Phyllis Odle plays the piano during the Salute To The Old West musical at Beaver Dam Elementary April 29, 1982. (Photo courtesy of Sam Alford)
***UPDATE*** Today, June 29, is Ms. Phyllis Odle’s birthday. In honor of her birthday, we’ve unlocked the story below, as well as our story on the Wizard of Oz musical, for all to enjoy. If you’d like to wish her a happy birthday, you can find her on Facebook. I’m sure she’d love to hear from you.
By Lee Bratcher / OC Monitor
(This is part one of a two-part series about the musicals Beaver Dam Elementary students performed in the 1970’s and 80’s. Part two of the series will focus on the 1983 performance of The Wizard of Oz.)
BEAVER DAM, Ky. — Beaver Dam, Kentucky, is a long, long way from New York City, but thanks to the vision of one music teacher, hundreds of children and a lot of help, for about 10 years the lights of Broadway shined bright in a small town gym.
Phyllis Embry, later Odle, was born in Caneyville, Kentucky, in 1942. Like most children, early on she had an idea of what she wanted to be when she grew up. Unlike many children, little Phyllis actually turned her childhood dream into reality.
“Being a music teacher was all I ever thought about, even when I was a young girl,” Odle said. “I never considered doing anything else.”
Odle’s grandparents taught her to love music as a young child. She would spend the night with her grandparents nearly every Friday night. On those Friday nights at her grandparents, friends and neighbors came a-calling and spent hours in the parlor, singing and playing music.
“It was there I learned to love music and I have loved ever since,” Odle said. “I really believe all of that had a part in helping me to know I wanted to be a music teacher when I grew up and that never changed.”
Phyllis Odle
As Odle grew up, her dream job never changed and right out of college she started her career as a music teacher. Along the way, she would marry Irwin “Dubbie” Odle and in 1967, she and Dubbie would welcome their only child, Sandy, into the world.
After Sandy’s birth, Odle took time off to stay home with the baby. Every so often, she would substitute teach at Morgantown Elementary School in Butler County. During this time, Odle would come into contact with a music teacher who produced her own musical programs, though not as enormous as Odle would in the future.
“(Morgantown Elementary) had a wonderful music teacher, Mary Alice Black, and I was thrilled when I got to see her music program, but I never dreamed that I would do big programs later,” Odle said. “I noticed how much the students enjoyed participating and how much the audience loved watching them, especially the parents and other family members.”
After a while, Odle was ready to come back to teaching full-time. Luckily, she received a call from Ohio County Schools and was soon teaching music at Beaver Dam Elementary. It wasn’t long before Odle began thinking about putting on a musical program of her own.
“I loved teaching at Beaver Dam! The students liked to come to music classes and most of them had talent and enjoyed using it,” Odle said. “The parents liked to hear them sing at PTA (meetings) and other places, so I began to think about how much they would enjoy doing a big program like (Ms. Black) did at Morgantown when I was substituting. I talked to our principal, Mr. Brian Taylor, and he liked the idea so I started thinking and planning.”
In 1976, Odle began planning her first program, a musical celebrating the country’s Bicentennial. Luckily, Beaver Dam Elementary had the perfect “theater” for Odle’s musical programs, the spacious school gym. The gym would go on to be the stage for all of Odle’s musical programs at Beaver Dam Elementary.
Ticket for the May 4, 1984, performance of Annie at Beaver Dam Elementary. (Courtesy of Sam Alford)
Cover of Annie playbill from 1984. (Courtesy of Sam Alford)
Page 1 of Annie playbill from 1984. (Courtesy of Sam Alford)
Pages 2 and 3 of Annie playbill from 1984. (Courtesy of Sam Alford)
Page 4 of Annie playbill from 1984. (Courtesy of Sam Alford)
After the success of the Bicentennial, more ambitious programs would follow, like 1978’s Salute to Walt Disney, 1979’s musical featuring songs from Stephen Foster, 1980’s performance of “The Sound of Music,” a Christmas program in 1981, in 1982 a Western themed musical featuring songs from “Oklahoma,” in 1983, perhaps Odle’s most ambitious program, “The Wizard of Oz,” in 1984 a performance of “Annie,” and in 1985 a musical featuring songs from the past programs entitled “Some of the Best from All the Rest.”
The themes for Odle’s musical programs were inspired by many things, the seasons, holidays, history, etc. Once she had an idea of what the next program would be, she’d sometimes spend a year thinking about how to bring it to life. Even though she picked the theme, Odle quickly found out what the students liked best.
“The ones the students seemed to enjoy most were when we would present a show from somewhere like New York, right there in the middle of our gym!” Odle said. “It wasn’t exactly like the Broadway shows, but it was close enough. The students learned and loved the stories, and the beautiful songs became their’s and I wouldn’t be surprised if most can still sing along with the cast after over 30 years.”
Amazingly, every student took part in Odle’s programs, no one was excluded. While every student played a part, there were solos and special music performed by students. When looking for children to sing solos or special music, Odle learned a lot about her students in her class. She could tell which students took music or voice lessons, but she could also tell those who had no training and just loved to sing.
“I saw some (students) sing with all their hearts, with beautIful voices that couldn’t have been any better than if they had all kinds of musical training,” Odle said. “They had something just as good or better than that, they had a love for singing and that love made them sing with everything they could. As I watched them sing in my music classes, I could only imagine how much they would love to sing a solo or a special in one of our programs.”
