A Belated Goodbye to a Hero and World-Class Musician

I came across sad news late last night while I was doing some online research for the last chapter of my book. Leonard Jung, a former St. Cloud Municipal Boys’ Band member who is featured prominently in Chapter 5, died in early December 2016. He was 97.

Here is a link to his obituary (and a cool photo of him as a young Navy man): Leonard Jung obituary

Below is another photo of him, that he shared with me. He’s on the far right.

I hadn’t communicated with Lenny for several years, but I have thought about him often, especially as I near completion of the draft of my book. My dad and I traveled to D.C. in January 2008 to meet Lenny, and we spent several hours talking with him at his home in Bowie, Maryland.

Lenny joined the beginner boys’ band in 1932, at age 12, following in the footsteps of his older brothers Herb and Richard. He was the first of G. Oliver’s former pupils that I interviewed for my book, and he was one of the rock stars, in terms of where his music career led him. He attended the U.S. Navy School of Music, served in World War II, and was the principal tuba and string bass player in the U.S. Navy Band for 20 years. He worked in the motion pictures department of the Navy’s civil service division for another 20 years, and he continued to play his tuba in various D.C. area bands until about a year before I met him.

I will be forever grateful to Lenny for his willingness to share with me his stories about his band and life experiences—including the story of how, during World War II, his ship, the U.S.S. Northhampton, was sunk by two Japanese torpedoes during a battle off the coast of Guadalcanal. He swam to safety and saved another sailor’s life in the process, but he could not save his tuba. As he once said, it is still presumably at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. For his efforts that night, he received a commendation from Admiral William F. Halsey.

Lenny Jung and me in January 2008

Meeting Lenny was a thrill, and I am thrilled that I will be able to share more stories about him and other former band boys when my book is published.