HUCKLEBERRIES: Mikki Stevens: A local star

They came. They entertained. They conquered our hearts.

For three decades, through 2021, parade-goers from Coeur d’Alene to New York and beyond were thrilled by The Red Hot Mamas, a group of middle-aged — and older — women who refused to grow up.

Ultimately, health issues forced founder Mikki Stevens to disband the Mamas on Dec. 31, 2021.

But this is not about the end of the zany merrymakers, who first appeared in the 1993 Fourth of July Parade, performing what the Coeur d’Alene Press called “a drill team spoof.”

It’s about the beginning, and Mikki’s desire to entertain again.

“I’m 45 and I don’t feel like I want to sit back and never perform again,” Mikki told the Press in October 1993. “I knew there’s got to be some other gals who have to feel like I do.”

After studying ballet and theater in college, the Coeur d’Alene native moved to Hollywood, where she was discovered in 1972 while waiting tables by two Hanna-Barbera cartoon studio regulars. The two were arguing but stopped when they heard Mikki’s voice as she asked for their order.

Mikki sounded almost identical to Sally Struthers, the former “All in the Family” star, who was leaving Hanna-Barbera after performing the voice of teenage Pebbles Flintstone in the “Flintstones” knockoff “The Pebbles and Bamm-Bamm Show.”

For the next five years, Mikki performed the voice for teen Pebbles and other characters in four other Flintstone-related productions. Also, she did voiceovers for TV programs and commercials, as well as some acting in shows, like “Columbo.”

She stayed in Hollywood until 1977 when the call of the Northwest lured her away.

After time in Seattle and Alaska, she and her husband, Dennis, returned to Coeur d’Alene, where the itch to perform again beckoned. So, she put up signs at her health club and spread the word. She was looking for “mature” women who were interested in starting a performing group.

At the time of the Press interview, 12 women had expressed interest, including six full-fledged members.

“The aim is to show that women don’t have to be young and gorgeous to be on stage,” Mikki said. “When you look older, you don’t fit into a performance team with younger people who are in their physical prime.”

In the fall of 1993, Mikki was preparing the original Mamas to perform at the annual Festival of Trees. Said she: “We’re not going to make a difference in the cultural life of society. Our goal is to be entertaining.”

Mission accomplished.

Remembering Red

Red Halpern earned his nickname, “Mr. Softball,” during his long run (1954-85) as Coeur d’Alene Parks & Recreation Department director.

He played softball. He expanded softball facilities and programs. He oversaw the sport as a state and a national softball commissioner. He transformed Coeur d’Alene into the softball capital of Idaho and the region.

“If it wasn’t for Red, Coeur d’Alene wouldn’t have the recreation program that we have now,” said the late Ron Edinger, the longtime councilman and former mayor, after Red’s death two decades ago.

Red’s accomplishments, including inductions into six softball halls of fame, would fill this column.

However, Red’s devotion to softball and recreation upset some people in high places. They claimed he spent too much time and money on recreation to the detriment of the parks side of his department.

Under Mayor Jim Fromm’s administration (1982-85), the department was split in two with Red still in charge of recreation. But, perhaps broken-hearted, Red quit city work shortly afterward.

Red continued to serve softball and this town until his death at 79 on Oct. 3, 2003.

Touches of beauty

We take them for granted now – those hanging baskets of flowers that adorn downtown Coeur d’Alene. But 20 years ago the 60 baskets hanging from light poles were a novelty.

In early 2003, the Downtown Association had pulled together $18,000 to install them.

Coeur d’Alene borrowed the idea from Sequim, Wash., where Merlin Berger first spotted the decorative baskets in the mid-1990s, took photos, and began lobbying businesses in Coeur d’Alene to copy them.

Norm Anderson of Anderson Iron Works in Post Falls made the brackets for those first baskets. And Hughes Greenhouse in Post Falls provided the flowers. A surplus truck was purchased from the city for $1 and equipped with a water tank and hose. Catherine Jones, son Kyle, 16, and friend Corinne Johnson watered those first flowers at 5 o’clock each morning.

As the first fall frost neared in 2003, Berger declared the baskets “a fantastic success.”

The Downtown Association was already planning to expand the program in 2004 to 100 baskets.

Huckleberries

• Poet’s Corner: If gasoline/keeps going up,/I’ll have to buy it/by the cup — The Bard of Sherman Avenue (“One Grand of Regular, Please.”)

• Did You Know … that Volkswalks were popular in Coeur d’Alene in the late 1980s? And that Roger Hudson of Hudson’s Hamburgers was a big fan? Roger helped organize the 10K Coeur d’Alene Autumn Walk in the fall of 1988. Said Roger: “Not only does it keep you in shape, it’s a way to get out of our cars and really see what a community looks like.” Still words to live by.

• On Oct. 6, 1973, Ron Edinger announced his campaign for mayor after six years on the City Council. And he won. But a bitter firefighters strike haunted him in a 1977 reelection bid. And he lost to Don Johnston. In 1979, he was elected again to the council. And reelected every four years afterward until he retired from city service in 2019 — 50 years total. He was Coeur d'Alene's Everyman.

• Born No Better: He was a “hero’s hero,” as described in 2007 by two commissioners who voted to rename our airport after him. And President Harry Truman knew that in October 1945, when he bestowed the Medal of Honor on Lt. Col. Gregory “Pappy” Boyington. During his exceptional service to his country, the Coeur d’Alene-born WWII fighter pilot commanded a Marine squadron and shot down 28 enemy planes.

• On This Day … Workers boarded up the old Community Center at Seventh and Montana — two brick buildings that once served as Coeur d'Alene's high school and junior high. Despite efforts to save the historic brick buildings, including an unsuccessful bond vote, the buildings were leveled. All that remains is a cornerstone from the old school in the northwest corner of what now is G.O. Phippeny Park.

Parting shot

When North Idaho College was founded as Coeur d’Alene Junior College on Aug. 10, 1933, the nation was trudging through the Depression. And the bad times helped the college. Dorothy Earin Sonnichsen, one of the original 55 students who met on the third floor of old City Hall, said at the college’s 60th anniversary in October 1993: “No one had much money.” She and a lot of other students took advantage of bargain basement costs to attend the new college as a first step toward a brighter future. On Oct. 10, 1993, the Press published a story about NIC’s 60th anniversary, including this paragraph: “Coeur d’Alene Junior College was off and running on its way to becoming the pride of the community and an integral part of higher education in Idaho, the same reputation its successor, North Idaho College, enjoys today.” That last line is still true despite the ineptness of the current NIC trustee majority. But there's another silver lining today. Elections are coming in 2024.

• • •

D.F. “Dave” Oliveria can be contacted at dfo@cdapress.com.