Sunday, April 2, 2006 (SF Chronicle)
Lettie Connell Schubert -- pre-eminent puppeteer
Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer

Lettie Connell Schubert, who grew up in a San Francisco theater during the
Depression and rose to become a well-known figure in American puppetry,
has died at age 77.
The fabled puppeteer died of liver failure on March 21 at her Mill Valley
home. She had been fighting cancer for six months.
Friends and family recalled Mrs. Schubert's playfulness and exuberance,
dazzling smile and oversize glasses. They spoke of her inspiration and
warmth. They told stories about her puppets, including a hilarious German
dog.
"She was a force of major importance," Alan Cook, curator of the
Conservatory of Puppetry Arts in Pasadena, wrote in an e-mail. "I call her
a catalyst. Her contributions to the field were wide ranging locally and
even internationally. Her own performance talents were among the best, but
she also encouraged many other talents."
Mrs. Schubert was a third-generation San Franciscan whose love of puppetry
began when she was a child. She began performing regularly during junior
high school.
She worked with the puppet master Ralph Chessé, handling marionettes on a
long-running Bay Area television show called "Brother Buzz," and playing a
character called Miss Busy Bee. She also worked on other live TV shows
during the 1950s, including "Willie & the Baron" and "The Looking Glass
Lady."
She directed Oakland's Vagabond Puppet Theater, which visited Oakland
public parks and playgrounds during the summer. Her various assistants
included Robert Edward Darling and Dahl Delu. She worked closely with
Jerry Juhl, who later went on to become a puppeteer and script writer for
the Muppets.
Mrs. Schubert was a founding member of the San Francisco Bay Area
Puppeteers Guild and directed the first regional puppet festival in San
Francisco in 1960. She also organized a national puppet festival in
Asilomar (Monterey County) and other events in the Los Angeles area.
She had leadership roles in local, regional, national (Puppeteers of
America) and international (UNIMA -- Union Internationale de la
Marionnette) puppetry organizations for many years.
She lived for years on Green Street in San Francisco and plied her trade
everywhere, hosting puppet shows in local department stores and at library
exhibits. She made dolls for craft fairs, and once sold pictorial rubber
stamps with puppet themes.
In the 1960s, she staged informal puppet shows in the display window of a
portrait shop on upper Grant Avenue called "Happy Things," delighting
tourists and passers-by. The shop was operated by puppeteer and children's
author Wolo, which was short for his real name, Wolf George Anton Erhardt
Trutzschler von Falkenstein.
Lettie Schubert met her future husband, Gage, at the shop. They took over
the business until its closing a few years later and later owned
Schubert's Toy Square on Union Street.
"She was one of the sweetest people anyone would ever meet. She listened
to people," Gage Schubert said. "She was fascinated by puppet activity as
a child because her father and mother had a theater on Macondray Lane on
Russian Hill during the Depression. She grew up in that basement theater
environment. ... She went from that background as an only child into
puppetry theater."
In 1968, Mrs. Schubert moved with her family to Mill Valley. She was
involved with the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival for 30 years with her
husband. She also exhibited her paper and cloth figures for the Artisans
Gallery.
In 1974, Mrs. Schubert self-published a booklet titled "Hand Puppet
Manipulation" in which she tried to teach novices the craft of bringing
puppets to life.
Mrs. Schubert traveled extensively and was an avid collector of art and
puppetry. She was also a member of the British Puppet & Model Theatre
Guild and conducted a workshop there.
"Lettie has been a wonderful friend to many puppeteers on this side of the
Atlantic; she made numerous visits to the U.K. -- popping up in all sorts
of places," wrote British puppeteer Ray DaSilva in a memoriam posted on
the Web site of Puppeteers UK.
In addition to her husband, Mrs. Schubert is survived by a son, David
Schubert, of Concord, Mass., and a daughter, Rebecca Smith, of Novato. She
also is survived by two grandchildren.
A gathering of Mrs. Schubert's friends and well-wishers is planned for
June 11 from 3 to 9 p.m. at the Golden Gate Room at the Fort Mason Center.
Donations may be made to the Puppeteers of America or the American Cancer
Society. ----------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright 2006 SF Chronicle