Tish Saumsiegle Rabe

I went to Ithaca College School of Music and graduated in 1973 with a degree in Applied Vocal Performance. I came to New York City in 1973 with a goal of becoming a singing star, but was stopped by the competition, the audition process and struggled financially. Then, my mother read in the Needham Times that Dave Connor, who was the music teacher at Needham High School when I was in the musicals such as Guys and Dolls, South Pacific and Oklahoma, had been named Assistant Music Director for Sesame Street. I went to the Sesame Street studio to visit him and a few months later got my first job in New York thanks to Dave which was answering the phone and running errands for Joe Raposo- who was the music director for Sesame Street. Six months later there was an opening in the Music Department at Sesame Street and for three years I was an assistant helping the composers and perfomers on the show. One of the hardest things for me was having to book other singers to sing on songs for the show because I wanted to be doing that myself. After about a year, one of the composers asked me if I'd like to sing on a Sesame Street song and I made my back-up singing debut as a Grouchette- singing "Swamp Mushy Muddy" with Oscar the Grouch. I continued to sing in clubs in the city and sang as a warm up act for Pat Benatar at Catch a Rising Star.

I also kept working in television (it's nice to pay the bills!) and travelled to China with Jim Henson's Muppets in 1982 to produce Big Bird in China which won an Emmy as Best Children's Special. After getting back from China I was asked to produce a new show called "3-2-1 Contact" and produced 5 seasons of the series. In 1987 I moved back to Massachusetts and married John Rabe and had Johnny and Melody and in 1994 we moved to Connecticut and I began working at Random House in New York as Senior Producer for Children's Home Video.

In 1997 I began working as a full-time writer and children's book author and have written over 170 children's books and television series such as Clifford the Big Red Dog and I Spy for Scholastic Productions. I currently write The Cat in the Hat's Learning Library for Random House. My new book "The 100 Hats of the Cat in the Hat" is all about the number 100 and the 100th day of school and comes out in August, 2019

I remember going to a lot of the reunions- especially our 15th with Glenalea Lavery and Linda Godfrey and running into Chris Pahud from the Town Dump. I remember he decided to come at the last minute and he was stepping off the elevator and I was getting on and it was so wonderful to see him!

I fondly recall being in the school musicals which is where I first met John Rabe when we were cast opposite each other in Oklahoma. I have picture of us on stage with a ticket stub that reads February 18, 1969- our son Johnny was born February 18, 1989!! Twenty years later to the day. Our daughter Melody was born in June, 1990!

Definitely the English class with Dr. Allen. He was an amazing teacher and instilled in me the love of writing which is what I do today. We wrote everything in his class- sonnets, plays, short stories, etc. I remember him fondly- we were all a bit afraid of him- but he kept us on our toes. I remember learning the 10 vocabulary words every week and, though I rarely get to use them, I actually remember what loquacious means!