Halle Newman looks at the Berenstain Bears exhibit as she visits the McMinn County Living Heritage Museum in Athens with her parents, Jackie and Todd Newman, and her brother, Bryson Newman.Childrens books, like old friends, can be unforgettable.
As a child, Audrey Dennis said, her daughter Kelly, now 29, loved the Berenstain Bears books.
“When she was young, [Kelly] thought it was a treat to find a new Berenstain Bear book,” Dennis said.
So when Dennis, office manager of the McMinn County Living Heritage Museum, learned last year that 2012 would be the 50th anniversary of the books’ first publication, she approached her superiors about setting up an exhibit to celebrate the beloved works of children’s literature.
The Feb. 24 death of Jan Berenstain, who co-authored the more than 300 books with her husband, Stan, who died in 2005, is coincidental, though she is being mourned by local book lovers.