Oral history interview with The Darlinettes, 2009
Item description
Mary Elizabeth Sampson Irvin (1931- ) graduated in 1953 with a degree in Secretarial Administration from Woman's College of the University of North Carolina, now The University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). Doris Funderburk Morgan (1925- ) graduated in 1946 from Woman's College, now UNCG, with a degree in Voice. Martha Jonas Sadri (19??- ) graduated in 1949 with a degree in Secretarial Administration from Woman's College, now UNCG. Betty Buyck Stack (1925- ) graduated in 1946 from Woman's College, now UNCG, with a degree in Music. The interview took place at the Feminist Theory and Music 10: Improvising and Galvanizing Conference held at UNCG's School of Music. Also present were UNCG Development Officer Miriam Blackwelder Fields and various unidentified members of the audience who asked questions. Irvin, Morgan, Sadri, and Stack share their memories of when they were members of the Darlinettes, an all-girl swing/jazz band on campus. Irvin talks about playing the trumpet, being director of the band, playing for campus events, era songs, Greensboro Senior High School Band Director Herbert Hazelman, and playing in the Greensboro Symphony. Morgan, the band's vocalist and leader, remembers the music arrangements, the band members' love of music, the costumes, the bandstands, and some of the performances. She also recalls Cherry Folger (Class of 1944), who founded the Darlinettes in 1942; the Rhythmettes who were the four singers with the band; and the college not recognizing or supporting the band. Sadri mentions being one of the vocalists with the band. Stack discusses playing the clarinet and saxophone; practicing in the basement; not telling her parents about her association with the band; finding bedbugs while playing at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; and the college not recognizing the Darlinettes then, but now recognizing the band as the beginning of the current jazz program on campus.