FUN MUSIC Marshall

story by Robin Y. Richardson |

Music education with a fun twist is the goal of Anne Leslie Tijerina, better known to youngsters as her newly created sing-a-long character “Anna Banana.”

“Anna Banana is traveling the Ark-La-Tex and available to come to children events inside and outside, birthday parties, church venues and community venues where you’re prompting children to be involved — children and families,” said Tijerina, a local singer, songwriter and retired occupational therapist.

“I’m reaching out to them to tap into the old songs and the community sing-along songs that we want,” she said.

Donned in her bright yellow overalls, vintage blue and banana printed shirt, and elaborate yellow headpiece, the Marshall resident engages audiences with fun and interactive childhood favorites, including the feel-good folk song, “You are My Sunshine,” “Row, Row, Row Your Boat,” the classic French nursery rhyme “Frère Jacques” and more.

“So we have a good time remembering why songs are special,” said Tijerina. “I try to do little in English, Spanish and even throw that in about ‘Frère Jacques, Dormez vous? Dormez vous?,’ which is French. And we had the French influence here in Texas as well, and Louisiana.”

“So it’s music education and fun,” she said of the goal.

Music has always been a joy to Tijerina as she’s been singing for decades in the Marshall community, often featured as the special guest at patriotic programs, nursing home National Music Week events and more. Her talent has also been spotlighted in various esteemed platforms, including as a 2017 finalist for the John Ritter Tribute Showcase in Carthage and most recently as one of the nearly 200 voices singing in the highly anticipated 50th anniversary commemoration of the musical “Celebrate Life”, performed in June at New York’s Carnegie Hall.

She has also been well known as one-half of a daddy-daughter duo, singing alongside her father, the late Bill Monigold.

“When I came back to Marshall, my dad and I, Mr. Bill Monigold, sang together — the daddy daughter duo — and we had so much fun,” she said. “It was mostly gospel, but it was country family stuff and we liked to sing about fishing, and we liked to sing about family being tied together with ribbons of love, which is the name of one of our songs.”

Anna Banana Inspiration

Her participation with the National Christian Songwriters Association inspired her to start writing fun-loving children’s songs. It gave her the spark she needed to create her character, Anna Banana.

“I started writing some songs with the National Christian Songwriters Association several years ago, and they have been influencing my thoughts about how my songs come out,” shared Tijerina. “They said you’ve just got joy written all over it and you’re popping, so kids would love these songs. And so

I started focusing on children’s songs, and my yellow overalls came out. Anna Banana (was born).”

The shirt decked with bananas just makes things even livelier.

“This shirt has bananas on it and in person, it’s fun,” said Tijerina. “So we just go bananas for singing and reading little children’s books, and that fits my personality very well.”

It’s definitely a change for her as she traditionally sports patriotic colors to sing. She’s excited, however, about her new colorful journey, through Anna Banana, that God is leading her to.

“I’m supposed to be red and blue. God is taking me to a different color zone,” Tijerina said of adding her yellow overalls to her wardrobe.

The name Anna Banana was also the perfect fit as it’s a play on words to her name, Anne.

“Anna Banana, we just have fun with that since my name is Anne,” Tijerina shared. “That summer we were working with Hispanic young people; they just started calling me Anna, and I had the yellow overalls and (they) started calling me Anna Banana.”

“My granddaughter revived that when we were home during COVID, and she told me you look like an Anna Banana,” she grinned.

As Anna Banana, Tijerina also likes to share her self-written faith-based songs.

“I do let them know that I believe in God and He is my source, so it’s faith-based, as well,” she said.

Tijerina enjoys singing the popular hymnals that raised her, as well as the up-beat songs that she’s penned.

“It’s lots of fun; lots of funny,” she said of her Ana Banana children’s program, which she also considers an outreach children’s ministry.

Tijerina launched the new ministry following her retirement as an occupational therapist, a career she enjoyed for more than 30 years.

“After many years of occupational therapy throughout the state of Texas… I have done over 30-something years of occupational therapy. It was wonderful,” said Tijerina. “I came out of Baylor with a pre-biology healthcare (degree) and went to the University of Texas medical branch in Galveston. It was great to see the diversity of the state. I went to Huntsville, Dallas, Texarkana, Marshall, East Texas, Bastrop, Austin and worked for some different companies.”

She also worked in Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma for a stint.

“At one time I had four licenses because there were not that many occupational therapists at that time. So, it was a wonderful career to deal with people who were adapting their life due to an injury, a trauma, or neonatal early birth,” said Tijerina.