Cover of the playbill for “A Salute to the Old West” from 1982. (Courtesy of Sam Alford)
Pages 2 and 3 of the playbill for “A Salute to the Old West from 1982. (Courtesy of Sam Alford)
The B & O train which was built for “A Salute to the Old West” in 1982. (Photo courtesy of Sam Alford)
Odle chose students who had training, but she also selected those with a natural gift and love of singing, so they could have their moment in the spotlight.
“We got each one of them an appropriate dress or costume to wear while they sang, and I do mean they sang with all their hearts!” Odle said. “Watching them perform was such a blessing to them, but even more blessed were the ones that watched and listened. Many, many times it made tears run down my cheeks, and I imagine many others had the same experiences. When children get that much joy and love by singing in a school play like they did, that was definitely a strong part of my choices.”
After picking the theme of the program and deciding what parts the students would play, it was time to bring Odle’s vision to life. She needed costumes for the students, set pieces built, time for rehearsal and much more. If all that seems like it might be too much for one woman to handle, it was, but Odle had plenty of help.
“Teaching at Beaver Dam Elementary was the perfect place for me, with the big gym and bleachers and all the people helping,” Odle said. “I could never have made the gym look that way by myself. I might have come up with the ideas, but lots and lots of people made it happen.”
Thankfully, Odle received help from her fellow teachers and many others over the years. Speaking of her fellow teachers, Odle makes a special point to say she never could have accomplished what she had set out to do without her fellow teachers, her friends.
“I could never have done it without all the help all the teachers and staff gave. It definitely became a community project that many loved and looked forward to each year,” Odle said.
As time passed, local businesses and private citizens also chipped in to help each year.
“Every year more families and businesses became a helping hand to make the programs bigger and better, which was such a great help to us. I was always so proud of them,” Odle said. “I remember how Mr. Noah Phelps always helped, either personally or through his business. He helped in many ways, as did lots of others each year. It was all appreciated.”
It’s a good thing so many people pitched in to help Odle. Her programs became almost mythical by the end of her run, with each program becoming bigger than the last.
“(The programs) did grow overs the years. We started with the Bicentennial and it grew into a big show like it got to be,” Odle said. “I have always gone a little too big with everything I do, but I’m glad I did with the musicals.”
Big, bigger or biggest, it didn’t matter because all the hard work paid off. People loved the programs back then and still talk about them today.
“The children loved it all, the parents and other family members loved it too, but I probably loved it more than anyone did because I knew how long everyone worked getting it ready,” Odle said. “I know how the students were loving every minute they performed, as they sang beautifully and performed amazingly. I still get excited when I think of it, and I think many of the students and teachers do, too.”
Odle was correct in her assumption, everyone did look forward to Beaver Dam’s programs every year. Those programs were not just something for the teachers, children and families of Beaver Dam Elementary to enjoy, but the whole county was invited to take in the spectacle.
“We invited other schools to come Friday mornings and watch our first program for the last few years and even some of the tv stations came to them,” Odle said. “We always had large crowds to our night programs.”
Even though the programs were looked forward to every year, all the hard work and stress of bringing everything together took a toll on Odle. Several times she ended up in the hospital with asthma issues and pneumonia. The last few programs were the toughest on her physically.
“I began to be afraid I wouldn’t be healthy enough to stay at Beaver Dam Elementary and do the programs. By then they had become so big and elaborate,” Odle said. “Lots of people helped, but I still felt I had the responsibility for everything falling together in a positive way and I wasn’t sure I could keep doing that.”
In 1985 leading up to the last program, Some of the Best from All the Rest, Odle was in the hospital just a few days before showtime. She was able to make the show, playing piano, but she wasn’t able to talk without coughing. Her friend and fellow teacher, Ruth Fields took over as the narrator.
“After a lot of thinking, praying and decision, I decided to leave Beaver Dam Elementary, as much as I loved it all. The next year, I taught at Ohio County Middle School and Centertown School and after, I taught Western Elementary,” Odle said. “Through those many years, I discovered every school had lots of children who loved music and loved to use and share their talents.”
Cover of the playbill for “Some of the Best of All the Rest” from 1985. (Courtesy of Sam Alford)
Page 4 of the playbill for “Some of the Best of All the Rest” from 1985. (Courtesy of Sam Alford)
Pages 2 and 3 of the playbill for “Some of the Best of All the Rest” from 1985. (Courtesy of Sam Alford)
Page 2 of the playbill for “Some of the Best of All the Rest” from 1985. (Courtesy of Sam Alford)
Odle didn’t stop putting on programs completely, as she headed up smaller programs at other schools. Even though those programs weren’t as elaborate or celebrated as those at Beaver Dam Elementary, Odle loved them just the same.
“I still do and always will have a very special love for the schools where I taught and would not take anything for those years, especially for the memories of the music program,” Odle said.
As Odle continued to teach, her health worsened, leading her and her husband to move to the Myrtle Beach area in South Carolina. The couple had hopes the salty water and more pleasant climate would help Odle’s health issues. Odle would teach another 15 years in South Carolina before retiring in 2002 after finding out she had kidney cancer.
“I worked with many good principals, teachers and other staff, and thousands of precious children during my 38 years of teaching, which I will never forget, but my heart will remember first those precious children and the programs they loved so much.”
After Odle received her cancer diagnosis, she was told she wouldn’t see her 75th birthday, but, like she had many times before, she defied the odds, turning 75 this year.
“God has been good to me in many ways. There is hardly a day that goes by without my thinking about those days. They were certainly the highlights of my 38 year career in schools,” Odle said. “I loved how much pride and enjoyment the students had, the parents and all the others that came to see the musicals. It was hard work, but it was worth every single thing that we did.”