The singing mouse was the property of Glen R. Rextrew, who lived up in the north end of town. There was a reporter at the Tribune who did a story on this mouse, by the name of George Welden. At first Welden thought it was a joke, so when he got a call from Glen that he had a singing mouse in his house, he decided to check with the readers on how to catch the mouse.
Glen and his wife were in the living room when they heard the same singing sound that they have heard for several days and when they went into the kitchen, they heard a sound coming from the clothes basket. As Glen uncovered the basket, a mouse jumped out and ran away. So now the Rextrews' knew that they had two singing mice in thier house.
After a few days went by, Welden recieved a call from Glen Rextrew that the mouse had been caught and if he wanted to hear him sing. Over the phone, he heard the chirping of this mouse , and it sounded like a bird. WIOU was contacted and they made an attempt to record the voice of the singing mouse. When they went to the Rextrew home, nothing happened. The mouse would make no noise. So Glen said that they would cover the cage where the mouse was in and after some 15 minutes, they uncovered it and sure enough this mouse whose name was Mickey started his pretty chirping and it sounded like a canary. That same day Mickey was heard over WIOU, and then on the Edward R. Morrow show. That story of Mickey stayed on the tongues of many for several weeks.
In the meantime. Glen caught another mouse and he named her Minnie, and a few days later, she had four babies that were named Enie, Meenie, Minie, and Moe. People all over Kokomo came to the Rextrew home to see Mickey sing , and Glen even had an offer from a booking agent from Chicago. The six mice would sing nightly concerts at the Rextrew home and once, all of them were caught in a wire cage, but were able to escape .
Mrs. Rextrew said that she would check the trap every so often to see if they had been caught. She could see where they had been nibling on the bait, but escaped through a hole just under the trigger of the trap. While they were on the loose, they gave a nightly singing concert to Glen and his wife.
One visitor to the Rextrew home was a man , who wanted to see this oddity so that he could describe the mouse to his crippled son. After the man returned home, he called the Rextrew's and asked that the phone be placed near the mouse so that the son could hear the singing.
Mrs. Rextrew said that she and her husband would feed the brood and hope that some sort of an offer for the crooner would show up. and she said that they had gotten attached to the mice and would hate to part with them.
Rextrew was a part time salesman and things were not going well in the financial part of thier life. Glen has wanted to go into the ministry, but he wasn't able to fulfill his goal. He had hoped that if someone had taken up on this story that maybe he would be able to go on to college to get his degree. Glen had been in the service , and recieved an injury to his leg that would in effect caused him some financial problems from than on. They never let anyone know that they were hurting financially.
This was a great family who had pride in what they did and how they had to live.
But then Glen took the singing mouse to visit some relatives in Greentown, because he was afraid that someone might enter his home and steal them, and Mickey was able to break loose, and he ran into a woodpile,. They were broken-hearted about this, and after some thought, they decided to release Minnie also.
Such was the story of one of Kokomo's first, although there are many ,that to this day do not know of this singing mouse..
Another of the animals to remember is the snowy white owl, which one day arrived on the scene atop the Grace Methodist Church. Welden once again did a story on this owl, which he called "Oswald, The Snowy Owl". This owl would move from perch to perch, and he made quite a dent in the pigeon population. He stay around for about two weeks and then left only to return a few years later , to stay just a short time.
Then there was a oposseum which made an appearance on the courthouse square. He was only here for a short time, but long enough to be named Charlie.
There were many animals that made an impact in Kokomo, but none like the Singing Mouse, named Mickey, who with Minnie, and thier four offspring, gave the Rextrew family a place in the history of Kokomo, Indiana. This did happen, folks, and Mrs Rextrew gave me the right to write about it for you to remember. So if you ever get the chance to meet this wonderful lady, tell her thanks for the memories.
"This is just one of the many true stories of things that happen in
Kokomo, Indiana."
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