LIMA — During the final home game every year of football season, Shawnee seniors get the opportunity to select one song to perform during the game.
It is usually a song with a special meaning. However, it will have heartfelt meaning to one family in the school district.
This year, the seniors chose the song “Pure Imagination” from “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” The Haycock family remembers actor Gene Wilder — known best for his role as the original Willy Wonka — as an affectionate, soft-spirited uncle. Their aunt, Karen Wilder, will be recognized at half time during Shawnee’s football game. Karen Wilder made the drive from her Connecticut home for the event.
The Haycock family, Darryl and Linda Haycock, and their children, Michael, 28, Taylor, 25, Alexis, 20 and Victoria, 17, have fond memories of who they described as a tender and loving man of high morals.
“He was so easy to make a connection with,” Victoria Haycock said. “If you watched his movies, you knew him. He was as he acted. Funny and warm.”
Despite her connection, Victoria was not the one who mentioned it as a possible song for the final game. Another band member mentioned it, and it was voted on several times, each time receiving a majority of the votes.
Linda Haycock, president of the Shawnee Board of Education, said it was little known to people in the area about their famous uncle.
“We were very protective of him,” Linda Haycock said. “He was a private individual. He couldn’t go to Tokyo or New York without someone recognizing him.”
The few times it was revealed, people usually did not believe it. In the fourth grade, Taylor Haycock did a project featuring his uncle, but few believed it.
“The kids just knew him as their uncle,” Linda Haycock said.
As each child reached about 10 years of age, they began to realize the status of Wilder. Realizing that everyone around them knew of their uncle, they still tried to protect the knowledge for the most part.
Karen Wilder met her husband of 25 years at the set of the comedy, “Hear No Evil, See No Evil,” a movie he co-starred with Richard Pryor in. Karen Wilder was a speech therapist and was called by the producer of the movie to help Gene Wilder with research. He played a deaf person in the movie.
“I remember receiving a couple of calls and when I tried to call back, I couldn’t get in touch,” Karen Wilder said. “Finally one day they called the office, and someone said ‘you better take this call.’”
It was then that Karen and Gene were first connected. She said Gene Wilder almost did not do the movie because he thought it was derogatory against deaf and blind people (Pryor played the blind man). After three attempts to get Gene Wilder on board, the crew sat down with him and the script and let him rewrite it to his liking.
She said if she would not have taken that call, or he had not agreed to act in the movie with the new script, they may have never met.
“We knew many years later that it was fate,” Karen Wilder said.
Karen Wilder said she first treated him as if he were a client to help him adjust to the role he would play. However, she felt an instant connection.
“I saw those beautiful blue eyes,” Karen Wilder said. “It didn’t seem so clinical anymore.”
As part of the agreement, Gene Wilder agreed to help do a video recording to help in the effort to help combat deafness. He took her to dinner twice, and she brought a recorder along to record footage. On the third dinner engagement, he said “leave the recorder at home.”
“It was our first date,” Karen Wilder said.
Linda Haycock admitted to being totally wrong when she first learned her aunt was dating the actor.
“I sat her down and asked her what she was doing,” she said. “We had some lengthy discussions. I was very wrong. He completed her, and she completed him.”
Linda Haycock remembered her uncle also as a tolerant and a very creative person. He loved the joy and beauty of the world and wanted to help bring laughter.
Karen Wilder said he liked to see what other people could do to make the world better. She said while he was somewhat aware of his affect on the world, he used to always say “the only thing being a celebrity means is being able to get a good table at a good restaurant.” Gene Wilder died Aug. 29.
“It is still hard,” Karen Wilder said. “They were the happiest days of my life. I grew and progressed as an adult with him. We loved each other. We painted together, read together, every meal was a date.”
She said her husband would be very humbled by the band’s performance of the song at halftime, saying he simply would have said “thank you.”
For the Haycock family, they said it was a fitting tribute to remember their uncle.
“It is a final goodbye,” Victoria Haycock said.
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