November 2009
Volume 75, Number 2

Editorial

Patrick Deaville

As promised in the September issue, I will continue to use this 75^th anniversary year of the LOUISIANA MUSICIAN to bring back memories and provide insight into the development of LMEA.

In our September issue, we gave a visual collage of memories from pictures found in the LMEA archives. For the November issue, I want to give a little history of LMEA through the biographies of some of the key players in the establishment of music education in Louisiana. 

It was a very difficult to identify a limited number of names to share with you.  But after my research was done, I came to believe that these nine men were the founding fathers.  Each made important and lasting contributions as leaders in Louisiana music education and in LMEA.   

There are at least another dozen men and women I found as very significant in molding music education in the early years of LMEA. Those additional biographies will be shared with you in the February issue.

What follows are the nine key players I have chosen for this issue.

Sam Burns was Louisiana’s first State Supervisor of Music in the early 1930’s and is most responsible for unifying music educators throughout the state into the cohesive group we now recognize as LMEA.

Lloyd Funchess was State Supervisor of Music from 1937-1955 and expanded the work done by Sam Burns thereby creating the formal state-wide program of music education we recognize today.

Henry Stopher became the founding director of the LSU School of Music in 1915 and spent many years as an LMEA officer after having first served as the initial Band Director at Normal College (Northwestern State University) in 1911.

Bob Gilmore was at the forefront of LMEA leadership beginning in 1946 and continuing for 45 years during both his tenure at USL and while serving as State Supervisor of Music.

Ralph Pottle founded the SLU Department of Music in 1934 and was central to the establishment of music education in the Florida parishes beginning in 1923.

Francis Bulber served as Chair of the highly influential LSU Community Music Project in the late 1930’s before becoming the Head of the McNeese Music Department in 1940 where he established the LMEA music festival model we still use.

Harold Ramsey was a legendary music education figure in North Louisiana who elevated Bossier City bands to national attention in the 1940’s and later became a tireless advocate for service-through-music for the total population. 

Walter Minniear made invaluable contributions to LMEA in the late 1930’s and 1940’s while serving at Ouachita Parish High School and earning a “triple-threat” reputation by earning sweepstakes awards as director of the band, the orchestra and the choir.

Brad Daigle began his career as a band director in the late 1930’s and 1940’s before serving many years as both as Supervisor of Music in Calcasieu Parish and Executive Secretary of LMEA.