1990 Elmo

[Evelina Browder]

PastorElmo W. Anderson of Fargo, ND died peacefully at home on April 15.

Elmo was born April 9, 1932 in rural Park River, ND to Elmer & Julia (Flaten) Anderson. He was baptized May 1, 1932 at Pleasant Valley Lutheran Church. He grew up on the family farm surrounded by aunts, uncles and cousins. He was confirmed May 5, 1946 at Golden Valley Lutheran Church. He attended the Walsh County Agricultural and Training School where he was active in Future Farmers of America (FFA) and played saxophone in the high school band. He graduated in 1949. In that same year, his family sold their farm and began a new farming operation near Hillsboro, ND. The Park River area remained important to him throughout his life.

He enrolled at Concordia College, Moorhead, MN in the fall of 1951 and graduated in 1955 with a B.A. in psychology and English. While at Concordia he met his future wife, Norma Jordahl. He also played in the band, served as student body president, and developed a strong interest in theology. Elmo entered Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN in the fall of 1955. While at seminary, Norma and Elmo were married on January 13, 1957 at Finley Lutheran Church by her father, the Rev. O.A. Jordahl. They spent a year in Chicago, IL at Bethel Lutheran Church for internship. Elmo was ordained into the Evangelical Lutheran Church (ELC) in 1959 at Our Saviors Lutheran Church, Hillsboro, ND. He served parishes in Doyon and Crary, ND (1959-1963), Maddock, ND (1963-1971), and Peace Lutheran Church, Fargo, ND (1971-1990). Beginning in 1990, Elmo served as chaplain at Bethany Homes in Fargo until he retired in 1999. In semi-retirement, Elmo served as visitation pastor at Trinity Lutheran in Moorhead, MN, and provided supply (substitute) preaching for a number of area churches.

Elmo cherished the relationships developed with the people he served throughout his life. The highest compliment he could receive was for his parishioners to call him their pastor. He highly valued the opportunity to work with other pastors and interns in developing staff ministries. A lifelong learner, he had a passion for reading and studying theology.

Family was central to his life. He was devoted to Norma, his wife of 62 years and was proud of his children. He and his family were devastated by the sudden death of his oldest son Joel in a traffic accident in 1980. He delighted in his grandchildren and was grateful for the opportunity to watch them grow. He had a lifelong interest in family history, enjoyed North Dakota Politics and developed a strong interest in prairie photography late in life.

He is survived by his wife Norma, three children, Beth (Bert Flora), Robert (Bruna Pedrini), Ted (Tanya), six grandchildren (Nathan and Benjamin Anderson, Joseph and Meghan Flora, and Stella and Lucy Anderson), nieces, nephews and extended family. He was preceded in death by his son Joel, parents Elmer and Julia, and brothers Herbert and Joseph.

Memorial Gathering: Sunday, April 28, 2019, from 3:00 P.M. until 5:00 P.M. with a prayer service at 5, in Wright Funeral Home, Moorhead, MN.

Memorial Service: Monday, April 29, 2019, at 11:00 A.M. in Trinity Lutheran Church, Moorhead, MN.

Interment: Monday, April 29, 2019, at 4:00 P.M. in Riverside Cemetery, Hillsboro, ND.

After a failed attempt at running a restaurant in his native Nashville in the early 1950s, he toured with the Elmo Tanner Quartet until 1958, when he found work as a disc jockey in Florida. After working as an auto dealer in the 1960s, in the early 1970s he resumed musical activity, singing with a St. Petersburg, Florida-based quartet.

Tanner was born on August 8, 1904, in Nashville, Tennessee, the son of Felix Elmo Tanner and Willie Mae (ne) Moore.[2][3] He grew up in Detroit, and moved to Memphis with his family by 1926.[1] As a young boy, Tanner studied the violin and was successful with it until eye trouble made it difficult for him to read notes. His musical training helped Tanner to develop the ability to scan music or lyrics quickly and then either sing or whistle what he had just read.[4] On his walk home from work, Tanner passed a cemetery each night and started whistling as he passed by.[5][6] Not everyone appreciated Tanner's whistling in the evening; he was once jailed in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for whistling after 10 pm.[7] A graduate of the University of Tennessee, Tanner raced automobiles and worked as a mechanic in Memphis.[6][8] While performing the duties of his employment he liked to whistle and sing.[1] One day in 1927, he had a repair job for a customer who happened to work at WMC radio.[8] After hearing Tanner singing while working on his car, the announcer suggested Tanner audition for the radio station. His consequent on-air appearance brought a call from Paramount Records, which had offices in Chicago.[1]

