MERIDIAN, Miss. (AP) - Two clowns walked into a restaurant in Encinitas, California and it turns out they’re long lost friends who both played a role in Meridian television and culture more than 50 years ago.
Marie Jenkins and Kathy Stahl first met as wives of instructor pilots, Charles Jenkins and Calvin Thomas Morton, at Naval Air Station Meridian in the late 1960s.
The couples traveled in the same circles, the husbands rode dirt bikes on the trails around Meridian together and Marie and Kathy both played the part of Clooney the Clown on Meridian television station WHTV.
As is often the case with military families, they formed bonds, transferred out, stayed in touch for a while, lost track of each other and then reunited so many years later to strike up a conversation that melted away the years.
The reunion was arranged by Kathy (Morton) Stahl’s eldest son Jeff Morton, a 1-year-old during the Meridian years and now a regional sales manager in Atlanta. He spotted a July 2018 article from The Meridian Star that told the story of Marie Jenkins and her efforts as Clooney the Clown to integrate the children’s television program.
A few exchanges of emails and phone calls led to the lunch date for the two Clooneys this month at a Mexican restaurant in Encinitas.
“We knew each other briefly in Meridian and had an ongoing friendship, but we lost touch with each other,” Stahl said. “Now we’re both living in Encinitas and it’s a two-clown town.”
They found they had both been living in the Encinitas area for years but hadn’t recognized each other. They even frequented the same “Y” and may have been in a water aerobics class together, Jenkins said.
“It was so much fun (meeting),” Stahl said. “We hadn’t seen each other in 50 years. We both brought some pictures and played ‘Do you remember when?’ as we showed each other pictures and recalled stories. It was a fun reunion. We plan to do it again.”
Clooney the Clown, played by Marie Jenkins, and Elise the Cow were characters on a children’s television program in 1968, broadcast by WHTV, channel 24.
Jenkins previously told her story of landing the part of Clooney on Labor Day Weekend in 1968 and her efforts to have Black children on the show, which met resistance from some of the mothers of white children.
She played Clooney for a year before her husband received orders to transfer out.
“We were friends socially and would bump into one another at parties,” said Stahl, who lived on base and in Toomsuba during those years. “She told me about Clooney and that she was leaving. I said I thought that was a fun gig, and she said I should apply.”
Without previous acting or broadcast experience, Stahl, a native of Corpus Christi, Texas, got the part.
“It was kind of a live kids show with cartoons,” Stahl said. “I remember Elsie the Cow was one of the big sponsors and there was a potato chip company that gave away a bicycle each week, so there were prizes.”
As with Jenkins, Stahl remembered push back from white moms about Black children being included on the show.
“It was 1969, 1970 and we were in the heat of prejudice,” Stahl said.
“But I remember good kids, fun kids. I enjoyed it for a year.”
Then her husband was transferred and Stahl said the show ended over the thought of having to introduce a new Clooney the Clown in such a short period.
“I became owner of a big clown costume and would wear it later on at different events,” Stahl said. “I’d wear it to ball games and hand out peanuts. My kids would cringe and hide under the bleachers.”
Kathy Stahl dresses as Clooney the Clown sometime after her move from Meridian. The photos from the television show were destroyed when a pipe burst and flooded her home.
Years later, her son Jeff, no longer embarrassed by his mom’s clown costume, would go searching for stories about Clooney the Clown.
And that’s how two clowns walked into an Encinitas restaurant, recalled days of clowning around in Meridian and rekindled a friendship.
“We’re going to catch up and see each other again,” Jenkins said.
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