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While Kentucky usually gets the credit for favorite son George Clooney, his former teachers and friends in Mason say they deserve some of it.

Carol Rauch, now associate academic director at the University of Cincinnati, was Clooney's music teacher at Western Row Elementary School in Mason. She said she almost took a road trip to Maysville, Ky., last week when Clooney screened his new flick "Leatherheads" for the first time.

"I was going to run to Maysville the other night and try to get in to see him at the opening of his movie," she said. "I was going to say to him, 'I gave you your start in show biz.' But it was too cold out."

Rauch wrote a Christmas play when Clooney was in the second grade, and he and his sister, Ada, starred in it. Rauch, like many other Mason residents, said Clooney had star power even at that tender age.

"You knew back than he was destined to go someplace," she said.

Ginger Brezinski taught Clooney's older sister Ada, after Nick and Nina Clooney transferred their children to St. Susanna School. She remembered that George emceed the school's Fine Arts Night when he was in third or fourth grade, and she said he was a natural then.

"I just remember thinking he took after his father," she said. "He was very comfortable, and hammy in front of a crowd at that young age."

The Clooney children had notoriety in the Mason-Deerfield area as the offspring of local TV and radio personality Nick Clooney. But Ann (Pugh) Fosheim said, that they were famous but didn't put on airs, and George still doesn't. He recently appeared on her brother Dan Patrick's (Mason's other best-known native son) national radio show — and admitted he had a crush on her back in grade school.

"It's pretty cool that he is such a neat person," Fosheim said. "He was so fortunate in his life with his fame and finances and yet he still remembers his childhood friends. It's cool that he's got that great Midwest upbringing and his parents raised him the way he is. It makes him way more handsome, doesn't it?"

Perry Denehy was one of Clooney's St. Susanna pals. He remembered playing ball in the yard of the old farmhouse off Mason-Montgomery Road, where the Clooneys lived.

He said from what he can tell, Clooney hasn't changed much since childhood — he was a fun-loving, competitive guy with a theatrical flair.

"You could tell he grew up in a theatrical or dramatic background, because for class plays or skits he would bring all the props," he said. "He would have all rubber chickens and the whoopee cushions, anything to do with the theater. He would incorporate that into his daily being, it seemed like."

Denehy said when Clooney found out they were moving from Mason, he asked Denehy to throw a going away party for him. "My mom always says if she knew then that George would become a celebrity, she would never have served the cheap hot dogs," Denehy said.

Another childhood friend, Margaret (Phelan) Long said that while Clooney was a practical joker, she remembers him being a bit shy as well. The last time she saw him, she said, was when she and her friends threw an after-hours — and unapproved — soiree at Kingsgate Racquet Club, where the Clooneys were members. George, just out of high school, showed up with his cousin — singer/actress Rosemary Clooney's son — and said he was contemplating moving to Hollywood to stay with his Aunt Rosemary and begin an acting career, but that his dad wanted him to stay in school. She said they exchanged phone numbers, but neither ever picked up the phone.

"I was so surprised to see him, it had been four years," she said. "I was thinking how did he find out about this party, and I can't remember how he said he found out. But the party broke up soon after that, my dad came and I got 'busted.' "

One former classmate remains close friends with Clooney. However, he asked to remain anonymous — he said every time his name appears in print, people come out of the woodwork trying to get him to get Clooney autographs, donations to charities and anything else imaginable.

Another friend, Lee Czerwonka, was part of the St. Susanna rat pack that hung around with Clooney. When Clooney was young, Czerwonka said Clooney planned to pogo into the Guinness Book of World Records, and he started on that dream at a grade school party. Czerwonka remembers Clooney jumping "forever" at that party.

He, like everyone else who knew Clooney back in the day, said Clooney's destiny was predetermined. "He was a great guy then and he hasn't changed much," he said. "He always wanted to be famous."

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4525 or dcallahan@coxohio.com.

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