Her father, Bill's grandfather, was a veterinarian for the Ringling Brothers circus in the 1950's and 1960's. He passed years ago so I never met him, but I have heard many wonderful stories about Doc Higgins! Suzann, my MIL, has so many interesting memories of growing up in the circus.
A few months ago on a whim I googled his name, and found a circus history message board where some of his old circus friends were trying to get in touch with him. I have corresponded with a couple of people, and one of them was kind enough to send this amazing picture:
That's Doc on the left.
Bill and I printed out that picture and had it framed for Suzann for Mother's Day, and I thought she was going to cry all day, she was so happy to see a picture of her daddy!
This has led me to an exciting new project: I've been researching all over the interwebs to try and find more pictures and articles and mentions of Doc Higgins. I've been so fortunate to find a few gems, and I'm working on a scrapbook for Suzann's birthday this summer. It's been so fun and exciting finding all this information and I can't wait to share it with her!
The possibility for even more exciting things exists in a collection housed at Emory University. A man named Robert Brisendine did massive amounts of research on circus history over a span of several decades. I have an article that states he collected Doc's circus memoirs in 1966. Some of the memoirs Mr. Brisendine collected are in written form, and some of them are on audio. I am waiting to hear back from the people at Emory to find out exactly what there might be in Mr. Brisendine's collection relating to Doc, and whether or not I can access any of it electronically. If not we will definitely be heading to Atlanta this summer to check out what they have! Apparently this collection is massively huge with hundreds of articles, memorabilia, pictures, and audio tapes. I can't even begin to imagine how Suzann would react if she were to hear her daddy's voice on audio! I hope the Emory people get in touch with me soon so I can have a better understanding of what they have.
In the meantime, here are a couple of the gems I have come across through the magic of Google!
Doc with a lion named Frasier:
A very fuzzy picture of Doc in front of a tiger cage (on the left):
And several other articles mentioning Doc. I am not sure if readers will be able to actually read them or not (they might be too fuzzy), but I have printed nice copies for the scrapbook.
One of my favorite stories about Doc is this...he was trained to be a small animal veterinarian (dogs and cats). When he first started working for the circus, apparently he was a little bit nervous the first time he had to sedate a lion, being concerned it wouldn't stay asleep through the minor procedure. Well he sure did a great job because according to family lore that lion stayed asleep for about 4 days!
He must have been an immensely interesting man; I so wish I could have met him! Putting together this project has been so entertaining for me and I can't wait to see Suzann's face!!!!
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