When Harry Met: Marian 'Mitch' DuPont, a performer who made her name as a teacher

Waaaay back yonder in the ‘60s, the sales slogan for the weekly Sunday night NBC/Chevrolet TV show was … “See the USA in your Chevrolet.” More about that a bit later.

I’ve known Marian “Mitch” DuPont for a long time, since moving to Gadsden 50-plus years ago. My family became involved in local Theatre of Gadsden productions, as was she. A few days ago, we had the opportunity to visit and talk about her much-varied career as a singer, dancer, high school teacher, college professor, actress, play director and more.

She was born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio. As a teenager, “Mitch” (as Ms. DuPont is best known) was called the “Judy Garland” of her high school due to her singing. She laughed while telling about performing in a production of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “The Mikado,” she said, “I played two roles in this comic-opera, the first time as a witch; in another, I had a main part as the lead soprano.”

During those high school days, she was also enrolled in Cleveland’s Western Reserve University’s music department for private voice lessons.

And then ― uh-oh — her dad, Jim Lowery, an executive with Republic Steel (based in Cleveland) was suddenly transferred to Alabama as the purchasing agent for Gadsden’s local steel plant. He wound up a 35-year career working at the local steel plant while living in this Queen City of the Coosa.

A smiling Mitch remembered her daddy to us: “He could tell a good story, was the life of the party, great personality and everyone loved him. He was also a member of the city’s Kiwanis Club.”

Her mother, Opal Lowery, continued living in Gadsden after her husband’s death. She died at the age of 92.

Mitch graduated from high school in 1957 at the age of 17. When her dad was transferred to Gadsden, she had planned to come with them for a couple of years to go to school and then go back to Ohio.

During her first semester at the University of Alabama, she did get homesick. She was in the University Singers and joined the choir. She was in Alpha Ki Omega, but became active after transferring to Birmingham-Southern College. While a student there, she was a voice minor and studied with Andrew Gainey, the school’s famed artist-in-residence.

Laughter ensued when this writer’s mind blinked and I asked how she acquired the nickname in high school when her name is “Marian.”

" … I changed schools and the girls there all had nicknames; I didn’t have one, so they gave me one,” she said. “When I went to the University of Alabama, a girl there was from Cleveland who learned about my nickname and she spread the word; she told a friend from Gadsden who did the same here, so I’m 'Mitch' ever since.”

Her talents ― singing and dancing ― had Mitch working, sometimes in summer stock, other times, professionally as when she performed during two summers in Orlando, Florida’s Orange Blossom Theatre.

There was a joyous time in the former teacher’s early career – “I studied acting in Los Angeles under the celebrated Lee Strasberg,” she said. Strasberg was a celebrated theater director, actor and acting teacher whose most famous student was Marlon Brando.

Her move from the University of Alabama to BSC?

Odd, how that came about. In Gadsden, “Mitch” had met band director and educator Mort Glosser, who invited her to BSC to meet his daughter. An interest was stirred, and she enrolled.

During her time there, she was in Vogue for best dressed. She competed in the Miss Alabama Pageant for three years. She met the Crew Cuts, of "Sh-Boom (Life Could Be A Dream)" fame, and dated Rudy Maugeri, the group’s tenor.

A special honor for her final appearance in the pageant was that the nationally famous quartet made the arrangement for her talent performance.

After graduating from BSC in 1962, Mitch began her teaching career in Ensley. She did her practice teaching in Ensley, then to Mountain Brook where she was the school counselor. She said the best years of her life were “when I was at Gadsden High School teaching speech, drama, debate, art and directing shows.”

After Gadsden High School burned in 1972, she taught eighth grade English for one year at Disque Middle School and taught theater part-time at Gadsden State Community College. She started teaching at GSCC in 1975 and taught there for 26 years.

This is a list of a few of the productions Mitch directed while at Gadsden State: “Harvey,” “You Can’t Take It With You,” “The Roar of the Grease Paint” and “Stop The World I Want to Get Off.”

At one point, officials from Jacksonville State University contacted her, and Mitch taught there for seven years. She has also taught at Faulkner University in Birmingham and Snead State College in Boaz. This talented lady retired in in 1996 after spending 47 years as a teacher.

And there is more to this lady’s story: She’s been in the three movies … “Space Camp,” a 1986 movie about three kids who accidentally launch into space; “The Four Seasons,” where she met Alan Alda (M*A*S*H) who wrote and directed the movie, and “ Six Pack,” a 1982 race car movie with Kenny Rogers. In other movie work, she was casting assistant for MGM and Universal, when she had time off and during the summer.

For the 1981 movie “Kent State,” filmed in Gadsden, Mitch was hired as a consultant and oversaw the ROTC students’ portrayal. She helped the casting director for the 2020 TV mini-series” George Washington,” which starred Patty Duke and Jaclyn Smith.

Mitch has been a member of Gadsden’s First United Methodist Church since 1958. She has been on the board of directors for the Ritz Theatre for 25 or 30 years.

When looking back, Mitch stated “she had a very interesting life … for someone who lives in Gadsden, Alabama. The most rewarding thing is knowing I had an influence on my students.”

A proud mother and grandma, Mitch’s daughter, Deanna owns a tour company in New Orleans. Before moving to New Orleans, she owned the Star Power Performing Arts Studio in Gadsden. Her granddaughter, Alyssa, a mother of two, is a dancer for the NFL’s New Orleans Saints.

Now, about that 1960s Chevrolet sponsored TV show; the Chevy commercial was a robust singing of “See the USA in your Chevrolet!” In 1965, Mitch bought a new Monte Carlo that included a rare horn that played (loudly) the song’s melody. I’m told she honked that horn many times. Today that horn, dismantled many years ago, is still in her possession, hidden in a secret vault.

Harry D. Butler, a former broadcaster, is a motivational speaker and author of “Alabama’s First Radio Stations, 1920-1960.” Butler periodically sits down with someone of note, then brings the conversation to readers.

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: When Harry Met: Marian 'Mitch' DuPont, a performer who made her name as a teacher