Misty's California Connection (with an Arizona footnote)

Horses have a way of inspiring us and bringing us together for our own common good, and for theirs. This is the story of how four women, three of them members of  the "greatest generation," came together to inspire and create an special piece of equine art and history. (And in a footnote, we'll add a fifth person to our list of people who helped keep Misty's story alive.)

The three older women were author Marguerite Henry, artist Maureen Love, and Maxine Renaker, co-founder of the California pottery Hagen-Renaker, Inc. The fourth was Maxine's daughter, Susan Renaker Nikas. And the little horse that brought them together was Misty. 

With Marguerite Henry's exciting story and charming illustrations by Wesley Dennis, the 1947 book Misty of Chincoteague became an instant classic that is still enjoyed by children (and adults) today.

In real life, Marguerite bought Misty as soon as she was weaned, and Misty accompanied her on some of her travels to make public appearances and speak to children, librarians, and teachers after the book was published in 1947. 

Marguerite Henry and Misty
(via Wikipedia, Fair Use)

After eleven years of touring, Misty retired to the Beebe Ranch on Chincoteague Island where she became a broodmare. She died peacefully in her sleep in 1972, at the age of 26.

The story of the real-life Misty of Chincoteague has been well-documented, online and at the Museum of Chincoteague. Model horse collectors are very familiar with the many versions of "Misty" and her equine family produced in plastic by Breyer. Through books, museum exhibits, YouTube videos, websites, and horse figurines, Misty's story lives on to inspire more generations of children and adults who love horses.

What some fans of Misty may not know is that, twenty years after Misty passed away, her continuing story developed a California connection. In my papers are letters, beginning in mid-1992, that shed light on the development and 1993 distribution of the Hagen-Renaker, Inc. ceramic "Performing Misty" designed by Maureen Love and retailed by Breyer.

An early version of the Hagen-Renaker "Performing Misty"
in front of a photograph of Marguerite Henry riding the real Misty.
Photo by the author.

The design by Maureen Love shows Misty in her iconic "shaking hands" pose, with one hoof planted on a five-legged wooden stool, similar to more than one of Wesley Dennis' drawings of Misty.

The letters came from my late friend, Susan Renaker Nikas, who along with her parents John and Maxine Renaker, was running the Southern California pottery in the early '90s. 

In July 1992, Susan wrote:

Dear Teresa,

...I have no doubt that we will have samples on "Misty" by December as we are in the process of making the master mold for them this week...but they will not  be released until January 1993.

In September 1992, I received an update on the H-R "Misty." Maureen Love's design had been turned into a three-dimensional mold, decorated (painted), and fired. Maxine Renaker had taken a sample "Misty" to Marguerite Henry at her home in Rancho Santa Fe (San Diego County), California:

I just thought I would let you know about the latest development with the "Misty Saga." My Mom took the test Misty over to Marguerite Henry last week...She said it was the best reproduction of Misty she had ever seen....

(O, to have been a mouse in the corner at that historic meeting!)

On December 1, 1992, Sue wrote:

I met Marguerite Henry this weekend and she is an absolute charmer! She certainly doesn't act like someone in her nineties. I had talked to the guy from [Breyer] Reeves International and Misty is definitely coming out in '93. I have shipped them an additional 40 pieces which they wanted for their sales meeting.

One of the side notes to the "Performing Misty" story is that the piece was first issued with the horse's leg attached to the stepstool, but Hagen-Renaker was forced to ship the two pieces separately because of breakage. Sue's March 1993 letter to me provides the details:

...We have had a lot of breakage on Misty and are now shipping the stool separately so that the retail customer will have to glue it on. (They were all breaking right where the stool was on the foot so we tried shipping them separately and only one was broken out of 41. We had shipped 198 and had 41 broken on the previous shipment.) I guess they are selling well because Breyer has ordered 1000.

As with so many other things in life, timing is everything. The Hagen-Renaker "Performing Misty" was released by Breyer in 1993. Within eleven years, Marguerite Henry, Maxine Renaker, and Maureen Love would all pass away. 

A nice example of the "Performing Misty" was sold from Maureen Love's estate in 2005. A photo of it, taken from the eBay listing, appears on the Hagen-Renaker Online Museum website. Note the rich color and sharply defined edges on the spots.

Source: Hagen-Renaker Online Museum
https://hagenrenakermuseum.com/MaureenLoveEstate25.shtml

After she wrote to me about the "Performing Misty," Susan very kindly gave me another of the early figurines. Although it is not marked as such, the hand-painted decoration of this model leads me to believe that it is not a regular production run piece but an early piece created before the rest of the run was issued through Breyer.

Here's the piece in my collection. Note the color of the spots (this is accurate to the piece itself) and the shading on the mane and legs. (When I received her, one of the stool's five legs was damaged, but the other four legs still support the piece perfectly.)

Photo by the author

Here is a regular-run "Performing Misty," from the Hagen-Renaker Online Museum website. She's very pretty, but her pinto pattern is a different color and is not painted and shaded in the same way.

Source: Hagen-Renaker Online Museum

Although I'll always have a soft spot for the Breyer "Misty," I do think that Maureen Love's sculpt looks more like the real Misty herself. 

Though she will never be as famous as her real-life namesake, my little "Performing Misty" is accustomed to public appearances. In 2018-2019, she appeared in the outstanding exhibit "Miniature Menageries: The History and Artists Behind Hagen-Renaker, Inc." at the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library, which is part of the Special Collections unit at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library. 

***

In addition to the Hagen-Renaker connection, we can add another female member of the "greatest generation" to the enduring story of Marguerite Henry and Misty of Chincoteague. 

