could be Buffalo's crossing the platte

 Research Papers


Today is:

              American Legion Jr. Drum & Bugle Corps, part 3

I. What Happened After the 1939 Contest?

1939


After winning the state championships in 1936, 37, & 38, the director, Bob Dean, resigned
        Dallas Donaly, their state champion drummer, became the new director.
        He led them in the 1939 contest where they came in 3rd. Dallas was again named the champion drummer

October – Dallas Donaly resigned as director of the Kearney Legion Junior drum corps
        He had graduated from Kearney High the previous May & now was attending Kearney Teachers College
        He resigned as director because school work prevented him from devoting the time necessary to the corps

Arthur Harrell agreed to take over leadership of the corps.
        He was the instrumental music supervisor for the Kearney schools, director of the Kearney High and city bands

Also that year the Kearney Fire Department Drum and Bugle Corp, had not been active for two years
        They voted to turn their drums and bugles, a dozen each, over to the Kearney Junior drum and bugle corps.
        The understanding was if the junior corps ever disbanded, the instruments would be returned to the fire depart.

1940

Arthur Harrell, the music teacher, was director again; Dewayne Wolf was the drum major

August - Fire department reorganized their drum and bugle corps for their state convention so the Fire Department instruments used by Legion corps probably used by both groups

Apparently the Kearney corps did not do well at the American Legion state convention.
        Holdrege won but no mention was made of Kearney

1941

Now the American Legion had both a senior and junior drum and bugle corps
        They performed together frequently during that summer
        No mention is made of either group entering the annual contest

Then World War II began and the drum and bugle corps disappeared

I was curious about the two men who had directed the Corps

II. Bob Dean

Born Aug. 4, 1916 in Kearney


Started a boys’ band when he was 11, probably summer 1928; practiced on his front porch


Sept. 1933, having just turned 17, he took leadership of the newly formed American Legion Jr. Drum & Bugle Corps

        He probably was a senior in high school

After graduation Bob attended Kearney State Teachers College

Besides leading the Corps, which practiced year round, Bob
        1. played in the school orchestra
        2. directed the Kearney Municipal Band
        3. had his own dance band

Resigned as drum & bugle corps leader because he had graduated from college in May 1938 and accepted a teaching job in Wells, Nevada

1939-1941 – Wells Nevada, music supervisor in music department where his orchestra and several small groups rated high in state contests.

Married Dorothea Weeks Aug 17, 1941

Served in the Army during WWII


When he returned, Bob got a masters degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.


24 years as band director at Spencer, IA

9 years as band director at Mason City, IA
14 years as professor of music at University of Northern Iowa

Died Sept 29, 1994 in Cedar Falls, Iowa; he was 78 years old

III. Samuel Dallas Donaly

Born in Kearney April 3, 1921, son of a barber, Samuel Donaly

1939 – graduated from high school

1939-40 & 1940-41- Attended Kearney State Teachers Collage
        Was business manager for the school paper, the Antelope
        Was a member of the college symphony orchestra in the percussion section
        Was a member of Laddie Lysinger’s orchestra (a classmate)

Spring 1941 – left school; went to work at Fort Kearney State Bank

July 12, 1942 – Married Ruth Jane Olson of Hollinger, NE [an unincorporated community in Furnas County]
        She had graduated from Beaver City high school
        May 1942 graduated from Kearney State Teachers college.

July 18, 1942 – Reported for duty at Fort Logan, Colo.
        Donaly was stationed at Ft. Warren, Cheyenne, Wyoming (where he was assigned to train a group of WAACs
        for a drum corps) and then at Grand Island before going to Europe for his last 10 months of service

Feb. 1946 – Discharged, returned to Kearney and his job at the Fort Kearney National bank as a teller.
        C. M Stenberg, teller in the Fort Kearney National bank, went to Crofton to serve as cashier in a new bank.
        He had came to Kearney a little more than three years earlier.

Donaly immediately became active in the American Legion
        He worked at reorganizing the American Legion Drum and Bugle Corps.
        Was elected president of the Kearney Legion drum corps board
        Board voted to sponsor a senior corps and decided to withhold any action on junior corps until a later date when
            equipment again became available.


1949 – organized the Sam Donaly orchestra which played at least through 1955

July 1954 – Final Concert of Summer Season At Park Sunday
        Dance band musicians were featured. Dallas Donaly played drums

Dec 1955 – Still had his orchestra

1960 – Donaly Samuel D JR (Ruth J) Asst Cashier First National Bank r2214 5th Ave (city directory entry)

Then, sometime after that Dallas apparently left Kearney

He and his wife divorced; in 1965 he remarried

Died Feb. 13, 1981 in Norton, Kansas, age 60; buried in Kearney Cemetery by his parents



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