Graduation Day, June 12, 1939, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas
SHE: A prim and proper engineering professor's daughter and promising piano student.
HE: A self-made B.M.O.C. with a bright future in law.
She was a sorority girl and "townie", living at home while attending the University of Kansas.
He was a boy from a tiny Kansas town, who proctored at the men's residence he called home
while a student at K.U.
Alice and C.H. at the Tennessee Club, University of Kansas, c. 1935.
He was blond and blue-eyed, she was a slim brunette. Alice was prim and proper, until she
discovered cigarettes... and C.H.
Postcard Postmarked 1939 (click on image to enlarge)
They met in Freshman Rhetoric, and were engaged by the time they graduated in 1939.
(click on image to enlarge)
The WWII years saw them in Washington, D.C., where C.H. served in the United States
Army Signal Corps. The newlyweds lived in an apartment in "Buckingham" in Arlington,
Virginia. Alice tended a "Victory Garden" nearby.
He finished his law degree under the G.I. Bill at the University of Michigan. Alice and C.H.
wanted to stay in the Midwest to raise a family, and chose Kalamazoo.
(click on image to enlarge)
Postcard Folio by Curt Teich & Co., Inc., Chicago, U.S.A.
MCMLV (1955)
They never looked back. It became their town... and they left their mark.
Alice resumed her piano playing once her daughters were in school. Her piano studies at K.U.
under Bach specialist Jan Chiapusso inspired her to pursue piano performance. She started to
get playing jobs with the Kalamazoo Symphony, and by 1955, became Principal Keyboard.
She played all the piano, celeste, and harpsichord parts, and was concerto soloist six times
before her retirement in 1991.
Sunday in the Park with George (Gershwin), Rhapsody in Blue with the Kalamazoo Symphony, 1961.
Alice and C. H. got to know the community by joining service clubs and becoming members of the
First Presbyterian Church.
C.H. joined Joe Crum and Glenn Allen's law firm, and became involved in city affairs. He acted in
plays at the Civic Theater, joined the Kiwanis Club, and ran for City Commission. He was Vice-
Mayor of Kalamazoo in the early 1960s. A career change took him into trust work for twenty years.
He returned to the law in 1977 when he was appointed judge of Ninth Judicial Circuit, and then ran
successfully in the next election. C.H. served on the bench for ten years, before retiring in 1987.
C.H. and Alice's Christmas Card, 1947 (designed by Alice)
(click on image to enlarge)
Judge Mullen now has a tribute blog:
Remembering Judge Mullen
From Kansas to Kalamazoo
A Tribute to C.H. Mullen
(1917-1999)
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Welcome to ALICE'S ARCHIVES: 50 YEARS OF KALAMAZOO SYMPHONY MEMORABILIA
This blog is dedicated to the memory of ALICE MULLEN, Principal Keyboard of the
KALAMAZOO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA for nearly forty years.
SCROLL DOWN to read ABOUT THIS BLOG
and more about
ALICE AND C.H.
and
KALAMAZOO
CLICK on the TABS above to access ARTICLES, ANNOUNCEMENTS & PREVIEWS.
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VISIT ALICE'S ARCHIVES 2, companion blog to ALICE'S ARCHIVES
Eclectic postings right out of the "Miscellaneous" Files-- fun!
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Click on all photographs, images and articles to enlarge.
-Alice's Archivist
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