A Musical Passion

She decided to focus more on her first love of music following her retirement. It’s something that’s always been a part of her since childhood.

“Of course, I had been singing with my dad (Bill Monigold) for many years. My mother sang with us before she became ill, so we had a little trio going,” she shared. “That was when I became a young adult, but my love for music came from First Baptist Church. ‘Jesus Loves Me’ was probably the first song, or even ‘Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam.’”

The songs were taught by people who were sponsors of the Marshall Music Club where Tijerina now serves as president. Most of her mentors were all either piano or voice teachers.

“I did go to Baylor and was participatory in the music programs. I thought I would major as a musician, but I went on into therapy instead,” she said.

Nevertheless, she still worked with children, and spent the last 10 years of her occupational therapy career specializing in pediatric care for children with special needs. As Ana Banana, Tijerina always extends a special invitation to children with special needs as they hold a special place in her heart.

“All of the concerts are open to them,” she said.

Tijerina is hoping to be able to partner with sponsors to help with the presentation of her Anna Banana outreach events. The character is becoming a local household name, so far, filling the calendar with several appearances at Marshall Public Library, Carthage parks, Telegraph Park, festivals and more.

“I’ve done this in church, children’s ministries and outreaches,” said Tijerina, sharing she was scheduled to participate at her church Mobberly Marshall’s Kids Weekend this summer.

“I’ll be working with the smaller kids and wearing the yellow overalls. Sanctimonious silliness is what I call it,” she chuckled.

The Anna Banana children’s program is catered to ages 5 to 10 as they’re most engaged with the interactive sing-a-long songs such as “Hokey Pokey” and “If You’re Happy and You Know it Clap Your Hands.”

“And then educationally, I love to talk about Marshall with the railroad,” said Tijerina. “We’ll do the ‘choo-choo’ (sound), and we’ll blow our horn and we’ll play the banjo — a lot of motion. I have some instruments, depending on what size of the group. The kiddos that participate love it.”

“And I wear silly, funny shirts,” she said.

Along with her Anna Banana shirt, she’s now added a watermelon shirt to her wardrobe as a tribute to the children’s book her husband, George, wrote titled “Seeds.” She wrote a children’s song to complement the book, which she does read and sing as Anna Banana.

The book details the journey of her husband’s childhood from working his first job at age 12 in a South Texas watermelon field, to being introduced to God’s love through traveling tent revival from Arkansas.

“They sang about God’s love and planted the seeds in his heart,” said Tijerina. “He told me about that. I said we need to write that down. Let’s let them know how that happened and also that we want to plant those seeds of God’s love in their lives. And then I came up with a song: ‘Seeds, seeds; oh yes, seeds. Let’s just plant some seeds… tiny little starters growing into mighty trees. God’s gonna grow these seeds.’”

Tijerina was pleased to incorporate the seeds component to help kickoff Marshall Public Library’s seeds promotion this year.

“The kids know about his story because he taught in Marshall for many years. So we’re tying our things together,” said Tijerina. “We’re working together to reach kids.”

“Life in Marshall, we’ve always been civic and we’ve always been community-minded,” she added.

“We’ve always taken our joy to the streets for the kids. So, that’s where I’ll be in my yellow overalls — going bananas,” she chuckled.

Future Plans

Tijerina said she has plans to expand the Anna Banana brand, publishing more children’s books and booking more events in the future.

“This a huge transition from occupational therapy to almost full time trying to sing and reach out to the community and write more children’s songs,” she said. “I have been in collaboration with the National Christian Songwriters Association working with them almost monthly on writing songs.”

She plans to write a book to complement most of the songs as a means to promote music education.

“The (signature) song that my daddy and I were known for around here was ‘Daddy’s Still Fishing with a Cane Pole.’ I’m using the chorus of that to base a book in the future,” said Tijerina. “It’s also educational because they don’t know what a cane pole is. A cane pole was made out of sugarcane poles way back then. Now they produce them. And that was what they did before rods and reels.”

She said she hopes the book will educate children on the progression of things.

“Obviously, we have a lot of fun things to do but we still have this instrument,” she said, pointing at her mouth she uses to sing.

“We still have these instruments,” she continued as she snapped her fingers and clapped her hands. “You can’t say I can’t sing if I don’t have the background singing, the background in music. You’ve got what you need.”

“So, it’s everything about the joy and the fun of singing as well as in some situations, definitely praising the Lord and having kids understand that lifting their voice also lifts up their spirit,” said Tijerina.