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Hello and welcome to In Wisconsin.
I'm Patty Low.
Tonight we introduce you to two American citizens who
lost their freedom, confined while in their own country
for no other reason than their ethnic background.
We'll also meet a man who devotes his life to bringing
the arts to children.
But first, this week is tornado awareness week in Wisconsin.
There was a statewide tornado drill for county 9-1-1 setters,
broadcasters, and schools.
The Wisconsin Department of Emergency Management says on
average, the state experiences about 21 tornadoes a year.
One of the deadliest happened 20 years ago this June in the
southern part of the state.
Reporter Frederica Freiberg revisits the aftermath
of the Barnabelle tornado.
20 years ago, June 8, 1984, a tornado flattened the
village of Barnabelle.
It's told 9 dead, 200 injured, 93 homes destroyed,
$40 million in damage.
Barnabelle tornado was a meteorologist
called an F5 tornado.
An F5 is the most powerful tornado there is.
Winds in excess of 300 miles per hour.
We got downstairs in the root cellar and I just
pulled the root cellar door shut and I heard
everything hitting against it.
And the factor is a big slab of cement up above the
root cellar and picked it up and turned it sideways.
You know, and stuff was blowing down on top of us.
Just like you're in hell.
In the aftermath, Bill Ashelman described how
his family survived when his neighbors did not.
20 years later, watching images of the destruction
makes it feel like yesterday.
I guess all, um, thinking about all the people that's not with
us today are friends and family.
Bill and Bev Ashelman's two-year-old nephew was among
those who died in the tornado.
Their son, Bobby, was just an infant the night of the
storm and their daughter Becky, three years old.
Today, at age 20, Bobby says the tornado shaped who he is.
It's kind of a big part of my life even though I
don't remember it, you know.
Because years of his childhood were spent
watching the rebuilding of lives and the homes around
him, the village itself.
Today, twice as many people live in Barnavelle
as when the tornado hit.
You know, I remember the slogans up all over.
We're not giving up.
We're going on.
And that's what we did.
This is the motto of the village.
We're not giving up for going on.
I went back to work the following Monday, stamping
letters with my left hand instead of my right.
Marianne Myers still works at the Barnavelle post office.
Like other survivors, talking about it vividly brings
back that early morning, 20 years ago, when the tornado
struck as the village slept.
And I remember just screaming and praying to God at
that moment that I just, I thought they were all gone.
In fact, while her house was gone, Myers' family
was alive.
But her infant grandson, Joey, now 20,
suffered a skull fracture and permanent brain damage.
His grandma says, though, disabled, he is a sweet
and wonderful young man.
Life is fragile.
I can't let this prayer.
Prayer and patience, hard work, and lots of help.
Those were the ingredients in Barnavelle's comeback.
Nobody was going to give up.
Patients had to have, but you didn't give up.
And it worked.
Lois and Carl Arnison remember all too clearly the storm
that changed everything.
Everything was gone.
There was debris everywhere.
They remember pointing out their wrecked house to TV crews.
This is our new sunroom that we built on last fall.
They remember the sound of wind and rain inside their
temporary mobile home.
The rain and the tin roof.
The wind, the rain.
The flexible roof.
But the Arnisons are 20 years out from those days and live
in an all brick home now.
Most all of Barnavelle is rebuilt and the
building continues.
Look at how beautiful town is and how it has grown.
But those who were in Barnavelle when the F-5 tore through,
know there is no structural match for such a storm.
Most say they go to their sturtily rebuilt basements.
Every time thunder threatens and the wind blows hard.
The night of the tornado there was no time to prepare.
I always watch the 1030 Nulas and at that time nothing
serious, no storm warnings.
Weather experts say that today it's much more likely that
people would have some early warning of such a killer storm,
preparing them perhaps before they went to bed.
Over the years scientists have studied the Barnavelle
tornado to learn more about the kinds of storms that
spawn monster twisters.
And new weather technologies like Doppler Radar allow
meteorologists to see early signs of tornadoes.
At that time we had World War II era radar units and in fact
some of them were essentially surplus from the military.
Lessons learned from the Barnavelle tornado are
important to its residents.
He's learned what important family is to him because
he used to work a lot more than he did since the tornado
spends more family time.
Lessons learned inside families and from strangers.
I'll give you four minutes.
How about a square?
Can you just be a square?
People just reached out to us in more ways than
you could even imagine.
We appreciate all the help everybody gave at the time.
Definitely. The rescue people and the
metanites that helped rebuild different parts of the town.
Many wonderful people that volunteered countless hours.
A new generation in the village may not live with the memory
of the tornado 20 years ago, but Barnavelle will never forget.
A memorial plaque in the village park stands in memory of those
who died June 8, 1984, and with humble respect for the
power of people helping people.
Barnavelle plans a service to mark the 20th
anniversary of the tornado.
The memorial service is a tribute to those lost and
to the community strength.
It will be held on June 8th, the day the tornado
struck back in 1984.
[music]
The memorial plaque in the Barnavelle Village
Park refers to the power of people helping people.
