BAND
The first De Leon Bearcat Band, organized in 1936 by Director Graham Smoot (third row left). Seated next to the bass drum is Hiram Smith Jr. Dot Shaver is to the right of the trophy. To the left of Dot is unknown, then Grady Terrill, unknown, Bill Tate and Sam Weaver. Others have not been identified.
Photo of the band at Comanche in 1943. Drum Major and twirlers are (L-R) Sam Langley, Helen Newton, Charlene Counts, (Miller) unknown, Dolores Tate (Wickline), Etta Price Glazier (Branum), unknown. Photo: Dolores Tate
Above: The Bearcat Band heads up Congress Avenue at the Inauguration of Governor Preston Smith and Lt. Governor Ben Barnes in January 1969. Photo Abilene Reporter News. Right: The band in front of the reviewing stand between 10th and 11th Streets on Congress Avenue in Austin. Ben Barnes standing below the blue flag applauding. Martha Morgan Barnes is blocked out by the band hat.
The Bearcat Band on Congress Avenue approaching the same location during the 18th Annual Band Day parade at The University of Texas in 1953.
ALL STATE BAND MEMBERS
JIMMY SCHMIDT Feb. 1940
Graham Smoot was not a newcomer to De Leon when he became the band director in the fall of 1936. His father J.D. Smoot, had at one time been pastor of the De Leon Methodist Circuit churches including Victor, Morton’s Chapel and New Hope. He graduated from Comanche High School and was married to a Comanche girl, Elizabeth Carter Winn. More importantly, he knew music.
He attended the University of Texas for three years where he was a member of the Longhorn Band when it was directed by Burnett Pharr and was also a member of the University Symphony. He became adept at writing progressive music and eventually assisted with the Longhorn Band. The University still displays his trumpet and several of his musical scores in the Longhorn Band Hall. While at UT, he developed a progressive music test that was used in schools all over the country. He also attended Vander Cook College of Music in Chicago which was one of the earliest schools of music, and one that specialized in the field of band work.
Smoot taught band in Menard for a period before accepting the position of principal in Blanket. Here he met a teacher named Harley Davis. After Davis came to De Leon, he worked to get Smoot hired away from Blanket at a salary of $125 per month. In addition to band, he taught history, math including algebra, geometry, and economic geography. The Blanket band took first place in its division for two consecutive years under his leadership.
In the summer of 1933 while working in Blanket, he was a member of a small orchestra that played around the area. On a particular evening he and two of the band members were in a Ford Roadster headed from Comanche to Dublin where they were to play on Dublin’s radio station KFPL (Kind Folks Please Listen). On a hill, about three miles out of Dublin they met a car coming toward them from Dublin that was on the wrong side of the road. The car swerved to miss the roadster and slid along the road. Smoot had his left arm resting on the window ledge and somehow it was caught between the cars and was severed at the elbow. His fellow band members used a tie to serve as a tourniquet and got him to the Dublin hospital. He was transfered to Brownwood and eventually recovered.
He was hired by De Leon in 1936 to organize a band. De Leon had had several town bands, the last had been in the late 1920s. Comanche, at the time still had a town band but also did not have a school band.
Arriving in the fall, he and his wife initially lived near New Hope, but decided to move into town following a tornado in that area. He bought a lot and built the house still standing at 741 S. Texas. He planted seven pecan trees on the lot and several are still there.
The band was organized in 1936 with students from the third grade up. Smoot particularly remembered Hiram Smith , Dolores Tate, and Freda Lou Snare all of who were third graders. A few of the students already knew how to play including Sam Weaver who was 1st Trumpet
During that first year, a band hall was constructed on the south end of the old high school and the band occupied it just before the end of the year. Smoot penned much of the music since there was little money for music. He was the first to score De Leon’s version Osky-Wow-Wow. He taught band students throughout the school day usually in small groups and sections. He also gave private lessons.
