The Leaf-Chronicle from Clarksville, Tennessee • 33

1 Ths Lecf-Chrenleb Sunday, April 29, 1534 Section By TRUDY STEIN Of The Leaf Chronicle Staff er W(oDUue(o Love To Spore For lif 1 xt -miii 1 1 ranninimwn'inn Tirn "Some people just do more than their share." The speaker, Judy Ladd, was describing two Montgomery County foster families: Roy and Lucille Waters and Haywood and Ersell Harrison. Mrs. Ladd, Montgomery County Department of Human Services foster care and adoptions supervisor, has worked with the couples for 8 years. But, she's a short-timer compared to the Waters and Harrisons. They've been opening their homes and their hearts to foster children for 22 years.

The agency held a luncheon Wednesday to honor the families. Mayor Ted Crozier and Lionel Senseney, state Department of Human Services director for Montgomery County, presented the Waters and Harrisons with plaques and certificates of appreciation. "There's really no way the community can repay them," Mrs. Ladd said. "They are people who are really committed to helping other peoples' children." Department records show the Waters have kept 78 foster children in their home, and 75 children have stayed with the Harrisons since they were approved as a foster families in 1962.

Despite their advancing age, in the last year, each home has provided emergency care for eight teen-agers, Mrs. Ladd told luncheon guests. The living rooms in the Waters', and Harrisons' homes are filled with pictures of children some of their own children, but many more of the foster children that have been temporary family members. "I can remember how everyone of them looked," Mrs. Waters said.

She and her husband have traditionally provided care for handicapped foster children. Lately, they've been working with teens. Sixteen years ago the Waters adopted one of their foster children, David, now 21. He neither walks or talks. "I just blot the adoption out of my mind.

I think of him as mine," Mrs. Waters said. The Waters have been married for 45 years. For 44 of those years and, only recently on a part-time basis, Mr. Waters has worked for the local Chevrolet dealership, now HWns-Corlew.

They have four natural children, 11 grandchildren and four great 'o of their own, 13 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Many of their former foster children stay in touch. i "We still hear form those old enough to remember anything when they were here. Some bring Christmas presents. One came back to visit with her two babies," Mrs.

Harrison They are members of Parkview 'Baptist Church and one of the house rules is that foster phildren attend services with them. Mr. Harjrison-summed up his fosr; ter care experiences. "We haven't had no bad time of it or no good time of it. We've just been a family." age of a child, range from $121 for infants to $198 per month for a teen.

With those dollars the foster parents have to feed, clothe and transport he child, as well as take care of personal hygiene needs and school expenses. "Sometimes we can help with special circumstances such as class rings," Miss Adames said. Foster parent applicants should be between the ages of 21 and 65. If a couple is applying, they should have a stable relationship of at least two years, Miss Adames said. While a foster child does not have to have a room of his own, a separate bed and enough space to store his personal belongings is required.

Each home is limited to six children, including natural children. Each member of the household must have a physical exam stating that he or she is free of communicable diseases. The exam can be done at the health department. The women stress that being a foster home is a family effort. "We often hear from wives whose husbands really are not interested at all.

We talk with every member of the family," Miss Adames said. "The opinions of their children are very important," Mrs. Ladd added. While foster care placements can be as short as one day or last several years, the average stay is 18 months. "A lot of people are afraid they will come to love the children too much to give them up," Miss Adames said.

"We try and help them understand, that you love them enough to take care of them, but you also love them enough to let them go back to their homes an even greater love, letting them go." Foster parents can refuse to take a child they don't think will fit into their family. The department tries to arrange breaks for the families between placements, a luxury that has not often been provided to those currently participating in the program. "Without more foster homes, we will continue to overwork the ones we have," Miss Adames said. yd we'll lose them." "For additional information on foster parenting, or to begin the application proceedure, call Miss Adames 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at 645-4531.

ing the piece. A nearby secretary was recruited on the spot to sing Uie tune at an impromptu rehearsal Several years later, when she sang with the Boston Pops, Miss Miranda says, "the audience loved it, and I had to do an encore. The musical director, Arthur Fiedler, did a whole thing on commercials, and I was theonly one to appear liver "I love bananas but Mr. Fiedler said he didn't like bananas and pre- Miss Miranda finally left show business, returning to a secretarial job, when she decided her daughter needed more than a part-time mother. "I spent too much time on the road," she explained, "and I felt it was more important for my daughter to have a full-time mother than for me to have a career." Did she miss it? "There were moments when I missed the applause, the adulation and the excitement of it," she replies.

"But I went right back to typing, and I didnt miss it as much as people thought I would. I guess I was a litle tired of the traveling and the hectic pace." By TRUDY STEIN Of The Leaf Chronicle Staff WANTED: Down-home folks with love to spare for troubled children. On any given day, more than 100 Montgomery County children are in foster care. The numbers fluctuate. As children go home, others are temporarily placed.

The state Department of Human Services for Montgomery County is running out of places to put foster children. Staff members say the department is "desperate" for new foster homes. "We're at the crisis point," said Judy Ladd, field supervisor of the local Human Services foster care and adoption unit "We have teen-agers who are being placed in group homes inappropriately," said foster care and adoptions counselor Mari Anne Adames. "Some kids work really well in group homes, but others need the individual attention from foster parents," she explained. "We just don't have enough foster parents." Currently the department has 27 active foster homes.