That certainly describes the work of Leo the Stanley.
Stanley is a musician who has influenced
thousands of children.
Chances are he's visited a school in your area as
an artist in residence.
I had a chance to spend some time with Stanley.
His joy for music is contagious,
and you can see it in the children he works with.
[music]
He's the music teacher we all wish we'd had as a kid.
Fun, hip, a master of musical expression.
[music]
Here at Windsor Elementary School, Madison musician Leo
the Stanley is the artist in residence of visiting musician.
Known internationally to gospel audiences, Stanley is a
preeminent singer, songwriter, pianist, and director.
For the next week, these students will get an earful.
[music]
I do try to focus on the genres of African American
music. So it would be blues, jazz, gospel, rap, and
spirituals, and then intertwined in that is our positive
messages within the songs.
And so, and then I try to make a variety of music
within those specific genres.
[music]
Ten years ago, Stanley looked into the artist in residency
program because his job as a Madison firefighter
gave him some flexibility.
He wanted to work with middle schoolers, but his first
gig was an elementary school.
It was just such a touching moving experience for my
first residency that I only wanted to do elementary school.
Because the kids are so impressionable at that age
and they're learning, they're looking up to somebody
coming to the school and teaching them positive
messages through the songs.
And I said, I like this, this is a niche, this is
where I'm going to stay.
[music]
And so I love the ability to untapped some potential of
the kids and that's what I want to do and continue to
do and as a matter of fact, after ten years of doing it,
I decided to leave the fire department just to do that.
That first residency so inspired him, he wrote four
songs, including Be a Friend.
New songs came with each new school.
He recorded the songs with his students and created a
book, tape, and teacher's guide.
He's at his very best, I believe, when he's with
children and teaching them to enjoy music, appreciate
music, and to learn to be musicians themselves.
He has a real empowering dimension to his personality
such that he's able to convince the children
that they can do music.
Whether they have talent or not.
Mary Rouse works with Leo the Stanley at the UW-Morgridge
Center for Public Service.
Leo the is a very upbeat personality.
He's always optimistic.
He loves people and that comes across that human
bond is so strong with Leo the.
[music]
Each Sunday Stanley renews that bond as music director
at Mount Zion Baptist Church.
[music]
Messages are so important within the music that when the music
is good the messages receive just a little bit better.
So we've been fortunate to have a music program that has
helped sustain the church.
[music]
The music has sustained Leo the Stanley.
Born and raised in Milwaukee Stanley was the
third of three children.
He had a musical vision early on.
With just two years of piano lessons he became the pianist
for the greater Galilee Baptist Church Youth Choir and earned
$10 a month playing music for the local funeral home.
See the vision.
See what it's going to look like in the
end and then take the steps to make it happen that way.
Stanley's vision also included athletics.
He was a scholarship track athlete at
the University of Wisconsin Madison and was invited to
the 1984 Olympic Trials in Los Angeles as a long jumper.
He didn't make the Olympic team losing out to a
guy named Carl Lewis.
I did my best and what I did to turn the tables to not just
be down about it I went over to Hollywood and Vine and I got
on the Wheel of Fortune Game Show and I won a grand piano.
So it's just a matter of don't let things get you down but
what can you do instead of?
Leo I like to solve it masculine and feminine.
You did it.
You got the piano.
He came here wanting one prize a grand piano which cost
$7,000 and $8 you have to have $7,100.
Leo what would you like?
I like the piano.
You got it.
See the vision go for it.
And keep on going.
Get another vision.
[Music]
His vision has taken him full circle to a community
that values him and work that inspires him.
[Music]
Although the congregation at Mount Zion is primarily
African American, its choir is distinctly multicultural.
Yes it is and we try to welcome anybody and everybody
that wants to sing and they have a love of the Lord.
[Music]
Multiculturalism is a core value of Leo the Stanley.
It's at the center of his volunteerism.
It's at the heart of his music.
It's a theme he tries to convey to his students.
[Music]
I think they ought to be proud of who they are no matter where
they come from because some people get down on you because
you might come from a different social economical background.
But be proud of who you are and you have to
appreciate other people that are different than you.
What do you want the kids to get out of that experience?
Self-confidence, self-esteem, working with other people.
[Music]
I want to make a difference while I'm here.
The older I get the more that makes so much
sense to me because I know that the time is limited now.
And I want to just give that to younger people so that they
can have that attitude while they're coming up.
And I just want to be a difference maker.
Make it make it a little bit better since I was
here than before I came.
[Music]
Give yourselves a hand.
[Applause]
Since we last spoke with Leo the Stanley, the chancellor
of UW-Madison has appointed him assistant director
of community relations.
Stanley's primary task will be to work to close the achievement
gap between mainstream and minority students.
[Music]
Our next story takes us back to a dark chapter in
American history.
A chapter that for some has relevance
in today's post-9/11 world.
When the US entered World War II in the early 1940s, the
level of fear and prejudice against the Japanese was high.