By the late 1920s, Elmo Tanner had moved to the Chicago area and had established himself as a professional musician.[1] Although Elmo Tanner never gained a large reputation as a singer, he was occasionally featured as such with Weems.[9][10] It was as a vocalist that he made his initial recordings. He recorded a few dozen sides as a soloist for Paramount and Vocalion in 1927 through 1929.[11][12] The Paramount discs appeared in the Race record series,[12] and the Vocalion sides were likewise marketed to African Americans.[13][a] His versatility was noted by Vocalion, who utilized him to provide vocals for jazz outfits such as Jimmie Noone[15] and for more sedate recordings with the Victor Young orchestra and with organist Eddie House.[16] Not having signed an exclusive contract with any recording company, he was able to record for the prestigious Victor Talking Machine Company with Nathaniel Shilkret.[16] In 1928, he formed a duet with Fred Rose as "The Tune Peddlers" and appeared on radio stations WLS, KYW, and WBBM.[17][18]

While working at KYW with Rose, Tanner received an offer from Ted Weems. Weems offered a higher salary than Tanner was making at the radio station, but Tanner was hesitant because the job with Weems involved substantial travel. The KYW station manager offered to match the $50 per week salary Weems was proposing; a few days later, Weems made an even higher offer which was again matched by the station manager. This continued until Fred Rose came to work. When he arrived, Rose told the station manager that Weems was now offering Tanner $100 a week and he had accepted it.[19]

Tanner began appearing in films as part of the Ted Weems Orchestra in 1936; his first film role was in The Hatfields and McCoys,[37] In 1938 he appeared in the movie Swing, Sister, Swing with the Weems outfit.[38] Tanner also featured with Ted Weems and his Orchestra in a 1942 musical film short, Swing Frolic.[39] During this time period Tanner appeared on the popular radio show Beat the Band with Weems; the program ran from January 28, 1940, until February 23, 1941.[25][29][40]

In 1947, a young disc jockey in Charlotte, North Carolina, who worked the overnight shift had brought some older records to work with him. He chose one at random and put it on the turntable. Immediately after the record was broadcast, the radio station's telephones began ringing with people asking about the song and requesting to hear it again. By afternoon, the city's music stores were calling the radio station, asking where they could order copies of "Heartaches". Both RCA Victor and Decca reissued their respective recordings of "Heartaches" by Weems and Tanner for sale in the southern United States. As disc jockeys in other parts of the country began obtaining copies of the record and playing it, the demand for "Heartaches" went from coast to coast.[23][48][49] This older recording went to the top of all the main charts in 1947, including sales, juke box play, and airplay.[50][51][52]

Unusually, two separate recordings were given equal credit in the charts. Victor's version was recorded on August 4, 1933, and originally issued as Bluebird B5131. Decca's recording was made on August 23, 1938, and originally appeared with catalog number 2020B. The 1947 hit records were reissued as RCA Victor 20-2175 and Decca 25017, respectively.[50] The two recordings sold a combined total of 8.5 million copies.[16] Tanner said in a 1960 interview that neither he nor Ted Weems received any compensation for either of the "Heartaches" reissues as they both had let the contracts on the song expire while they were in the Merchant Marine.[21][28][53] Tanner and Weems missed collecting an estimated $250,000 in royalties because of the expired contracts.[1]

Tanner left Weems in 1950;[28] in 1953, he opened a restaurant in Nashville.[60] This occupied him for a year and a half, but it proved to be a failure and Tanner suffered financially.[28] He formed the Elmo Tanner Quartet and resumed touring for the next few years, until, tired of travel, he broke up his group in Seattle in 1958.[28] He spent the next fourteen months in Birmingham as a disc jockey[28] and leading a musical combo.[8] He reunited briefly with Weems,[28] then settled in the St. Petersburg, Florida, area in Treasure Island. Tanner's radio career began at WSGN in Birmingham with an overnight radio show called "Night Owl"; he was also on the air at WCOA (AM) in Pensacola, Florida.[61] In 1959, Tanner began working as a disk jockey on radio station WILZ in St. Pete Beach, Florida, a position which lasted several years.[16][62] During this time he continued to make recordings with orchestras such as David Carroll and Billy Vaughn to continued positive reviews.[63][64] His association continued with Weems, making the occasional guest appearance with the band he was closely connected to.[65][66] In the early 1960s, Tanner was also selling Datsuns at a local St. Petersburg auto dealership.[1][67] In the early 1970s, Tanner resumed musical activity, singing with a St. Petersburg-based quartet.[8]

In 1936, while Tanner was living in Chicago, he was divorced from his first wife, Verne.[68][69][c] Tanner married Eleanor Jones of Birmingham on January 31, 1939, in Indianapolis.[22] While playing an engagement with Weems, Tanner got his marriage license between the first and second acts on the bill, bought a wedding ring between the second and third acts and was married between the third and fourth acts. He met his second wife while working with the Weems band on Catalina Island.[1][70] They had four children together: Elmo Jr., twins Margaret and Patricia, and John Emmet.[28] By 1969 he was retired.[49] Tanner underwent gall bladder surgery in 1985 and was able to recover at his home in St. Petersburg.[71] He died on December 20, 1990, in St. Petersburg, Florida.[72][73] Tanner is buried in Mount Olivet Cemetery, Nashville, Tennessee.[74] He was posthumously inducted into the Whistlers' Hall of Fame in 1991, joining previous inductees Bing Crosby and Fred Lowery.[75]

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