Which couple has two of the nicest smiles in the hobby? If you guessed Dennis and Jeanne Weber, you'd be right. And they are also the subjects of "Bea Lines" this time. These two always seem to have a smile for everyone, and Jeanne has a very happy laugh, that really brightens any place she happens to be. It's always fun to be around both of then.

Let's profile Jeanne first. Both Dennis and Jeanne are insulator collectors, although Dennis is into them more. She loves traveling around the country to shows and visiting with friends all across the U. S. A. As the years go by, they enjoy making new friends at every show.

To begin at the beginning, Jeanne was born on a farm near St. Joseph, Missouri, March 15, 1948. She moved to Mountain Home, Arkansas, when she was ten years old, and after growing up there and graduating from the University of Arkansas, she moved back to St. Joseph in 1970 as a high school math teacher, which is her job today. Dennis and Jeanne met in the fall of 1971 at a party given by a mutual friend, and they were married in St. Joseph February 17, 1973.

Although Jeanne likes insulators, she also collects cookie jars, and has about one hundred twenty of then. Her first cookie jar was a pig; probably related to an Arkansas Razorback?? She also collects quilts, crockery, and kitchen primitives. Mr. Hyve and I have been to the Weber's lovely home, and everything is displayed so beautifully. One of their rooms is especially nice; wide and spacious, and tastefully decorated with various collections.

Dennis was born March 16, 1947, in St. Joseph, where he's lived all of his life, except for active military duty. After graduating from high school in 1965, he worked in a hardware store full-time. (He had worked there part-time while in high school.) Then he joined the Missouri Air National Guard and left for active duty in March, 1966. After seven months active duty, Dennis cane home and went to work for Southwestern Bell Telephone company, on November 28, 1966. He says, "I started as a stockman at the installation/repair storeroom before moving out to the construction crew as a lineman. After seven years on the line gang, I moved to an inside job as a telephone switchman in a crossbar tandem switchroom. I remained there until just recently. In October of 1988, the office was cut over to a digital switch. I'm now working in this Northern Telecom DMS2OO switch, where I hope to remain for some time."

Dennis holding his favorite insulator, a CD 735 SO EX CO//
Chester NY, amber blackglass. In the background is part 
of his threadless glass and Bell paperweight collections.

Dennis with some of his better Bell Telephone signs, 
including the earliest Bell of them all -- the 
"Long Distance Telephone" sign from the 1890's.

Dennis in the basement rec room (or, as he refers to it,
his "insulator and telephone advertising museum.") A few
of the rarer signs can be seen around the phone booth.

Dennis first became interested in insulators in 1969. As a telephone lineman, he started keeping a few old ones that he thought were different or unusual. (He says that although he thought them to be unusual, they were really pretty common.) At that time, he had no idea that such color and variety existed; he made that discovery much later.

Dennis says, "In 1978, after I had moved to the inside job, I met an active collector in an antique shop by accident, while looking at some overpriced insulators. We later visited at my home, and I learned through him about Crown Jewels magazine, Milholland's book, and the NIA. He also told us about the shows around the country. Jeanne and I later attended the Iowa Antique Bottlers show in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and in 1979, we attended our first national in Denver, Colorado. Since then we have missed only one national; the 1980 show in Herkimer, New York. We are sorry now that we missed that one. The collector and his wife who we met back in '78 became our close friends and remain so today. I owe Charles and Connie Brandon for getting me started seriously collecting ten years ago.

"In the early days I collected only common telephone insulators that I found on the lines on which I worked as a lineman. Later, in the late '70's and early '80's, I collected general, but had a few rarer pieces. I had as many as 1,100 glass and porcelain at one time before thinning down to a smaller collection with more rarity.

"I've never met another collector who collected only one thing. Jeanne and I are also owners of multiple collections. I collect telephone company advertising items of all kinds; Bell paperweights, porcelain signs, employee badges, pocket mirrors, telephone company china, cast iron toy telephone trucks, buttons and pins, and other telephone company memorabilia. I also collect quilt lightning rod balls. We collect so many things that we sometimes also collect a lot of dust."

As for insulators, Dennis (and Jeanne) collect general glass, telephone, telegraph, and small power pieces. Their specialty collections include rare early threaded telegraph and telephone (especially rare colors), transpositions (CD 187 through CD 205), and CD 735 threadless hats. Their collection consists of seven hundred fifty insulators, all glass. As for his very favorite pieces, he's narrowed them down to a dozen, and they cam be seen in the photo below. What is Dennis' main "want"? It is a CD 196 H. G. Co. transposition in purple; true purple, not smoke.

Dennis' favorite dozen insulators. From left to right, top to bottom; CD 151 H. G. Co., clear with thousands of bubbles; CD 112.4 Hemingray No. 8, amber; CD 124.3 Patent Dec 19, 1871, olive green; CD 125 WU #5 Dec 19, 1871, dark purple; CD 133.4 Patent Dec 19, 1871, dark purple; CD 204 No Name, light blue; CD 263 Patented June 17, 1890, yellow green; CD 731 Tillotson, dark sapphire blue; CD 735 Tillotson & Co., dark amber; CD 735 SO EX CO/Chester NY, amber blackglass; CD 735 U. P. R. R. /Mulford & Biddle, dark teal cobalt; and CD 701 No Name, milky light straw (Sandwich Glass.)

Dennis served as central region vice president of the NIA from 1985 through 1988. He and Jeanne are hard workers in the hobby, displaying often. Along with awards from several shows in the past, they most recently received the George C. Scott Probe Award, Best Exhibit of Eastern Insulators from the Capital District Insulator Club, and an award of which they are especially proud, the Dr. Frederick L. Griffin Award for Threadless; all at the Houston, Texas, national in 1988. Dennis also serves as the historian for the St. Joseph Club of the Telephone Pioneers of America.

Dennis and Jeanne are very friendly people, and they always bring lots of laughter and fun with them to every show they attend. (And sometimes Jeanne brings the BEST cookies you ever tasted! I guess they are the perfect go-withs for a cookie jar collector.)

Dennis states that his personal achievement is having my entire collection on display for our enjoyment, as well as for others'. Personal hope? That other collectors will stop in St. Joseph to see our collections and visit. Personal goal? To not miss another national, and to see as many other collections around the country as possible. That's all, folks!"