RAGOTZY REMEMBERED 'Here's to the house that Jack built'

Saturday, December 20, 2003

In Richland, where he and his wife, Betty, started their theater legacy, more than 100 people gathered Friday morning to celebrate the life of Jack Ragotzy with stories, tears and some laughter.

Ragotzy -- whose name is synonymous with the Barn Theatre in Augusta -- began his decades of professional work as an actor, director and producer in 1946. That year, he and his wife started the Village Players of Richland. The troupe later bought an old barn in Augusta, converted it into a theater and grew the business into an Equity summer stock company. The Barn was placed on the Michigan Register of Historic Sites in 1983.

Ragotzy died of a heart attack in his home on the grounds of the theater on Monday, a day before his 82nd birthday.

Friday's funeral service was held at Gull Lake Area Community Church, the same used to memorialize Betty Ragotzy after she died in March 1995. Yellow roses and carnations were in place in honor of her fondness for flowers that color, as Rev. James Hill noted while presiding over the service.

Ragotzy's son, Brendan, daughter-in-law, Penelope Alex, and his four grandchildren, Garrett, Calli, Jacob and newborn Melina, were present. The crowd also included some longtime friends in the local and national theater community, and Barnies -- the nickname gives to Barn veterans.

Tom Wopat, a Barnie since 1976 and former star of TV's "The Dukes of Hazzard" and "Cybil," flew in from New York City to attend.

"Jack always made me feel like family," Wopat said. He then joked that he'd managed to get a bereavement airline fare by claiming to be Ragotzy's nephew.

"They (Jack and Betty) created something here you will never see the like of it again. I'm just glad to have been a part of it," Wopat said.

Lance Ferraro, who knew Ragotzy for 75 years, spoke of their days as children growing up poor in Kalamazoo.

"We used to play in the marshes," Ferraro said, "making bows and arrows out of willow branches, and arrow shafts out of cattails. ... I knew Jack and I just want to say -- he was a kid just like everybody else." Ferraro also reminisced with attendees about Ragotzy's days setting up pins in a bowling alley, and how the Ragotzys got married after knowing each other just two weeks.

"I would not have the life I have today if it were not for him," Howard McBride, Barn general manager, said of Ragotzy. McBride ate lunch with Ragotzy most days and was his personal assistant.

Before leading a final round of applause for Ragotzy, McBride said: "Here's to the house that Jack built. Here's to the plays and the musicals that were produced in the house that Jack built." He went on to include the "community, culture and ... great impact" Ragotzy had on the lives of hundreds of actors and thousands of theater patrons.

Charlie Siedenburg, one of Ragotzy's pallbearers, remarked during the service, "It's the end of an era ... but the beginning of a new one," and smiled with a gesture toward Ragotzy's grandchildren sitting near the front of the church.

Musical tributes were very apt: "The Lullaby of Broadway" was sung, and Troy Benton prefaced his acoustic guitar performance by saying, "We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams."

Rev. Hill, a friend to Ragotzy during his wife's fatal illness, sounded a hopeful note, saying, "I truly believe that Jack and Betty are together again. And, corny as it may sound, they'll be celebrating Christmas together this year."

After the service, the funeral procession wound its slowly way past the Barn. The theater will open its 59th season next summer.

Matthew Jakubowski can be reached at 388-8526 or mjakubowski@kalamazoogazette.com.