The “grande dame” of the American puppet theater, artist, entertainer, teacher

Margo Rose, the former Margaret Skewis, was born in Inway , Iowa . After graduation from Cornell College , she joined the famous Tony Sarg marionette company where she met her future husband, Rufus Rose. Margo spent several years touring with Sarg and a year studying sculpture at the British Academy in Rome before she and Rufus married (1930) and started their own company. By the mid-1930's, the Roses were touring the country with shows they designed, and they had also produced the first full-length commercial film using marionettes.

During the Second World War Rufus took a job with the Electric Boat Company in Groton and Margo began volunteer work with the American Red Cross. The Roses then settled in Waterford , where they built their famous home/studio and raised their three sons. With the end of the war, they resumed touring and in 1946 hosted the first festival for the newly formed Puppeteers of America. On Christmas Eve, 1948, the Roses performed Scrooge!, Margo's adaptation of A Christmas Carol, the first full-length marionette production performed live on national television.

In the 1950's they worked on the prize-winning children's show, the Blue Fairy Series, and as the major designers and lead puppeteers of the Howdy Doody Show. Despite the loss of several hundred of their marionettes in a 1961 fire, the Roses continued to tour and to design and build puppets for television films, including Treasure Island, Rip Van Winkle, and Aladdin.

In 1965 Margo and Rufus Rose played a key role in the founding of the Eugene O'Neill Memorial Theater Center and the National Theater for the Deaf. In 1990, Jane Henson established The Rose Endowment for Puppetry at the O'Neill Center. Together the Roses produced over a dozen marionette productions, as well as numerous films, commercials, and television projects.

Margo Rose continued to teach puppetry after Rufus's death (1976) and to receive high praise for the artistry of her designs and the delicacy with which she manipulated her marionettes. Her puppets and art work have been exhibited in Connecticut, Iowa, and Virginia, and at the New York Public Library Gallery for the Performing Arts. Among her many honors are the President's Award for Artistic Achievement from the Puppeteers of America and the 1982 medallion from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts.