‘Daydream Believers’ share Monkee memories

March 11, 2012

‘Daydream Believers’ share their Monkees memories

By Marcia Moore

BEAVERTOWN — Donna Nadratowski was compelled to leave her North Jersey home Saturday morning and join about 350 other devoted Monkees fans in this tiny hamlet to mourn the passing of lead singer Davy Jones.

“This is our farewell Monkees road trip. It’s so sad,” the 44-year-old said, wiping a tear from her cheek.

Maria Maresca felt the same emotional tug.

“I had to be here. We all have a communal love of the Monkees,” said Maresca, 29. “I was devastated when I heard Davy died. It was if I had lost a family member.”

Many fans expressed a similar loss and described receiving sympathy cards and notes from friends and families who knew how much Jones’ death at the age of 66 from a heart attack would affect them.

“Davy Jones has been a part of peoples lives for 40 years. There’s a lot of love for him and fans just want to be together,” said Michael Shoenfelt, of Roaring Springs, who organized the memorial along with Beavertown Mayor Cloyd “Bill” Wagner.

The four-hour event included music and fan memories at the fireman’s carnival grounds and ended with a vigil at the community theater at 121 N. Orange St., where Jones had proposed a museum of Monkee memorabilia near the Center Street home he purchased about 20 years ago.

“His music took me to a happy place and I just wanted a place to go and honor that. I never expected this many people to show up,” the 43-year-old Shoenfelt said.

Word about the memorial in Jones’ adopted rural retreat spread fast on social media sites.

Heidi Horvath, a friend of Jones’ band mate and fellow Monkee Peter Tork, and Henry Mues, both of New Jersey, made the four-hour drive to Snyder County to say goodbye after learning of the event on Facebook.

“It’s a way of finding closure,” Horvath said outside the locked gate in front of Jones’ house where fans had begun leaving flowers, handwritten notes, drawings and other keepsakes.

Amy Gaetano, 28, of Niagara Falls, N.Y., Lola Betts, 18, of Lititz, and Xandra Amrine, 17, of Etters, said their friendship was forged from their mutual love of the Monkees, demonstrating what Maresca called the Monkees “timeless, clean pop” music that pulls people of all ages and backgrounds together.

Amrine shared with the crowd how she was pulled up onto the stage in Hershey last year during the first Monkees concert she ever attended.

Determined to stand out and be noticed by Jones, the teen donned a bright orange dress and made sure her mother, who accompanied her to the show, had a camcorder to capture the moment.

“I was in the 11th row and doing the ‘Davy dance’ when he pointed to me,” she said. “I had to crawl over chairs to get up there, but I did. It was the greatest moment of my life.”

Standing away from the crowd, a more somber Nadratowski described meeting her idol on several occasions, and even dining with him after a book signing in 1987.

“He was such a real down-to-earth, wonderful person,” she said.

Local residents who knew Jones as a laid-back neighbor were also drawn to the memorial.

“He always had a smile,” said Amy Knepp, of Beaver Springs.

via ‘Daydream Believers’ share Monkee memories » News » The Daily Item, Sunbury, PA.