Mud Show Elephant Man

TERRY DUANE FENNE

Feb. 10, 1950 – June 14, 2006

Have A Seat On Me

It seems that it was more common to run off to join the circus than one might have thought.  Barely a teenager, Terry Fenne, the son of Clifford Fenne and Rosemary (Bingham) Zitzner ran away from his home in Madison, Wisconsin, at the ripe old age of 14.

He got his start at Mud Shows which were small, traveling, one-ring circuses that slipped into town early in the morning—set up a one ring tent, and opened in the afternoon for a matinee show and an evening show.  As soon as the last performance was over, the center pole was struck and the workers would pack up. The canvases, animals, and equipment were loaded into wagons and the circus would lumber to the next venue  often taking back roads to the next town which were hard to navigate and MUDDY.  That’s how those circuses got their name, and it was how Terry Fenne earned his nickname, training elephants and driving the elephant truck—”Mud Show Elephant Man”.

Terry Fenne worked for at least six circuses training elephants including: Fisher Brothers Circus, Circus Genoa, Clyde Beatty-Cole Brothers Circus, Roberts Brothers Circus, Kelly-Miller Circus and Carson & Barnes Circus, whose names are carved into his monument, which is a polished marble bench in the Mt. Oliver Cemetery in Hugo, Oklahoma.  His bench reads, “Have A Seat On Me”, a clever nod the Terry Fenne’s sense of humor and his hospitality! A figure of an elephant raises its trunk underneath the bench, a symbol of joy and excitement.

According to the Sunday, June 25, 2006, edition of the Wisconsin State Journal, “Terry D. Fenne, age 56, passed away suddenly on Tuesday, June 14, 2006, in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  He was born on Feb. 10, 1950, in Madison, Wisconsin, the son of Clifford Fenne and Rosemary (Bingham) Zitzner.  For 30 years, Terry worked for the Kelly Miller Circus, traveling all over training elephants.  He is survived by his mother, Rosemary Zitzner of Madison, a brother, Bill (Beth) Zitzner of Belleville; and a niece, Jennifer Zitzner of Brooklyn.”

Even though Terry Fenne left the circus and operated an umbrella hot dog pushcart in Paris, Texas, where he became a fixture of the downtown area, he will always be first remembered for his over three decades as Mud Show Elephant Man.