‘Sesame’ Puppeteer Dies of Stroke: Noreen Young Was 85

A Canadian puppeteer who lent her talents to the likes of the Canadian version of Sesame Street has died. Noreen Young, who worked in the industry for over 50 years, was 85.

CBC reports that Young is best known for creating the popular children’s show Under the Umbrella Tree. She produced Under the Umbrella Tree from 1987 to 1993 and portrayed Gloria Gopher, one of the show’s main characters. She also starred on Sesame Park, a continuation of Canadian Sesame Street.

Young was also the first artistic director of the Puppets Up! International Puppet Festival in Almonte, Ont. She died the same week after suffering a stroke.

Beloved by her peers, she was lauded as someone with a profound impact on children. Puppets Up! chair and executive director Jane Torrance spoke of her fondly.

“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. Of his sister, he said she “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.

Young became interested in puppets when she was 12. She went to school but quickly realized puppeteering was her calling.

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

“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.