Reminiscing about the Boys in the Band

One reason my dad and I are still plugging away at our G. Oliver Riggs research is that it’s about more than just G. Oliver – it’s also about telling the stories of the boys in the band, particularly those from St. Cloud.

Most were about 10 or 11 when they joined the band, under G. Oliver’s direction, and they progressed as musicians as they grew into men.  Many who graduated from high school during World War II went straight into the service.  Some never came home.  The anguish of losing so many men, so young, permeated the community and is still keenly felt among those who remember their names and faces.

I was reminded of this last week, when my parents and I had the great pleasure to meet a delightful woman named Laverne Jung.

Dad with Laverne Jung at the golf club in Melrose, Minn.

Laverne is the sister-in-law of Leonard Jung, a student of G. Oliver’s who went on to a distinguished career in the U.S. Navy Band.  Dad and I visited Leonard in D.C. three years ago.  Leonard’s older brother Herb also served in the Navy band, and died at a young age due to asthma complications.  Laverne married another Jung brother, Richard, who died five years ago.

Richard played cornet in the St. Cloud Municipal Boys’ Band.  According to Laverne, Richard thought of himself as the black sheep of the family because he didn’t go into a music-related career.  He became a photographer and had a studio in Melrose for 20 years.

Laverne grew up in St. Cloud and knew of the Jung family (her sister had a crush on Leonard and would bike by his house).  Richard was 11 years older than Laverne; she didn’t date him until after the war.  In high school, she went with a classmate named Bill Sherin, who also played cornet in the St. Cloud Municipal Boys’ Band.

Laverne graduated from St. Cloud Cathedral High School in 1943.  Sherin, the young man she thought she'd marry, joined the 217th Coast Artillery Band, and then got into the Air Corps.  He crashed his plane and died while training in California.

“He was one of the first Cathedral students to die in the war,” she recalled.

As she told us this story, I could tell it had been heartbreaking for her, at only 18 years old, to suffer that kind of loss.  She and others in her generation had to grow up quickly.

I remembered hearing Sherin’s name mentioned before, possibly by Leonard.  My dad pulled out a concert program from February 1940, and to Laverne’s surprise, we showed her that Sherin was listed as one of the soloists that day (his last name was misspelled on the program).

Laverne and my dad spent some time reminiscing about people and places from St. Cloud’s earlier days.  Laverne’s grandmother had been a midwife and had delivered about 3,000 babies in the St. Cloud area – including Laverne’s husband and all his siblings except Leonard, the youngest, who was born in the hospital.

Laverne grew up near Lake George, where she loved to ice skate.  She remembers seeing the St. Cloud Boys’ Band march in parades.  She didn’t really know G. Oliver, but she sat next to him once at an event at the Paramount Theater.

“Everyone in St. Cloud knew who he was.  The boys really respected him,” she said. 

Some were also scared of him.  But Laverne’s husband Richard must have been willing to risk G. Oliver’s wrath.  Once, Richard had told her, he and a friend skipped band practice and hid their instruments in a culvert.

Richard died in 2006 at age 92.  I’m sorry I never got to meet him.  But I am grateful for the chance to talk with Laverne and gain another perspective on the boys in the band.