The day after Thanksgiving 2022, Amy Beth Sutton pondered what she’d give her adult daughter for the holidays.

“What the heck am I going to do for her for Christmas that is not a present? Because she doesn’t really need anything. We can tell our kids we love them, but how do we really show that we love and honor who they’ve become as a person?” Sutton said.

And then it came to her.

Sutton decided to establish a scholarship to benefit Missouri State University’s theatre and dance department, the area from which her daughter graduated.

Sutton called the Missouri State University Foundation. Before Christmas, the Lillian Jean Hilmes scholarship had been created.

“It was important to honor my daughter’s commitment to the theater and what MSU did for her. It really helped her be successful,” Sutton said.

After Lillian Hilmes graduated in May 2022 with a lighting design degree, she received a professional apprenticeship at The Juilliard School in New York as an assistant head electrician.

Hilmes now lives in Brooklyn. When she came home for the holidays, she was shocked.

“There were a lot of tears,’” Sutton said.

It was an incredible surprise.

“It filled me with so much astonishment and joy that she would do something like this for me, and establish a legacy with this scholarship,” Hilmes said.

Sutton said she’s also proud to be establishing a scholarship in the arts because the arts are underfunded and are the heartbeat of a city.

Hilmes, a Bear legacy, felt at home at Missouri State University

Hilmes is a third-generation Bear. Both her dad and grandmother graduated from Missouri State University.

Her passion for theatre was sparked by her mother. Both of them were active in Springfield Little Theatre, or SLT. Sutton was a ballerina.

When Hilmes was 13, she told her mom she didn’t want to be on stage anymore — she wanted to run the show. So, she went to summer camps at SLT to learn technical skills behind the scenes.

In middle school and her freshman year at Central High School,  she played volleyball.

“She went to so many volleyball camps on MSU campus that it felt like home for her. So that was it. She’s like, ‘Mom, why would I go anywhere else? MSU was like home for me. I know it. I love it,’ ” Sutton said.

And Hilmes continued to love it.

Hands-on experiences at MSU, and a fellow Bear, helped Hilmes on her path

Hilmes was initially an undecided major. She was thrilled when she realized she could transform her passion for theatre into a career. She received scholarships and lived in Scholars House the first two years.

“All the professors want to see you succeed,” Hilmes said. “They are so wonderful. I loved the program because it gives students the opportunity for real design.”

At a lot of schools, you don’t actually work on a show, she said.

“But at MSU, you work on a real show and people come to see it. If I hadn’t had that experience at MSU, I think I would be completely lost here (at Juilliard).”

After graduation, Hilmes planned to move to Chicago, but she got a call from another Bear, Seth Brown. Brown had been awarded the Juilliard apprenticeship the previous year, and said they were looking for people to apply. Hilmes landed it.

Hilmes is now thriving, which is no surprise to her mom.

“She’s a super-hard worker,” Sutton said. “Not a lazy bone in that girl’s body, and super sweet. She never gave us a minute of trouble growing up. She had scholarships throughout MSU. Always had a part-time job. She’s been a delight.”