Wings in Wisconsin

Joyce Berg was born Joyce Elaine Brown April 7, 1931, in a Rockford hospital, but her family lived in a small town nearby named Cherry Valley. When she was 8, her family moved to central Illinois to a tiny town called Cropsey. Her father was a school principal, her mother, a teacher.

Berg later attended Illinois State and earned a degree in education. At her first teaching job in Elgin, she became roommates with another young teacher named Janet Berg from Belvidere, who had a brother named Lowell.

Today, The Angel Museum’s eclectic and massive collection of angel artifacts has origins in more than 60 countries and includes everything from a tiny angel that is smaller then a thimble to one that is taller then 5 feet. The angels also are made with inventive materials — porcelain, acrylic, copper, glass, leather, corn husks, tree roots, lamb skin, even spaghetti.

The museum is open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. During June, July and August, it is also open Sundays, 1-4 p.m. It is closed holidays and the months of January and February.

Admission is $6 for adults; $5 for seniors 62 and older; $4 for teens 13-17; and $3 for children under 5.

The museum is at 656 Pleasant St., U.S. Highway 51, in Beloit, Wis. For more information, call 608-362-9099 or visit the museum’s web site at www.angelmuseum.com.