"Made nearly 75 costumes, Celebrates 90th birthday" from the December 28, 1967 Door County Advocate
By FRANCES BADTKE
CELEBRATING her 90th birthday Saturday, Dec. 23 was Mrs. Nellie Simon, 411 N. Sixth. She is the grandmother of Mary Jane Van Duyse and made most of her twirling costumes. She still keeps house and bakes her own bread. —Advocate
[The original article also includes a photo captioned, "Mary Jane Van Duyse at championship game." That photo is not in good shape, this is a photo of her from that game: https://dyn1.heritagestatic.com/lf?set=path%5B1%2F0%2F5%2F8%2F5%2F10585488%5D%2Csizedata%5B850x600%5D&call=url%5Bfile%3Aproduct.chain%5D
It is the second one in the thumbnails in this listing, https://sports.ha.com/itm/football-collectibles/uniforms/mary-jane-sorgel-the-packer-golden-girl-velvet-cape-worn-during-the-1961-nfl-championship-game/a/7085-82343.s, from when Mary Jane Sorgel’s cape was auctioned.]
Made nearly 75 costumes, Celebrates 90th birthday
By FRANCES BADTKE
Just living until you can celebrate your 90th birthday is an achievement in itself, and in the case of Mrs. Nellie Simon, 411 N. Sixth, Sturgeon Bay, it means even more.
Mrs. Simon lives alone, does her own housework, including baking bread and rolls, and until not too long ago still made the twirling costumes for her granddaughter, Mary Jane VanDuyse.
Last Saturday, Dec. 23, Mrs. Simon had a big birthday cake and enjoyed the day visiting friends and relatives who came to call and wish her many more happy birthdays.
Mrs. Simon had six children of her own and to this is added the 17 grandchildren and 44 great grandchildren, making a goodly number of descendants.
She had always done a lot of sewing, even when she was busy on the farm at Institute where she and her late husband farmed for many years, raising a family. She knit socks, mittens and even sewed coats for her children when they were smaller.
Now she is happy to do her own mending and be able to walk around town to wherever she wants to go. Except in very inclement weather, she walks to St. Joseph's church each morning to attend Mass.
She recalls that there were many times when she walked the seven miles from Institute to Sturgeon Bay when she "just had to get to town."
Raised by the Sisters at Bay Settlement she learned to play the organ quite young and later taught organ lessons to other youngsters. Her aunt was one of the sisters at the Bay Settlement Convent and she saw to it that her niece was cared for in her younger years and taught to sew, play the organ and cook, among other things deemed necessary for a girl to know before she married.
When her granddaughter Mary Jane VanDuyse began to twirl it was Grandma Simon who made the many costumes that she was going to need in her dancing and twirling career.
Mrs. Simon estimates that she made nearly 75 costumes of all types for Mary Jane and in later years made some for her great granddaughter, the daughter of Francis VanDuyse.
One of Mary Jane's favorites is the red velvet hooded cape with white fur trim that she wore to many of the Packer football games as she twirled and performed between halves and in pre-game time entertainment. The red velvet cape was made the night before the last World Championship game and Mrs. Simon worked until late at night to finish it so Mary Jane could wear it.
When she made a costume she first made the basic garment after having decided on the color scheme. Then as it was sewed together, she worked out the design in beads or sequins that was to decorate it.
The sequins first had to be sewed on one at a time, later they came in a strip and could be sewed on a little quicker and easier, bending the strip to form the swirls and pattern she wished to have on the costume. Red and white shows up very nice but the Packer green and gold also came in for their share of attention.
Once when Mary Jane was entered in a twirling competition it was Grandma Simon who sat up all night sewing black sequins on black velvet with black thread (a tiresome chore as any seamstress will know) so that the costume could be finished in plenty of time for the next day's contest.
Once when Mary Jane was to perform, the costume took longer to complete than she had figured it would take to sew on all those tiny sequins, so she went along in the car to the contest, sewing all the way to Green Bay and just finishing as they arrived at their destination.
Mary Jane also coaches the Packer Golden Girls and one of these is Mrs. Simon's great granddaughter Susie VanDuyse, for whom she has also made a number of costumes.
But she says the sequins are getting too small and her fingers too stiff and so she no longer does this fine work, much as she enjoys it.
Her grandmother lived to be 98 and it is quite possible that Mrs. Simon may surpass this, being in as good health and spirits and being as young at heart as she is.
Many more happy birthdays, Mrs. Simon.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
Articles by Frances Badtke:
https://doorcounty.substack.com/t/frances-badtke
Other profiles of artists: