Renowned Canadian puppeteer Noreen Young dead at 85

Noreen Young, a renowned Canadian puppeteer perhaps best known for creating the popular CBC children's show Under the Umbrella Tree, has died.

Young, who was born in Ottawa and worked in puppetry for over 50 years, produced Under the Umbrella Tree from 1987 to 1993 and portrayed Gloria Gopher, one of the show's main characters.

She was also the first artistic director of the Puppets Up! International Puppet Festival in Almonte, Ont., which began in 2005 and — save for a hiatus between 2017 and 2022 — is still running.

Young died after suffering a stroke late last week, her family told CBC. She was 85.

Puppetry was an 'act of love,' says brother

Young was named a member of the Order of Canada in 1995, and her biography describes her as a "masterful puppet builder and puppeteer."

Her work had a lasting impact on a generation of kids who grew up watching Canadian children's programming, said Puppets Up! chair and executive director Jane Torrance.

"I don't think that there's a kid who was born in the 80s or 90s who ... watched CBC as a kid who doesn't know Noreen's work," Torrance told CBC.

Young's younger brother, Stephen Brathwaite, is also a puppeteer and played the character of Jacob Bluejay in Under the Umbrella Tree. 

He said Young "was a wonderful sister" and said her work was "an act of love, really, for kids and for the community."

"Her character was her. Gloria Gopher was Noreen Young. She was a sweet, creative problem solving bulldozer," he told CBC.

Born in 1939, Young grew up in Old Ottawa South. Brathwaite said she was interested in puppets since she was 12 years old and would perform puppet shows at stores and coffee shops in town, including the renowned Le Hibou Coffee House on Sussex Drive. 

Brathwaite said Young went on to art school, but found herself returning to puppetry afterwards.

"I think she thought, 'Oh, puppets aren't cool. I'll do drawing and painting and sculpture.' Which she did," he said. "And then as soon as she's graduated, she was back at puppets."

Some of her earliest work was with another CBC puppet show, Hi Diddle Day, which aired from 1968 to 1976. She also worked on Sesame Park, the Canadian version of Sesame Street.

"I think once she started with puppets and saw where they could take her and where they could take her artistic career, it just became something she was going to do," Torrance said.

Created caricatures of public figures

Young was also known for the caricature puppets she created of public figures, ranging from former governor general Adrienne Clarkson and CBC news anchor Peter Mansbridge to local personalities like former Ottawa mayor Jim Watson.

Tributes to Young have been coming in from people in Almonte, who've laid flowers for her near a bronze statue of Gloria Gopher in the town just outside Ottawa.

Other puppeteers have written condolences on social media. Canadian puppeteer Ronnie Burkett said in a post that he knew Young for almost 60 years and called her a mentor.

"I wrote her a fan letter when I was ten years old. Foolish woman replied and was stuck with me for life," he wrote on Instagram.

"I am incredibly sad as I mourn her, but so very grateful for knowing Noreen Young."