How 10 siblings became Sioux Falls celebrities
Family entertainment acts have been around forever. Before the Osmonds and the Jackson 5, audiences were thrilled by the Andrews Sisters. Locally, the Adams Quintette entertained around town in the 1910s and ‘20s. But none of Sioux Falls’ early family acts quite achieved the notoriety of the Little Brown Kiddies, the children of Charles and Ethel Brown.
In late 1925, Albert “Buster” Brown and his sister, Lila, performed Christmas carols at the North End Sunday School on Bennett Street, just east of Minnesota Avenue. Church Superintendent John Mitchell encouraged Ethel to take Buster and Lila to the Jewel theater for an upcoming talent contest. Ethel was unsure, but went forward at the urging of her mother, Mamie Waddell. The Little Brown Kiddies won, and they won successive contests after that, too, their mother playing piano for each.
In December 1926, Buster and Lila performed on KSOO’s amateur hour, singing and telling jokes. They were a hit, and would eventually have their own show on KSOO twice a week during the 1930s.
In 1928, Ethel booked the Kiddies for shows in South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota, and Nebraska. The tour was in August, and would conclude before the start of school in September. By then Lila and Buster were joined by 2-year-old Arlene. The Browns had another child, Donna, around this time. Like Arlene, Donna was brought to rehearsals at an early age, and picked up the numbers before she could stand. The Little Brown Kiddies were a hit wherever they played.
By 1936, there were nine children in the Kiddies, and they all sang, danced, and told jokes. As ever, their mother kept them moving from school to the radio station, to the stage. The kids picked up on the machinations of show business, and on the occasion that Ethel couldn’t be there in time, could re-arrange the routine until she arrived to play the piano.
The Little Brown Kiddies stopped touring in the early 1940s. By that time there were 10 of them, having added Juletta, Billie Jean, Bernadette, Bobby, Marilyn, and Jo Bernie over the years. Buster, hardly little anymore, enlisted in
the Navy to serve during World War II. Lila and Arlene entertained at the Arkota and other clubs for several years as the Brownettes.
In 1950, Ethel died of an apparent heart attack while visiting relatives in Grand Island, Nebraska. The children went along in their lives, taking different turns and avenues.
Lila married Steve Christy and moved away for a while, but returned by 1952 to open Tanglefoot Dance Studio, which she ran for years.
Sisters Donna and Billie Jean both took vocations with the Presentation Sisters.
Buster returned from the Navy to a career at John Morrell.
Arlene married Leonard Thoms, eventually opening the Dexter House, which provided transitional housing for veterans and the unemployed.
Whatever the Brown siblings did in their lives, they took with them the spirit of music and dance that was hardwired into them from an early age. Those who remembered them did so fondly.
Radio personality Ray Loftesness said in 1987, “Anybody my age remembers the Brown Kiddies. They just wouldn’t quit. They were the smash of the town. Mama Brown just knew her kids would please the public, and they did.”