~sweet Judy blue eyes~

~One of the very last things we have finished up this year in our fourth-grade classroom at Olathe Elementary is to do a report on a famous Coloradoan of our choosing.  I decided that if I  was going to ask my students to do this assignment that their teacher should do it as well.  It's been fun to learn more about the famous and the infamous people of the Centennial State.  My famous person is still living and I decided that my blog post this morning would be the "report" that I'll be sharing with my students in just a few hours more.  It's kind of strange to be the "student" as well as the "teacher" sometimes.  Yet come to think of it, I kind of like it that way.

Have a great day out there everyone and remember to enjoy this day that we have thus been given. 

Mrs. Renfro's report on a famous Coloradoan follows~

      When I assigned you all the task of choosing a famous person from Colorado history to research and write about several weeks back, I decided since I didn't know all that much about our state's famous people that I should choose one as well.  What is fair for you as learners should also be fair for me as your teacher.  I remember the day that we all sat down at our desks, sticky notes in hand and listed our top three choices.  Then little by little in a "lottery" type of fashion, we each ended up with hopefully the number one or two person on our lists.  I told you that I too had someone in mind but would wait until today to let you know who that special person was.  Thankfully, none of you chose mine :)  I'm not sure WHO my number two person would have been. 

     I have listened with great interest in the past two days to your reports of some pretty famous Coloradoans like Buffalo Bill Cody, Doc Holliday, Kit Carson,  Horace Tabor and his wife Baby Doe.  I learned a whole lot of things about this woman they refer to as the "unsinkable Molly Brown" and how fortunate she was to have escaped from the sinking ship Titanic.  Thank you for telling me about those people and many others.  I'm a flatlander, remember?  I have lots to learn about living here in the Rocky Mountains.  Now it is my turn to tell you about the person I chose.  Are you ready to listen?

     When I was a young girl, in what seems like a gazillion years past but really only 40 years ago, I loved to listen to music on the radio as I was falling asleep at night.  Sure wish I still had that little aquamarine one that used to sit on my bedside lampstand.  My folks bought it at the old Gibson's store on 4th Street back in Hutch and gave it to me for Christmas the year that I was a senior in high school.  It was wonderful and the most entertaining thing a kid could want back in the days of the late 60's and early 70's.  At night as I was drifting off to sleep I would listen to music being broadcast from places far away from my home on a farm in south central Kansas. From Chicago, Illinois on a station called WLS or Oklahoma City's KOMA or from Wichita's KLEO, the singers and songwriters of my generation would serenade me to sleep each and every night.  In my imagination, I was there in that place with them, far away from a Kansas farm girl's life in Reno County.  I had many favorites but one of my most loved ones was actually a famous Coloradoan named Judy Collins.

     Although she was born in Seattle, Judy Collins spent her growing up years in Denver, Colorado.  Born the oldest of five children on May 1, 1939, Judy loved music from her early years on.  At an early age she began to study classical piano but later on her attention was turned to folk music.  When she was not all that much older than you are at this time, she began to play with a local orchestra.  She came by her musical prowess quite naturally.  Her father, a blind radio broadcaster, loved music as well.  He was a singer and musician who exposed his children to a wide variety of the standards of American music.  In my opinion, Judy Collins was born to be the singer and entertainer that she was. 

     She received the nickname "Sweet Judy Blue Eyes" after Stephen Stills wrote a beautiful composition with her in mind.  It was really called "Suite:  Judy Blue Eyes" and was a compilation of four songs written by Stills for his then girlfriend, Judy Collins.  They were just about to break up and in his sadness that they would soon depart from one another, he wrote the song in September of 1969.  Believe it or not, I was only 14 years old then but I remember nearly every word to it still this day.  It is your teacher's favorite song.  Always has been and always will be.  It was performed by my favorite group of all time, CSNY (Stephen stands for the "S") at a strange thing called Woodstock.  Some day when you are older, perhaps you shall read about more about it.  The music of my generation was the best of all, although others will beg to differ.  I loved it and refuse to change my opinion :)

     Judy Collins was not only a great singer and songwriter, she was an activist as well.  She promoted the idea of peace among nations and lent her name and her many talents to worthwhile causes wherever she could.  I admire her courage to speak up against things in life that she felt were wrong or unjust.   Not everyone is able to do that.  She battled many addictions along the way but was able to overcome them.  I think sometimes the price of stardom and fame is a heavy one to pay.  Some cannot rise above it but I believe Judy Collins did just that.

     Today Judy Collins lives in Manhattan, NY with her husband Louis Nelson whom she married in 1996.  She is still singing and still promoting the causes she holds dear and near to her heart.  Among those causes are the abolition of land mines worldwide and suicide prevention a subject of great importance to her after the death of her only child, Clark at age 33. 

     I love all of the songs she ever recorded and sang, so many of them timeless classics today in the year 2014.  My favorite one is called "Both Sides Now" which is a reflective piece of her thoughts of life and the changes that we all have to go through each and every day.  I'm thankful to have been entertained by her beautiful voice and most grateful to be able to share just this little bit about her with you today. 

    Who knows?  Someday you guys will grow up and be telling some other "young kids" about the music you grew up listening to as well.  May your memories be as happy as mine are.  What a gift that will truly be.

     "HER name was not Judy but she DID have blue eyes!  From the

land of long ago and far, far away.  She is me."