Piece Description

A perfect piece for Valentine's Day! "Madam Librarian / What can I do, my dear, to catch your ear / I love you madly, madly Madam Librarian...Marian / Heaven help us if the library caught on fire / And the Volunteer Hose Brigademen / Had to whisper the news to Marian...Madam Librarian!"

Radio producer Joe Bevilacqua recently found himself singing this song from "The Music Man" as he drove to the home of Marion M. Dumond, retired Library Director from the Ellenville Public Library, in Ellenville, New York. It was his first encounter and she was quick to point out her name is spelled differently than the fictional character in the Meredith Wilson musical. As he entered her kitchen, the bespectacled cherub-faced woman was meticulously cutting a large bag of apples from a friend's tree into tiny perfectly shaped cubes, which she continued to do as she told Bevilacqua her life story.

Here is the story of Marion's early years and how she met her husband, in her own words: Joe Bevilacqua's story was published in The Ellenville Journal, in three parts, in 2007. --- More "Joe Bev" Valentine's specials can be found at: http://www.prx.org/series/23013