Saturday, June 13, 2020

Two KOVC interviews of interest to 61'ers

Steve Urness, host of the KOVC's Voice of the Valley program, recently interviewed Wes Anderson, curator of the Barnes County Historical Society Museum, about the 1918 Spanish influenza pandemic (H1N1) and how it affected Valley City and North Dakota. Commonly referred to as the "Spanish flu," this disease spread worldwide in the years 1918-1919. Although COVID-19 is affecting all of us in one way or another, history reports that the H1N1 pandemic was more severe and widespread. To hear the interview with Wes, click here.

Wes Anderson 
(Barnes County Museum photo)

Thanks to Steve for permission to post his interview and appreciation goes out to Wes and his volunteers at the museum for all the work they do. Individual memberships are available for $20 a year and it's well worth supporting this excellent preservation of our home town history. Wes maintains an always up-to-date Facebook site. If you haven't already, be sure to check it out and stop by regularly.  

Myron Sommerfeld
 (Sommerfeld orchestra publicity photo)

Another interview Steve did on a recent Voice of the Valley program was with someone who's a friend of many of us in our Hiliners61 group, Myron Sommerfeld. As a bandleader and music legend in the Valley City area and throughout the Upper Midwest, Myron is very familiar with the amazing career of North Dakota's Norma Delores Egstrom, who became known nationally and internationally as Peggy Lee.  The Peggy Lee Museum is located in the old railroad depot in Wimbledon, N. Dak., where "Norma" grew up and the museum is currently commemorating Peggy Lee's 100th birthday (2020). Her first professional singing job was on KOVC Radio in 1936 when hired by station founder and owner Bob Ingstad, Sr. To listen to Steve's interview with Myron, click here.  Thanks to Steve for also supplying us with this interview and giving us permission to post it here.

By the way, Myron's brother, Harley Sommerfeld, who is also a friend to many of us in the Hiliners61 group, is still doing an outstanding job of playing the clarinet. Over the past several years, JoAnne and I have enjoyed Harley's performances at Jasper's Theater, just north of Park Rapids, Minn. LG 6-13-2020

Harley Sommerfeld
(LG photo, taken at Jasper's)


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Enjoyed both of these interviews, Larry. Thanks for your comments and for posting the interviews. Myron is a good friend of mine from college days and Nick and I still visit with Myron and Jenneice every winter when they come to Arizona. He is a great musician and performer. Jenneice has played the piano with the Myron Sommerfeld Orchestra since college days. All the years they were teaching, they also spent weekends on the road playing all over the ND area. Their daughter, Bonnie, a former Miss Valley City, is an equally talented musician and also an artist.

Diane Hughes said...

Well, I'm not anonymous. I clicked the Name/URL button, but somehow it didn't connect. I wrote the comment above. Diane Hughes😊

barb lang said...

I was wondering about that, Diane! It sure seemed to be you (because of the word "Nick") but then I began to wonder. Computers do not always behave the way we ask them to, do they!!
bsl

by Larry Gauper said...

Ya...the comment thing on Google blogs is loosely stitched. Good you followed it up...Larry