Initially, the band had no uniforms and the band mothers created uniforms. Smoot recalled that a group of very active band mothers including Mrs. W.H. Smith, Mrs. Terrill and Mrs. Schmidt began a campaign to purchase equipment and uniforms. The band parents ultimately raised in excess of $10,000 and that was with the Depression still going on. They were able to raise enough money for the larger instruments including tubas and tympani. He recalled that Lisa Ray bought a bassoon. The band was able, with the help of A.P. Schmidt to purchase the uniforms. He was selling uniforms throughout north Texas at the time. Within a year or two, the band grew from its initial 29 members in 1936 to over 70 members and achieved a very well balanced sound.
A large part of the money came from a car raffle. Terrill Motors provided a Ford car at cost. The band students sold tickets at $1 each. Jeff Tate won the car and the band netted $2,600 on the projects.
In the early years, the band was able to make most of the away games providing enough parents could be assembled to transport the member in cars. That first year, the band won first place at the 10th annual West Texas Band Festival in Abilene held on April 10, 1937 and on May 11th marched in the West Texas Chamber of Commerce Convention Parade.
In the summer of 1941, Smoot took a job with the State Department of Public Health in Austin. He first operated out of Georgetown working at what is now Killeen where an influx of 1,200 people arriving to start Fort Hood, was causing a need for health services. He worked with the Army as a health educator for environmental sanitation. He was then transferred to the the State Health Department office in Austin to take the position as State Educator. He taught courses in how to prepare food safely and developed and produced motion picture films for the State Health Department. Those were the first films of that kind in the country. He later became a consultant on health and safety and helped develop the Public Health Museum of Texas at the State health Department in Austin. He served on the Board of Public Health as a member from industry health engineers and later as General Commissioner of Health.
When Smoot left De Leon, he left his entire music library for the school. He remembered in an interview that Jimmy Schmidt was in the fourth grade, and among his other students were the Terrills, Grady, Bruce and Polly, Dorothy “Dot” Shaver, Howard Bibby and Marilyn Townsley (later Mrs. Howard Bibby), Hiram and Marilene Smith, E.H. Boulter’s daughter and Bill and Dolores Tate and Elaine Hampton. In addition to Sam Weaver already knowing how to play, he thought Howard Bibby and Terrill Sharp also knew how to play, the latter having played in the old town band. He indicated that Jimmy Schmidt was an excellent musical student and an outstanding Drum Major and that Hiram Smith and Fred Lou Snare won first places on cornet. He also noted that Curtis Morris was his bass drummer.
DIRECTORS
1936-1941 Graham Smoot
1941-1942 Dale McCook
1942 With World War II underway, McCook apparently went into the service. Clifford “Tip” Allen returned in the fall as football coach and his wife agreed to be band director. Midway through the season Allen, then about 37 years old, also entered the service and both he and his wife moved to San Antonio. Mrs. Holdridge handled the band for some period. Which Mrs. Holdridge is unclear as several were musically talented.
1943 Mr. Lane (apparently served for the last part of the 42-43 school year.
1943 Rex Carnes (Carnes was hired as principal and band director on June 1, 1943.
He resigned to move to Denton at mid-term)
1948 Charles Tunstall
1949-1952 Harold Dorsey
1952 Hilmar Wagner
1953 Kerman Bond
1954-1957 Ernest Repass
1957-1958 Robert C. Tanner (Tanner was replaced at midterm) Mr. Smith
1958-1959 Owen Phillips
1959-1961 Gregg Berry
1961-1963 Ed George
1963 Ed George was offered the band director position at Abilene Christian College just before school started. Mrs. D.T. Wier, who taught English but had a minor in music served as the band director until late in football season when Charles Pierce was hired. He had just been discharged from the Army. Mrs. Wier, although a music major had never been in a band. Her speciality was the piano.
1964-1965 Charles Pierce
1965-1968 Paul Wallace
1968-1969 Albert Lykins
1969-1971 Glenda Hay
1971-1973 Ronnie Burns
1973-1983 Don Halbrook
1941 Bearcat Band
Band member Billie Jean Williams in the early 1940s
Band member Jackie Timmons in the early 1940s