Last month 109 local children were in foster care settings of one type or another. Fourteen were in placements outside of the county. Others were residents of Montgomery County Girls Home and Five Rivers Group Home. The department is conducting a massive foster home recruitment campaign with public service announcements, speeches at local PTAs, notices in church bulletins and inserts with bills. An intake program for prospective parents will be held May 15.

"At the intake, we explain the basic department regulations, board payments, visitation with the natural family, how long children usually stay and who you report what to about the child," Miss Adams explained. One need not be rich, live in a castle, have children of his own or even be married to be a foster parent, the Services workers saii2 A- "Income has to be adequate so that an additional child would not not be a burden," Mrs? Ladd said. Monthly board rates, based on the bles. She can sing in five languages, speaks three fluently and is studying a couple more. She looks back on her showbiz career with fond memories.

After two years of portraying Chiquita in the mid-'40s, Miss Miranda spent a dozen years in Latin America, where sne sang in nightclubs and concerts in countries from tfr-Vnzuela-r-Sh married a tango singer, and tney had a daughter, Amelia. Miss Mi- says one of hei; While on a 1956 trip to New York, Miss Miranda won an Arthur Godfrey talent scout show and appeared with him for a week. On another occasion her voice both singing and speaking was dubbed in Spanish for Judy Garland's" in a movie starring the legendary song-and-dance star. Although Miss Miranda was Chiquita personified, there were others who played the role for a while, including singers Monica Lewis and June Valli, and actress Barbara Carrera. The music and words to the "Chiquita" song were written by two advertising agency employees, who rattled paper clips in a drinking cup to simulate maracas while compos Staff photos by Robert Smith Recognized For Helping Children Two local families who have been providing homes for dozens of foster children through the years were honored recently.

In the top photo, Judy Ladd and Lionel Senseney of the state Department of Human Services present an award to foster parents Haywood and Ersell Harrison. In the bottom photo, Mayor Ted Crozier presents a plaque to Lucille and Roy Waters. grandchildren. Many of the foster children they've kept over the years stay in contact with them. "I guess I must like it.

I've spent over half my life raising children," Mr. Waters said. "What would I tell someone inter-esed in being a foster parent? I would recommend it to them if they love kids. You got to love kids," he said. Foster children call Mr.

and Mrs. Harrison "Mammy" and "Granddad-dy" "We've been called that sg. long, no one remembers our names," Mrs. Harrison said. When they first started keeping foster children for the county, the Harrisons worked with young children.

More recently, they've kept VMS' teen-agers. "We've never had any too rough. We tell them the rules of our the house, and that they'll be minding them or we'll be calling them (the agency) to come get them," Mr. Harrison said. Mrs.

Ladd interjected that even the most troublesome kids behaved well in the Harrison home. "I really feel like I've helped some kids," Mrs. Harrison said. "The biggest portion of them seem to appreciate it" Her husband quickly added, "But often they don't realize it until they're leaving." Hi retired in 1974 from 21 years sei5iwafcyl-: Ihe State Highway Department. The Harrisons have four children Staff phofo by Robert Smith ill! ill -wK By GENE SCHROEDER AP Newsfeatures Writer NEW YORK Elsa Miranda is a Latin from Manhattan who once was a top banana.

Now she's aiding in a search for a new top banana. As the famous "Chiquita Banana," Miss Miranda helped make a jukebox hit of one of radio's first singing commercials some 40 years ago a song whose lyrics offer advice a little out of date now. "I'm Chiquita Banana and I've come to say," the lyrics began, "bananas have to ripen in a certain "Bananas like the climate of the very, very tropical equator, "So you should never put bananas in the refrigerator." The new Chiquita, to be selected in New York from nine regional finalists early this summer, will be singing a slightly different tune, now telling consumers that once bananas have ripened it's OK to keep them in the refrigerator. Entrants in the t- lent search, in addition to possess ng singing ability, must create a nat best typifying a contemporary Miss Chiquita, with judging to be on the basis of imaginative design, poise, articulate manner and outgoing personality. The winner will probably have a busy life if she follows in the footsteps of Miss Miranda.

In her banana days, Miss Miranda (no relation to Carmen) sang the ea lypso-style jingle with the Boston Pops Symphony, appeared as a guest star on the tpajeBiQOt toured the country making personal appearances from coast to coast and even christened a banana freighter. Her Chiquita portrayal also served as the text for a church sermon, was editorialized in a national newspaper and appeared in cartoons. Would the Puerto Rican-born Miss Miranda like to be Chiquita once more? "I'd love to play the role, again, but I'm too old," said Miss Miranda, now a vivacious 62-year-bld grandmother and sales secretary for a major New York insurance brokerage. "What they want is a bubbly chickee." The 5-foot-2 Miss Miranda may no longer be a chickee, but she still bub- Beauticians Plan Fashion Festival Modeling fashions to be shown at the Tennessee Beauticians Chapter 16 spring-summer fashion festival May 6 at 2 p.m. at the Burt Cobb Community Center are (from left) Geneva Woods, Mellesia Harper and Louisana Myers.

Tickets, $5, are available from member beauticians or at the door. Proceeds benefit a sickle-cell anemia fund. Model Debra Alexander of Nashville will appear In the show..