Remembering the Zimmerman Twins

The WSHS Class of 1965 would not have been as lively without identical twins Dan and  David Zimmerman. Both were bright students, and between the two, involved in practically everything, from athletics to band. I met them my first summer in Willow Springs in 1959 playing baseball at Booster Field. 

 

Though smaller than some of the other players, and less skilled at baseball than Truman Grogan or Eddie Mack Hill, they were vocal and opinionated—traits perhaps inherited from their father, newspaper editor Jac Zimmerman.

 

Regardless of the source, that summer they always seemed eager to join an argument or mock Milwaukee Braves star Eddie Mathews’s talent just to irritate Gary Tetrick (WSHS 1968), who, by the way, could give as good as he got. [As a side note, Gary went on to become a high school debate champion alongside his classmate and debate partner, Duane Benton.]

 

Danny and David started first grade in 1953, the same year their parents Jac and Rheba Zimmerman purchased the Willow Springs News and rented a house on Sixth Street. Their sister Janet was in the fourth grade. It would be several years before younger brother Jay joined the family. 

 

Since their Willow Springs story began before I moved to Willow, I queried schoolmates for anecdotes about their earlier history. It is often interesting to see how childhood behavior plays out in adults. 

 

Perhaps their earliest friend, Jimmy “Tee” Thomas (our senior class president) says, “The Zims called my mom their ‘other mother,’ as did I for their mom for all the time we spent at each other's houses.” Jim confirmed that it was the Zims who gave him his nickname. The three boys were at a golf event, and the check-in person abbreviated Jim’s last name as “Tee.” The Zims couldn’t let that pass, and the name stuck. Jim was “Tee” when I arrived. Referring to the registration person, David later told me, “He even spelled it like a golf tee.” 

 

Classmate Annette Tetrick Johnson recalls, “When we moved to Willow Springs I was in the fourth grade, and the Zimmermans lived really close to us. They used to come over and play whiffleball with my brother Gary and me. Danny was always Stan Musial, being a lefty, and David was Gino Cimoli.” [Cimoli was an All-Star in 1957 and a member of the 1960 World Series champion Pittsburgh Pirates.] 

 

Once, when the conversation between the Zimmerman twins and the Tetrick kids morphed into playtime argument, Annette says, “The twins got mad and went home. I remember my parents telling us not to worry because they would be back. And a little bit later they were.” Even then, those boys were resilient and plucky, traits that would continue—they’d get upset, recover, and come back for more.

 

Annette continued: “I remember in Mrs. Madorie’s class, Danny would always signal to me how many he missed on a particular test, since we were always in a contest. And I recall, he always wanted his pencil hypodermic needle-sharp, so he made numerous trips to the manual, crank-it-yourself, pencil sharpener a few times a day.” I was not there but can picture it: Danny strolling to the front, as if he had a special use permit. [I’m not being critical. Danny was a buddy, but I have insight. We were roommates for several months in Yellowstone Park.]

 

They were definitely identical. Classmate Buddy Stuart describes David and Danny as “a very special part of our class” and fondly recalled that in first grade, the teacher often had the class play games to guess “Who’s David, and who’s Danny?”

 

Occasionally, they tried to fool people with their similar appearance. Barbara Sherrill Pigg recalls, “Danny came to get me for a date pretending to be David. I immediately knew, because their personalities were different.”

 

Classmate Joe Corn shared another resemblance memory. “At a class reunion, Dave chose to not join the class reunion photo, when a voice called, ‘Get in here, Dave.’ He looked up at the group and pointed out, ‘Dan’s in there, no one could ever tell us apart. One Zimmerman is enough.’”

 

I suppose like most brothers they had disagreements, but publicly, they maintained rock-solid loyalty. Early on, Truman Grogan warned me if I ever got in a scrap with one, the other one would jump me. To underscore his point, he recounted an incident from the third grade when he ended up whipping both of them after David tried to tag team him during a playground scuffle with Danny.

 

Both boys were musicians. Danny played the saxophone and David played the trumpet in both the school band and jazz band, which often played at varsity basketball games. 

 

As athletes, both played on the seventh-and eighth-grade football teams and the seventh-grade basketball team, but in high school only Danny continued in football, eventually earning second-team all-SCA as a running back. It turned out that David was a pretty fast runner and joined his brother their senior year as part of relay team that placed in both the county and conference track meets. David also played on the Bears’ golf team.

 

Always neat and sartorial in appearance, I don’t recall ever seeing Danny or David wearing jeans. Typically, they wore khaki or corduroy trousers with stylish shirts and sweaters. Their mother told my mom that she bought their clothes at the National Shirt Shop in Springfield, which seemed quite fancy to me, since my clothes came from Ferguson Clothing and Curtis’s Dry Goods in Willow Springs. 

 

I rode to Columbia with Jac and Danny to see my first Mizzou football game in 1962, and Danny, beforehand, sagely advised me that I needed to wear a jacket and tie. In those days, it was de rigueur to wear a coat and tie to the games. 

 

Their careers diverged as adults. Dan, with a degree from the Missouri University School of Journalism, followed the path of his father. As a print-media professional, he worked in four different states and won numerous awards. After graduation, he served as editor of the Bolivar Herald-Free Press, a newspaper in Bolivar, Missouri, which Jac acquired after leaving Willow. He advanced to editor and general manager of the Whidbey News-Times in Oak Harbor on Whidbey Island, Washington, and capped his career as the publisher of Wine Country This Week magazine, a leading visitor publication in Northern California.

 

David, with a degree in Civil Engineering from University of Missouri-Rolla had an impressive career that included positions with Union Carbide in Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Nucor-Vulcraft in Norfolk, Nebraska; and for 23 years as Senior Engineer at the Callaway Nuclear Plant in Missouri. He was a member of the Missouri Society of Professional Engineers. 

 

David passed away in September 2019, followed by Dan in November 2025. Now, I picture Dan joyfully publishing the Celestial Gazette—blissfully free of deadlines—and David serving on the Pearly Gate Architectural Adoration Board. But as a prayerful nudge, guys: when you spot Truman Grogan, don't try to tag-team him. RIP, my friends.