Friday Night Dialogues at the Library welcomes the Numarks

COURTESY PHOTO | Mollie Numark as a dancer with the Blackpool Tower Chiildren’s Ballet

For Islanders of all ages, “Story Time with Miss Mollie” evokes warm and special memories. On Friday, April 11 at 7 p.m., Mollie returns to the library with her husband, Marshall, to tell their own stories in a special Friday Night Dialogues at the Library, “From the Blitz to the Battle of the Bulge with Mollie and Marshall Numark.”

Gary Paul Gates leads the conversation of what it was like to live through the strife and turmoil of World War II. Their memories — those of a young English girl and an 18-year-old American G.I. who would meet some 40 years later — are punctuated with rare newspaper clippings and photographs.

Mollie will share recollections of her childhood on the northwest English seaside in Lancashire as England prepared for the German invasion. She will talk about the fears and hardships that had to be endured during the Blitz and later as the war moved across Europe. And through it all, she recalls, were the ballet lessons, dancing with the Blackpool Tower’s famous children’s ballet, the difficult post-war years as a dancer in London’s West End, and the audition that took her to New York’s Latin Quarter nightclub after the war.

Marshall shares his memories of these years from the perspective of a young soldier who served in General George Patton’s legendary 3rd Army during its drive across Europe. He’ll recall his first taste of combat in Normandy — where he landed less than a month after D-Day — and his later experiences in the famous Battle of the Bulge.

Mollie and Marshall came to Shelter Island in 1987 and have been full-time residents since 1995, when they retired — Marshall from his career on Wall Street as an institutional bond broker and Mollie, after 30 years at her ballet school, featuring the methods  of  The Royal Academy of Dance.

The Friday Night Dialogues are free with donations greatly appreciated.

Coming Up: On April 26, Friends of Trees’ Chairman Tim Purcell on the fascinating lives of trees; on May 2, abstract artist Melinda Zox and on May 9, Jenifer  Maxson returns for one night only with her one-woman show.