LOSS OF COLLECTIBLES HAUNTS WOMAN

Generous contributions of some area people have helped a local collector of Walt Disney memorabilia begin rebuilding her collection after a September burglary left it nearly destroyed and left her personally devastated.

Jane Barks of Cape Girardeau, known locally as the "Mickey Mouse Lady," has received a number of contributions of Mickey Mouse memorabilia from people who heard about the burglary or read about it in the Southeast Missourian.

A Cape Girardeau woman from whom Barks purchased many Mickey Mouse items gave Barks a sack of Disney collectibles after hearing of the burglary.

A Jackson woman, who read about the break-in in the newspaper, is donating anonymously a child's bank in the shape of Mickey Mouse to help Barks rebuild her collection.

"I know how much it takes to collect something," the woman said. "She put her heart and soul into that collection."

Barks returned home on the evening of Sept. 26 to find her house had been broken into. Part of her collection was stolen and part vandalized.

The vandalism went beyond her collection: Clothes were cut up or sprayed with blue paint, vitamin bottles were filled with chlorine bleach, bleach was spilled on the floor and tracked throughout the house, Christmas ornaments dating back to when her children were infants were broken, and a watermelon was splattered in the house.

Police said the thermostat in the house was turned up to 100 degrees, making it impossible for police to enter immediately to investigate.

Barks believes the culprit wanted to burn her house down. But to Barks, the losses and damage to her collection of 30,000 items she has accumulated over 15 years was even worse.

Although she still has about half of the collection, she said she is heartbroken over what was stolen or vandalized. Some of it, she said, is irreplaceable.

Barks owned 100 pairs of Mickey Mouse socks. One sock from each pair was cut with scissors.

She also owned 208 Mickey Mouse watches. Most of the watches were either taken or destroyed. Many of the watch crystals were broken and the hands bent.

A Mickey Mouse baseball that Barks got only recently at a Du Quoin, Ill., flea market was among items taken.

But perhaps the most expensive item stolen was a 1930s' Mickey Mouse doll. The Mickey Mouse character had been introduced a few years before in the 1928 cartoon "Steamboat Willie." The doll had the pie face and long nose of the early cartoons, Barks said.

"Just to know that there are monsters like that in your house going through your things -- it's unforgivable," she said.

Police recovered a few items hidden beneath the porch of a nearby residence, but no arrests have been made. The investigation continues.

Barks said she was happy to receive the contributions to her collection. Her interest in Disney, however, dates back to when her two oldest daughters were members of the original Mickey Mouse Club.

Barks has had been featured on area television programs and has shown her collection to visitors from throughout Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky.

She hopes to rebuild the collection and have a place some day where she can display the collection.