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| c.1947 | ||
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| c. 1945 | c. 1945 | c.1949 |
 
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| c. 1948 | ||
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| 10/17/1959 | ||
With the money that I saved from my paper route, I bought a set of drums; identical to the set that Ringo Star played on with the Beatles. My career was not as illustrious. |
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| National Association of Broadcasters | ||
| Holiday Inn - Ida Cason Calloway Gardens | ||
| 10/1964 | ||
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George R. Corradino |
Smiley | Gertrude Handley |
| I met "Mr. C", the band director at Columbus High School in
Columbus, GA, in 1958 when I decided to become a drummer. George was the band director until the end of 1961 and was genuinely loved by his students, as was his wife Vicki. George had his masters from Auburn and played with the Auburn Knights. He was great on the tenor sax, clarinet and base and sang very well. I was fortunate to get the chance to play with George and Gertie filling in for my best friend, David Barbee. I joined them permanently in 1962 when David graduated from high school and decided to take a break from the music business. We averaged over 200 gigs per year playing at:
On the morning of December 19, 1964, I was sitting in the office at St. Francis Hospital in Columbus when George walked in . He had a very curious look on his face when he saw me. As it turned out, Vicki had just given birth and Norma had just been wheeled into the delivery room. Our wives both gave birth to daughters that day. Vicki was late by a week or two and Norma was early by several weeks. He, Gertie and I played at the Columbus Country Club that night.
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Gertrude Handley was an original piece of work. Without doubt, she
was the most talented musician that I have ever known. During the 1920's as a
"child" she played in the silent movie theaters in and around Columbus,
GA. In the 1930's, she traveled with an all girls band throughout the United
States. On our long road trips, Gertie would reminisce about those early
days. She would tell about a manager that ran off with the band's money, the bus
breaking down in Arizona in the middle of August, the cat fights between band members and
on and on. George and I often encouraged her to write a book about her exploits but as far as I know, she never did. She could sight read classical music, knew hundreds of popular songs and could segue to anything anyone asked her to play. I learned a good portion of the "Red Book" and would often call the next song. And yes, she could play a song if you would hum a few bars. I got the opportunity to play with George and Gertie for the first time in May of 1962 when David wanted to go to the Senior Prom. We played at the Main Officers Open Mess at Fort Benning in the original club which is a barn. To make the sound problem worse, there was a crowd of one. About halfway through the first set, our audience stumbled over and asked Gertie to play "Yellow Bird". Gertie turned to me and asked if I knew the song and, of course, I did. She said hum it to me... so I tried and she immediately began playing turning to me to hum the next bar as she played. Somehow, we made it through "Yellow Bird". We did such a good job that for the next two hours, the officer and gentleman kept stumbling back to request us to play it again. He stayed all night. On the way home that night, Gertie turned to me and said "Floyd, I want you to put roses on my grave every day after I die."I was worn out and did not have an inkling about her sense of humor. She went on to say, "... and on my grave I want you to have the following epitaph:"
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