Noreen Younger, a famend Canadian puppeteer maybe greatest identified for creating the favored CBC kids’s present Below the Umbrella Tree, has died.
Younger, who was born in Ottawa and labored in puppetry for over 50 years, produced Below the Umbrella Tree from 1987 to 1993 and portrayed Gloria Gopher, one of many present’s important characters.
She was additionally the primary creative director of the Puppets Up! Worldwide Puppet Pageant in Almonte, Ont., which started in 2005 and — save for a hiatus between 2017 and 2022 — continues to be operating.
Younger died after struggling a stroke late final week, her household instructed CBC. She was 85.
Puppetry was an ‘act of love,’ says brother
Younger was named a member of the Order of Canada in 1995, and her biography describes her as a “masterful puppet builder and puppeteer.”
Her work had an enduring influence on a era of children who grew up watching Canadian kids’s programming, mentioned Puppets Up! chair and government director Jane Torrance.
“I don’t think that there’s a kid who was born in the 80s or 90s who … watched CBC as a kid who doesn’t know Noreen’s work,” Torrance instructed CBC.
Younger’s youthful brother, Stephen Brathwaite, can also be a puppeteer and performed the character of Jacob Bluejay in Below the Umbrella Tree.
He mentioned Younger “was a wonderful sister” and mentioned her work was “an act of love, really, for kids and for the community.”
“Her character was her. Gloria Gopher was Noreen Young. She was a sweet, creative problem solving bulldozer,” he instructed CBC.
Born in 1939, Younger grew up in Outdated Ottawa South. Brathwaite mentioned she was thinking about puppets since she was 12 yr outdated and would carry out puppet reveals at shops and low outlets on the town, together with the famend Le Hibou Espresso Home on Sussex Drive.
Brathwaite mentioned Younger went on to artwork college, however discovered herself returning to puppetry afterwards.
“I think she thought, ‘Oh, puppets aren’t cool. I’ll do drawing and painting and sculpture.’ Which she did,” he mentioned. “And then as soon as she’s graduated, she was back at, at puppets.”
A few of her earliest work was with one other CBC puppet present, Hello Diddle Day, which aired from 1968 to 1976. She additionally labored on Sesame Park, the Canadian model of Sesame Road.
“I think once she started with puppets and saw where they could take her and where they could take her artistic career, it just became something she was going to do,” Torrance mentioned.
Created caricatures of public figures
Younger was additionally identified for the caricature puppets she created of public figures, starting from former governor basic Adrienne Clarkson and CBC information anchor Peter Mansbridge to native personalities like former Ottawa mayor Jim Watson.
Tributes to Younger have been coming in from folks in Almonte, who’ve laid flowers for her close to a bronze statue of Gloria Gopher within the city simply exterior Ottawa.
Different puppeteers have written condolences on social media. Canadian puppeteer Ronnie Burkett mentioned in a publish that he knew Younger for virtually 60 years and referred to as her a mentor.
“I wrote her a fan letter when I was ten years old. Foolish woman replied and was stuck with me for life,” he wrote on Instagram.
“I am incredibly sad as I mourn her, but so very grateful for knowing Noreen Young.”
