get myself through school. Malcom saw that I was here, when I was here helping my friend Christine my freshman year. And Malcom saw that I was here ten, twelve hours a day and he’s one who said, “Well come here, sit down.” And he let me go in the teachers’ lounge and he’d share the lunch meat and cheese that he bought for his, cause he had been there for his evening class and he had gone out and bought this stuff and “Come, come” you know. Always made sure I had a meal. Always, always Clare, Dr. Bennett, all of them just looked after me. Joe, the campus security guard. I can’t think of his last name but Joe was a minister also and he did a lot of counseling up in that corner, you know, where the kids sat around and talked. But he was everybody’s go to person when they needed somebody to talk to. I had friends who complained about how large their classes were. The largest class I had was Dr. Bergstrom’s biology lecture and maybe a hundred people. But he still knew us, answered questions that we had. I always felt comfortable going up to the third floor or the second floor and asking for help and getting help with my class. Esther Williams was my very first English teacher in the introductory composition class and Esther was a retired high school English teacher. So for me, I mean what a role model! I mean professional and amazing, articulate, not like me. And she was also my advisor and my student teaching supervisor. So and she was probably the English teacher that I aspired to be. They all knew you. They knew us all by name. And so many of our classes were small, you know, ten, twelve people just sitting around discussing the subject. But like I said, I wish now I could go back and reread, relearn now that I’ve had time. You don’t know some subjects until you teach them. And then you start learning all the background material. But Phil Hines’ American Lit class introduced me to Mark Twain and I have become, yeah, a “Twainiack” as they call us. And one of my great joy since I retired is I see as many of the Hal Holbrook “Mark Twain Tonight” shows as I can because to see this icon, well they’re both icons now, Mark Twain and Hal Holbrook, to see it come to life. But I saw my first Mark Twain show on a date with a friend from Miami Middletown in 1971
14.57 MRR Awesome. Is there anything else that you would like to share with us, to the record for future readers of this interview?
15.07 DSR Wow. Oh, I’ll always be grateful for the way the staff took us under their wings, showed us that college wasn’t quite as scary. We didn’t, we didn’t have the diversions that kids that live on campus do. Most of our life was here or maybe up at the Student Center but with that hill for student center! Lots of times it was Johnston Hall, nobody wanted to walk up there. I don’t think I would have been able to go to college without Miami Middletown. And they looked after us. The second term that I, winter of ‘68, my parents, because we had you know what times were, they couldn’t get a loan for my winter tuition. And we’re talking two hundred and fifty dollars. But no, the banks all said no. So I walked into Mr. Walter’s office and I said, “What do I do? Do I withdraw or?” I didn’t know what to do and he said, “Wait a minute.” And he sat down and looked through some papers and said, “Here, we can do something about this.” And he took out a checkbook from a foundation wrote me two hundred and fifty dollar check to cover tuition and I didn’t have to pay it back until after I graduated. But if I hadn’t felt secure enough to go in and talk to him, and for many people administrations and teachers are, they’re up there. You just don’t go. You don’t go in their offices. And I would’ve dropped out. And he says “No, we got it. This is fine. You’ll be alright.” When my parents moved and I was having, I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. Dr. Bennett offered, asked me if I wanted to come into his home and help his wife with the children. Wow! Now, I was in too many activities to be a babysitter as well so that didn’t work out but just the fact that they cared enough to help us find solutions. That, that’s what I’ll remember is that they cared enough to help us find a way to get to our goals and to get that degree. It was a very special time for me here.
18.17 MRR Thank you. Do I have your permission to end this recording?
18.21 DSR Yes.
18.22 MRR Thank you.
Indexing Terms:
Artist and Lecture Series
Barnitz Bank
Campus Community Players
Cheerleading
Choir
Parker, Christine
Easton, Clare
Continuing Education Program
Ballard, Dave
Dave Finkelman Auditorium
Dayton
Buerkle, Diane
Bennett, Eugene (Gene)
Liles, Jack
Eastern Kentucky University
Williams, Esther
Extracurricular activities
Fairfield High School
Fighter Pilot
Forensics team
Gardner House
German Requiem
Hampton Inn
Ramsdell, Helen Gerber
Homecoming Celebration
Martin, Jim
Joe
Johnston Hall
KAOS
Parker, Christine
Law school
Darbyshire, Lynn
Sedam, Malcom
Rudolf, Max
McAlpins Department Store
Miami Shakerettes
Miami Trace High School
Middletown High School
Middletown Symphony
Miss Southwestern Ohio Pageant
Walter, Mr.
Mt. Vernon
Newspaper
Northmont High School
Cool, Richard “Dick”
Ohio State University
Opera
Organist
Pentathalon
Filsons Department Store
Pirates of Penzance
Protest
Queen Competition
Regionals Campus Basketball Tournament
Saint Patrick’s Day
Sandusky, Ohio
Fry, Sarah
Social Board
Stark County
Student Center
Student Senate
DeWine, Sue
The Grapes of Wrath
The Twentieth Mission
Theater
Tytus
Vietnam War
Washington Courthouse, Ohio
Wilmington, Ohio
Interviewer
Marsha Robinson
Interviewee
Dianne Stapleton Robinson
Location
Johnston Hall, Miami University Middletown
Collection
Citation
“Sweet MUMories Oral History Project - Dianne Stapleton Robinson,” First to 50 - Miami University Middletown Digital Archive, accessed April 16, 2024, https://mum50.omeka.net/items/show/983.