Students straightened up for Heck

By FRITZ BUSCH

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM -- Dayle Besemer well-remembered his grade school days in a Brown County country school over 50 years ago Friday night at the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame Banquet and Induction Ceremony at the Holiday Inn.

"When the teacher told us the school superintendent, Mr. Heck was coming to see us, we snapped-to right now," said Besemer. "We didn't know anybody else that was important but we knew he was. When he came in, he had a dignity about him that was very honorable."

Heck, 93, was among the 2000 inductees into the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame last night.

Brian Filzen of KNUJ Radio One and a vice president of the music hall, also recalled his grade school days in New Ulm.

"I remember the teacher saying, you better be careful or you will be sent to Mr. Heck's office," said Filzen. "What a great name for an administrator."

Heck, who founded the New Ulm Area Civic Orchestra at age 67 after retiring from education in 1974, still composes music from his room at the Oak Hills Assisted Living Center in New Ulm.

He does it with little help from modern technology.

Heck uses a keyboard connected to a computer, cassette tapes and floppy disks to make music, sometimes in the wee hours of the morning.

Joining Heck this year in the Hall of Fame were 50-year-old Wanamingo native Ray Sands who still plays with his band "The Polka Dots," Twin Cities accordian player Nancy Lovegren Lewandowski, rock and roll singer, promoter and booking agent Mike Shaw of Litchfield, orchestra and band leader the late Jimmy Thomas of Wabasso, and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra.

Perhaps Nancy Lovegren Lewandowski proclaimed the magic of music best with a touching story about what happened when she performed at the Minneapolis Veterans Hospital.

"It's fun to see how people enjoy music," she said. "One man was lying flat with his eyes closed, almost comatose. I went over to him and played. He started tapping his fingers to the music."

She told another story about when she played at an Alzheimer's unit.

"A woman that hadn't spoken for years sang every lyric of the song, thrilling the therapist," she said.

The Sands family recently performed on "The David Letterman Show."

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra was acclaimed as the world's best chamber orchestra by a popular music publication.

Shaw teamed with his brother Terry and Glencoe teacher Jim Allen to form the "Shaw Allen Shaw band" that was among the state's top rock and roll bands in the 1970s.

Shaw said he tried to pattern himself after the late Jimmy Thomas who founded the "Jimmy Thomas Orchestra Band Sensation" in 1946, the most popular band of the era.

As ballroom music diminished, Thomas brought the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino and the Everly Brothers to the Showboat ballroom in Lake Benton.

Thomas' wife Harriet and other family members accepted the award for him.

Virginia Prahl of New Ulm was presented the 2000 Minnesota Music Hall of Fame Volunteer of the Year award by Dodie Wendinger.

A memorial in the name of former New Ulm mayor and the late Bert Schapekahm will be placed in the Hall of Fame, in recognition of his dedicated work in helping bring it to New Ulm.

Besemer invited the public to the 2000 Inductee Showcase to be held from 10 a.m.-4 p.m. today at the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame Museum, 27 N. Broadway.

Showcase entertainment will include the New Ulm Area Civic Orchestra from 1-2 p.m., Ray Sands, Nancy Lovegren Lewandowski, Mike Shaw and Don Klossner.