Golden Memories Page 154

Golden Memories SWD Chapters

TEXAS TRIPLEX
Harmony Exporters
by Jim Darnall

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Harmony Exporters Chorus

The first meeting of this chapter was held at First National Bank in Orange, Texas on January 21, 1962. There were 22 local men and 15-20 men from the sponsoring chapter, Lake Charles.
The chorus director from Lake Charles was Bob Landry, who taught the group, "Shine on Me", for a taste of barbershopping.
The second meeting was also held in Orange at County National Bank. A further taste of barbershop harmony was administered by a local quartet, The Tetratones: Ewell "Epp" Eppler, Homer Smith, Lee Worsham, and Dr. Lloyd "Doc" Watkeys (tenor down to bass). The first chorus director was named at this meeting, Don Nolen. Don held this job for the next three years.
On advice from the Lake Charles chapter, 41 local men signed a petition for a license to operate on April 23, 1962. In December, the "Petition to Charter" was taken to members to sign on a door-to-door basis. Charlie Keel and Lee Worsham took the petition to Lake Charles to have their president, John Huber, sign it and send it to International.
The first elected chapter president was Lloyd Kirkland.
The district Board felt that a larger, better-established chapter should be the official sponsor so they appointed Houston. Lake Charles was recognized as co-sponsor. V.L. Hooper signed as Houston's president, Lou Laurel signed as International President on December31, 1962, the

effective date of charter.
There were 31 charter members and ours was the 661st chapter to charter. The date was December 18, 1962. Of those 31 original members, four have remained in constant membership: Lee Worsham, Eugene Gaspard, Jr., Lannis T"nes, and Charles Keel.
The first registered quartet was The Firemen Bold, a comedy quartet.
The first annual spring show was February 23, 1963. The high point of the show came at intermission when Dr. Jim Carter, the area counsellor, presented chapter president Dan Gannon, with the long-awaited charter.
In October, 1963, the chapter was given the opportunity to participate in Port Arthur's annual Cavalcade parade. The entry was in the form of a float with chorus members singing on it. The entry won a "first place" ribbon. That was the first of several ribbons won at the Cavalcade parades down through the years.
On November 2, 1963, the chapter decided to go to Fort Worth to compete in its first District Convention. We finished 16th of 18 competitors. That was back in the days when there was no such thing as qualification for District - all we needed was the desire to go.
1967 was the first year of division contests. They required a chorus or quartet make a certain number of points to quality for district. Our first

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Table of
Contents

Sections:
How It All Began Chapters Chapter Histories International Quartet Champions Choruses Administration
Contests and Conventions Registered Quartets Publications Recognitions In Conclusion