More than 120,000 residents of Japanese descent were ordered to
leave their homes on the west coast and report for evacuation
to military internment camps.
Two-thirds of those people were American citizens.
After about a year and a half the government
allowed some of the detainees to begin leaving the camps.
Roughly a thousand made their way to Wisconsin.
And while most eventually returned
to the west coast, some still call Wisconsin home.
Two Milwaukee residents share their experience in this
excerpt from a new program called Wisconsin World
War II Stories Homefront.
[Music]
Actually when I was going up a early Newark, Wisconsin
was, I remember hearing of Oshkosh, the gosh.
But never realizing I'd end up living here.
I was born in Fresno, California,
but grew up in Reedley.
There were very many Japanese farmers in that area.
It's the San Joaquin Valley and it's
known as the Food Basket of the Nation of the United States.
My father was what we call an ESA or first generation.
He came as a small boy to Sacramento.
My mother was born in Gilroy, California.
And so she and her three sisters were American citizens.
I just started my junior year and I had done well in school.
So I was offered scholarships to go on to college.
And I would have been the first one of seven children to go to
a regular four-year college.
And then along came Pearl Harbor.
After Pearl Harbor things started to happen, such as
we were restricted in being able to move more than
five miles from our house.
We were not able to go outside after dark.
Then on February the 19th of 1942, President
Roosevelt saw fit to incarcerate us or certainly enable
the military commander to incarcerate Japanese Americans
on the West Coast Defense Area.
I was going home from school on the 8th of May in 1942.
And they placed upon all of the light poles of sign.
I believe about two days later my father had to go to the
Sacramento City Auditorium.
And he had to sign up the names of the people in the family.
We were given name tags and in this particular case on
the 15th of May we had to report with what we can carry.
And it was a day that our freedom was lost.
Many of us felt we're American citizens and the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights will protect us and it won't happen.
But in the final analysis, if you had one-sixteenth
Japanese blood, you were part of the group that was being
evacuated from 300 miles from the Pacific Ocean, inland in
California, Washington, Oregon, and a little bit of Arizona.
So we were all removed and went inland to the relocation
or concentration camps.
We had very nice neighbors, very close neighbors.
And the neighbors came to say
goodbye to us.
They put us on trains.
We went on a train.
They had all the shades drawn.
And they had military police.
In many ways the people did feel you can't fight City Hall
and you've got to go.
And after all, we had the United
States Army there with rifles and band-ets.
And you don't have a whole lot of choices.
These barracks that we were placed in was a 20 by 25 room
covered with tar paper and it had loose windows.
And we had a pot-bellied stove.
And in our case we had five individuals
in our room with Army Cots.
And it had no partitions or anything.
So my father and the girls, we all lived in
one, we hung up like sheets or partitions that way.
But there really was no privacy.
There was kind of an emotional shock to many
people that were used to the privacy of their own homes.
It was all like mess hall, Army type food.
They served a lot of lamb and Japanese
people don't eat lamb.
It was hard on our parents.
So many people got depressed.
My camp was called Post and we were right on the Colorado
River. And so many of the people who were depressed
walked to the Colorado River and committed suicide there.
About the end of '43, early '44, they started to allow,
especially students, that wanted to go to some college
or university.
If the FBI would clear them, they allowed
them to go.
They were given a train ticket and $25.
My brother says I couldn't afford to go to college.
So I decided I would go to beauty school.
And originally I went to Salt Lake City,
which is very close to there.
And I was waiting to be enrolled in the school.
And the woman that owned the school, they told me that
I never would have gone in because her son was killed
over in the Pacific by Japanese.
And she had no intention of letting me enroll.
And that's how I came to Wisconsin, man.
My brother says, "Well, come out here."
My brother, who had never gone to camp, my brother George,
he lived in Chippewa Falls.
And he recommended that we all come to Wisconsin.
He says Wisconsin has very nice
people. He liked it here.
So slowly we all moved to the Wisconsin area.
We stayed there until August of 1944.
At that time my father had already left and
went to Milwaukee.
And by August the 20th we followed
him there so that we could be in Milwaukee to attend
the high school at that time.
So that's how we ended up here.
And we've been here ever since.
This story is one part of Wisconsin World War II
stories, homefront.
This new documentary produced by
Wisconsin Public Television will be broadcast in its entirety
on Monday, May 3rd at 8 p.m.
The program is the third installment in a series
on Wisconsin's connection to World War II.
The final program in that series
featuring stories about the Pacific Theater will air on
Tuesday, May 4th at 8 p.m.
If you'd like to view all four programs in the Wisconsin
World War II stories series, you can see them all on Sunday,
May 30th starting at 3 p.m.
That's our program for tonight.
You won't find us on the air next week.
We'll be taking a break while Wisconsin Public
Television features some special programming.
We'll be back with another new episode in
two weeks on Thursday, May 6th.
We leave you tonight with a spring walk through
Cherokee Marsh in Dane County.
For in Wisconsin, I'm Patty Love.
Thanks for joining us and good night.
[Music]