Lawrence Welk

Dick_Cathcart

Charles Richard Cathcart (November 6, 1924 – November 8, 1993) was an American Dixieland trumpet player who was best known as a member of The Lawrence Welk Show in which he appeared from 1962 to 1968.
Cathcart was born in Michigan City, Indiana, United States. He was a trumpeter for the U.S. Army Air Force Band and a member of big bands led by Bob Crosby, Ben Pollack, and Ray Noble.After World War II, he moved to Los Angeles. His friend Jack Webb was playing the part of trumpeter Pete Kelly in the movie Pete Kelly's Blues and told Cathcart he should supply the music. The band from the movie stayed together in the 1950s for performances and recordings under the name Pete Kelly's Big Seven. Cathcart also supplied music for the TV show Dragnet, which starred Jack Webb as Joe Friday. He spent much of his career as a musician on The Lawrence Welk Show. On the Welk show, he met Peggy Lennon, a singer with the Lennon Sisters, and the two married.

Mickey_McMahan

Mickey McMahan (August 23, 1930 – June 11, 2008) was an American born big band musician who played with the Lawrence Welk orchestra from 1966 to 1982. His instrument was the trumpet.

Jayne_Walton_Rosen

Jayne Walton Rosen (August 28, 1917 – January 10, 2010) was an American entertainer, singer and actress, who worked as Lawrence Welk's Champagne Lady from 1940 until 1945.Rosen was born Jayne Flanagan in San Antonio, Texas, on August 28, 1917. However, she was largely raised in Torreón, Coahuila, where her father worked for a silver mining company. Her mother was a pianist and her sister was a dancer. Rosen was influenced by Mexican culture early in life, learning Spanish and noting the country's sharp class divisions.
She attended Brackenridge High School in San Antonio, Texas. Flanagan performed at talent shows around San Antonio, including the Majestic Theatre, under the stage name, Jayne Walton.She began singing at local radio stations in San Antonio, beforing moving on to stations in Oklahoma City, Dallas and Chicago. One of her radio performances was heard by musician Lawrence Welk, who asked Walton to join his band, the Lawrence Welk Orchestra.Welk named Walton as his Champagne Lady in the early 1940s during World War II. Walton, who could sing in Spanish due to her childhood in Coahuila, recorded the song Maria Elena with Welk, which was certified gold.Walton left the Lawrence Welk Orchestra in the mid-1940s to pursue a solo singing career. She enjoyed success in Chicago and New York City. She largely retired from the professional entertainment circuit in 1952, when she married her husband and adopted the name Jayne Walton Rosen. She continued to make guest appearances on Welk's long-running television show,
The Lawrence Welk Show.Rosen later worked as a salesperson at the Rhodes department store and Dillard's at the Central Park Mall. She retired circa 1990.Rosen remained in good health throughout most of her life. However, she suffered from failing health during her later years, including heart disease and kidney disease, which required dialysis. She also broke her hip in a fall.Jayne Walton Rosen died in San Antonio on January 10, 2010, at the age of 92. She was survived by her son, Daniel Rosen, a law professor in Tokyo; grandchildren, Daniel Rosen Jr. and Allison Rosen; and former daughter-in-law, Sheri Rosen. She was buried in San Fernando Cemetery No. 3.

Alice_Lon

Alice Lon Wyche (November 23, 1926 – April 24, 1981), known as Alice Lon, was an American singer and dancer on The Lawrence Welk Show during its early years on network television.

Cissy_King

Claire Yvonne King (born January 3, 1946) professionally Cissy King, is an American-born singer and dancer best known as a featured performer on The Lawrence Welk Show television program.
King was born in Trinidad, Colorado. Her father was a geologist employed by an oil company. The family relocated to Albuquerque, New Mexico when Cissy was three.
An accomplished dancer since she was a toddler, Cissy, along with her brother John, won first place at the National Ballroom Dancing Championships in San Francisco, California when she was 14. They captured first place two more times and were also named U.S Ballroom Couple of the Year. Later, when attending the University of New Mexico, she majored in recreation and physical education and was a cheerleader, gymnast, and was on the synchronised swimming team. She continued to dance, in various ballroom competitions and on stage such as the Six Flags Over Texas campus revue.
In 1967, Cissy became Bobby Burgess's dance partner on The Lawrence Welk Show when his first partner, Barbara Boylan, left to get married. For the next dozen years, she became one of the most popular performers on the show with her vivacious personality, singing talents and her natural dance moves. In 1974, she was honored with the Dance Masters of America award for outstanding contributions to the field of dance.
After leaving the show in late 1978, she continued to perform, dancing for several years with her own solo act "Two Fellows"; and acting in the Broadway touring production of Always Patsy.
Today, King lives in Albuquerque, where she continues to dance, and is active in creating new shows in major venues across her home state.

Henry_Cuesta

Henry Falcon Cuesta, Sr. (December 23, 1931 – December 17, 2003), was an American woodwind musician who was a cast member of The Lawrence Welk Show. His primary instrument was the clarinet, but he also played saxophone.
At an early age, Cuesta began studying classical violin and then switched to woodwinds. He proved himself gifted and was selected to play while he was still in high school with the Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra in Corpus Christi, Texas.
Before being drafted into the United States Army in 1952, he graduated from Del Mar College, a community college in Corpus Christi, at which he majored in music. In the Army Special Services, he was involved in entertaining troops in Europe and England, which included a "Tribute to Gershwin" concert with the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra in Germany.
After his Army duty, Cuesta toured the United States and Canada and developed his own highly personal style. While living in Toronto, Cuesta and his group became popular for visiting musicians, including Benny Goodman on one occasion. He later toured in the working band of the legendary trombonist, Jack Teagarden. Bobby Hackett advised him to get in touch with Lawrence Welk, and after listening to his recordings, Welk hired him immediately.
Cuesta made countless personal appearances performing and conducting in jazz festivals, state and county fairs, conventions, supper clubs, and symphony pops concerts. He appeared as a soloist with Jack Teagarden, Bob Crosby, Mel Tormé, in a Bobby Vinton television special, on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, and ten years on The Lawrence Welk Show. He also made several appearances to the Colorado Springs Invitational Jazz Party in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and performed with numerous international jazz musicians.
Cuesta died the age of seventy-one at his home in Sherman Oaks, California, after a bout with cancer.
His only son, Henry, Jr., was shot and killed in a robbery at the age of seventeen while he was working in 1987 at a movie theater on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica, California.

Dick_Dale_(singer)

Richard L. Dale (September 14, 1926 – December 26, 2014) was an American singer and musician, best known as a featured singer and saxophone player on the television variety show The Lawrence Welk Show.
A native of Algona, Iowa, he served in the United States Navy during World War II after graduation from Algona High School. His entertainment career began when he worked for several bands such as Harold Loeffelmacher and his Six Fat Dutchmen polka band. He was hired by Lawrence Welk in 1951.During his tenure on The Lawrence Welk Show, in addition to playing the saxophone, Dale sang not just solos but also in duets, performed in comedy sketches, dances, and also played Santa Claus for many years on the Christmas shows. Even after the show ended when its host went into retirement in 1982, he continued to perform with his fellow Welk alumni. From 1990 to 1996, he co-owned and operated the Rainbow Music Theater in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, with fellow Welk star Ava Barber.He married his wife, Marguerite, in 1949, and they had four children. They lived in Los Angeles during the Lawrence Welk years. After making their home in Sparks, Nevada, for several years, the Dales moved back to his hometown of Algona, Iowa, in 2006. He died there on December 26, 2014.