Arizona artist Hildred Goodwine (1918-1999)

Arizona equine artist Hildred Goodwine (1918-1998) became friends with Marguerite Henry and, in 1990, issued a series of six prints showing Misty in various settings. The series was labeled "In memory of Marguerite Henry's MISTY OF CHINCOTEAGUE."  Here's one of them:

I met Hildred a couple of times at model horse events in the Phoenix area. She, too, was an "absolute charmer," and very enthusiastic about sharing her love and knowledge of horses.

***

If you haven't read Misty of Chincoteague, or haven't read it in years, perhaps it's time to revisit it, and/or the other horse books you enjoyed as a child. As C. S. Lewis said, “No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.” 

A montage of Misty by Wesley Dennis

You can read about Misty's real, and fictional, life at the website Misty's Heaven. "Breyer's Misty Family" is one of the links on the website. You can click on it to see all the various iterations of Misty and her relatives in miniature form:

https://www.mistysheaven.com/historyofmisty.html

The Museum of Chincoteague Island produced a video on the story of Misty. It's available on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KiTIuUVvjs

And the Museum's website is here:

https://chincoteaguemuseum.com/

With its special model horse hobby connections, the Misty of Chincoteague Foundation website is here:

http://www.mistyofchincoteague.org/about/

The website for artist Wesley Dennis is here:

https://www.wesleydennis.com/

The feature film "Misty" can be seen here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpDJqho2KpQ

After Susan Renaker Nikas passed away in 2022, the Hagen-Renaker factory in Southern California was shuttered. Now, Kristina Lucas Francis' Hagen-Renaker Tennessee continues the legacy as the exclusive licensee for new Hagen-Renakers:

https://www.facebook.com/p/Hagen-Renaker-Tennessee-100057139552584/

W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library:

https://libguides.library.cpp.edu/wkkahl

The Art of Hildred Goodwine group on Facebook is a good resource:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100049489011279

Here's my blog post on the "Miniature Menageries" exhibit:

https://modelhorsehistory.blogspot.com/2019/12/miniature-menageries-history-and.html

And my blog post on Hildred Goodwine:

https://modelhorsehistory.blogspot.com/2021/04/bring-tradin-stock-model-horses-of.html

Certain images in this post are provided under the Fair Use provision in Section 107 of the United States Copyright Act. "Fair Use" specifically allows for the use of copyrighted materials for educational purposes only.

Images from El Rancho Poco

El Rancho Poco sign

When the Monrovia-Duarte, California Community Book was published in 1957, the portraits of the featured, notable local citizens were taken in professional portrait studios. Head shots of humans.

All except for one: horse rancher Merle H. Little (1906-1975) had posed in front of  a hay barn with his chestnut Morgan stallion, Lippitt Morman.  Merle autographed his own copy of the book for both of them.

Lippitt Morman and Merle Little

Merle Little passed away far too early, in 1975, leaving behind a treasure trove of photographs and memorabilia of a horseman's life in Southern California between World War I and the end of the Vietnam War.  His wife, Edna May, died in 2004.  I never had the chance to meet either of them.

But during the course of my equine history and model horse history research over the past few years, I have had the honor of meeting, and becoming friends with, Merle's children. And when his older daughter died earlier this year, she left me "Daddy's horse stuff" with the understanding that she wanted it to have a permanent home at the Cal Poly Pomona University Library's Special Collections unit, which includes the W. K. Kellogg Arabian Horse Library. WKKAHL already holds some of Merle's other papers, given (through me) by his younger daughter. 

I am grateful to the Little family for the opportunity to be the temporary custodian of this treasure trove of local and equine history. It's an honor to have the opportunity to organize the photographs, correspondence, and ephemera, making it easier for other researchers to use the archive once it's in a public collection. And I can write about what's in the collection as I work my way through it.

Merle Little on his Morgan stallion Kandy King

To summarize: Horses were an integral part of Merle Little's life. His papers include materials dating back to the 1920s from a wide variety of regional equestrian activities: the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona. The Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena. 1930s Rancheros Visitadores trail rides in Santa Barbara County. Los Angeles County Sheriff's Posse activities over several decades, including horseback search and rescue. The Monrovia Mounted Police. The post-World War II activities of the Morgan Horse Association of the West, of which Merle was a co-founder. The Kellogg Ranch property in Pomona. Horse shows for children and adults. Duarte 4-H club activities. The Monrovia Day parade. 

Merle Little's Pinto stallion Tesoro (right)

And there are photographs of Merle and his family and their horses at home: El Rancho Poco, which used to occupy several acres near what is now the busy intersection of the 210 freeway and Mountain Avenue -- retail stores, car dealerships, restaurants.  Their horses were well-known participants at horse shows and parades: Pintos like Thunder and Lightning, Apatche, and Tesoro. Morgans like Sun Down Morgan, Senor Morgan, Senorita Morgan, Betty Joaquin, Lippitt Morman, and Kandy King. And so many more. Merle's donkeys and hinnies (a cross between a male horse and a female donkey) afforded his family and the neighborhood much joy. El Rancho Poco itself was a gathering place for family, friends, and community groups. My model horse collector readers know that some of Merle's horses inspired ceramic horse figurines designed by artist Maureen Love and produced by the legendary California pottery Hagen-Renaker, Inc.

Hagen-Renaker "Lippet" designed by Maureen Love,
inspired by Lippitt Morman

These days of the horse may be in the past, but because Merle took so many pictures and saved so much paper ephemera, we can revisit them, appreciate them, and learn from them. I hope you'll have a chance to follow along with this blog over the next many weeks, as I share highlights from the collection.