Regaining Memories
By Joey Berlin
Originally published 02:16 p.m., June 23, 2008
Updated 02:16 p.m., June 23, 2008
When Nan Turner’s father died in 1992, he left behind a large photo album that included memories not just for her family, but also for Emporia itself. Now that Nan has donated copies of the album to Emporia State University and the Lyon County Historical Society, her father’s memories are available for all to see.
Joseph Turner grew up in Emporia and, in the late 1930s, played trumpet in the 161st field artillery band of Company B in the National Guard. He later served in England, France and Germany during World War II before returning to Emporia after the war. He graduated from Emporia State University, then Kansas State Teachers College, in 1949.
Joseph’s experiences in the band were dear to his heart, and the album immortalizes the great times and friends he had in the band, most of whose members were from Emporia. It also contains photos from the time following his return from the war, when he resumed studying at the teachers college. While there, he played in two big bands.
“It’s 80 pages, and it included so many people from Emporia who were fellow band members, and it has just so much information about people from Emporia, I really needed to share it,” Nan Turner said. “And it was in such great shape that I made copies of it.”
Nan now lives in Columbus, Ohio, and works for Abercrombie & Fitch. The album came into her possession last year after her mother died. Her family didn’t pull it out much while she was growing up, but she said her father would be proud to see it donated to some of Emporia’s institutions.
“I think it was really important to him to document all this,” she said. “He included a list of everybody in the band, and what instrument they played, where they were from, what their rank was. So I included that, too.”
After she came into possession of the album, Nan made a trip to Emporia State with her cousin, Theresa Lyon, and her late mother’s best friend, Wilhelmina Wilson Anderson. They donated a copy of the album to Dave Hendricks, director at the Memorial Union, where Joseph had played with two bands, The Counts and the Eddie Wortman Band. Anderson knew members of each band and was able to identify them so the photos could be captioned.
In addition to the pictures, the album also includes military documentation that shows everything Nan’s father did during the war.
“Which, to me, it’s amazing,” she said. “He played in the band, and he was an engineer and built bridges, and then he did intelligence over in Germany. And then also on his resume, before he went to the war, he was only 17, and he was a professional golfer. Oh, and a student at (the teachers college).”
The field artillery band received some national publicity when it was photographed for “Life” magazine playing outside The Gazette building for William Allen White’s 70th birthday in 1938.
Meryl Hogg, who played in the Wortman band with Joseph, recently sent Nan a letter with fond recollections of those days and of Joseph’s musicianship. He wrote that after Turner left the band to enroll in medical school at the University of Kansas, “we really missed the jazz trumpet of Joe Turner!”
Before heading to Europe during the war, Joseph Turner trained at Fort Robinson in Arkansas and at Fort Ord in Monterey, Calif. Nan recently donated another copy of the album to Fort Ord. Joseph Turner was 70 when he died in 1992.
Anyone interested in viewing the album may call Hendricks at the Memorial Union at 341-5901 or Rita Scribner at the Lyon County Historical Society at 340-6315.
Comments
We allow registered users to post comments on this Web site. To learn more about our posting policies please read our User Poster Agreement Policy.
Posted by madpoet (anonymous) on June 24, 2008 at 9:53 a.m. (Suggest removal)
How wonderful of her to share that! Bravo!
Post a comment
We allow registered users to post comments on this Web site. Our goal with this feature is to encourage thoughtful discussions about the news stories. Using the comment feature to make random attacks on people is not acceptable. Emporiagazette.com neither endorses nor guarantees the accuracy of any user contribution. Responsibility for what is posted or contributed to this site is the sole responsibility of each user. To learn more about our posting policies please read our User Poster Agreement Policy.
(Requires free registration.)