HILLTOP continued from 45
Frank Hohenberger photo of a weaving class.
The annual party at Skyline was“ the” party of the year, according to Parker. Marianne Miller recalled that it was always a costume party. Since campers made all the costumes for the plays, there were always old costumes available.
In 1937 it was an artists’ party when everyone went dressed as a well known artist. The lawn was decorated with Japanese lanterns. There were stunts, prizes, and delicious refreshments.“ The main and best stunt of the evening,” according to Kamp Kapers,“ was presented by Dale Bessire, famous Brown County artist( and, at Hilltop, famous as Marianne’ s father) who did an oil painting to show‘ one night artists’ how he did it.”
In 1933, Andrews added the 80 acres of the Linke farm, with its farmhouse, barn, pasture land, and meadow, to add a boys’ camp.
She apparently cared for an ailing sister for many years, postponing marriage until after her sister’ s death. She married Thomas J. Weaver in 1935. She then wintered in Chicago and led the camp in Brown County, until her own illness brought an end to her association with the camp. She closed the camp during at least one year of World War II. Later in the 1940s, Musette Stoddard, the art director, tried to carry on for a few more years, but the camp closed permanently in 1947, victim to the loss of its leader and to changing times. The land was sold, and developed. But Hilltop can be remembered as“ a hilltop of joy indeed— joy of living in cabins with counselors and girls, joy of making things, of acting in plays, joy of swimming and sports and dancing, joy of singing, joy of learning the loveliness of woods and fields, joy of being alive in Brown County.”
Thanks to Kara Barnard, owner of one of the Hilltop camp cabins, and to Steve Miller, son of Marianne Bessire Miller. •
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46 Our Brown County • July / August 2014