Yes, I agree my vote is for Hal Schram or Uncle Hal as I called him
being my maternal uncle married to the sister of my mother, Marie Joyce
also deceased. For the group's consideration, there is an additional
illustrious graduate from that same 1937 graduating class, Bertha " Duey
" Joyce (www.squaredancemighigan.tripod.com/joyce/bertajoyce.html [1])
who was a wife and mother of 12 children all successful and their father
William Joyce, a long term Wayne county prosecutor who was also totally
blind. William Joyce held the highest graduating scores from the Wayne
State law school for many years. Bertha Joyce besides raising 12
children, also volunteered, bowled, tap dance and traveled extensively.
William Joyce was not a MSB graduate however, Hal Schram and Bertha Duey
Joyce were what seems to be part of an extraordinary class of 1937
alumni.
best regards
Mark Warchol, class of 1977
On 26-07-2016 01:09, msb-alumni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
msb-alumni Digest Mon, 25 Jul 2016 Volume: 04 Issue: 182
In This Issue:
[msb-alumni] Gary Paxton, Flip in Rock Days, and a Later Chr
[msb-alumni] Second Most-Famous Alumnus
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From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [msb-alumni] Gary Paxton, Flip in Rock Days, and a Later Christian
Gos
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2016 15:54:15 -0400
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While fans of country and contemporary Christian music mourned the death of
Gary
S. Paxton at age 77 on July 17 in Branson, Missouri, few in the rock world
outside of hardcore trivia addicts likely noticed his passing. If Paxton's
name
doesn't register, though, that's not the fans' fault but, rather, because he
never scored a hit rock record under his own name, making his most lasting
contributions pseudonymously and behind the scenes during the 1960s. If
you've
ever heard Bobby "Boris" Pickett's 1962 #1 hit "Monster Mash"--and what would
Halloween be without it?--then you know Paxton's handiwork: he produced it.
He was also the producer, two years earlier, of another #1, the Hollywood
Argyles' novelty classic "Alley Oop" (which gave us the phrase "Look at that
caveman go," later resurrected by David Bowie in "Life on Mars").
The first notable contribution of Paxton, however, came in mid-1959, as the
"Flip" half of the duo Skip and Flip. Paxton wrote the harmony-heavy "It Was
I"
and recorded it with Clyde Battin--who later, retaining the name Skip Battin,
went on to join the Byrds and New Riders of the Purple Sage--as a demo for
producer Bob Shad. Only after the record was already on its way up the charts
did Paxton learn that he and Battin had been given the names Skip and
Flip--in
honor of Shad's two poodles. "It Was I" ultimately reached #11 on the
Billboard
singles chart and Skip and Flip became a performing entity along the way,
returning to the same #11 position the following year with the ballad "Cherry
Pie" before Paxton made his move into production and songwriting.
Gary Sanford Paxton--whose death was attributed to complications of heart
surgery
and liver disease--was born Larry Wayne Stevens on May 18, 1939, in
Coffeeyville,
Kansas. According to his memoir his childhood was marked by poverty, illness
(he
suffered from spinal meningitis) and sexual molestation. He moved to Arizona
with his adoptive family at age 12 and by 14 was already working as a
musician
in local bands. He turned professional after dropping out of high school and
moved to Hollywood, where he became involved in record production and
engineering, in addition to performing and writing songs.
The Dallas Frazier-penned "Alley Oop" was released under the name the
Hollywood
Argyles, nonexistent at the time it was recorded by Paxton and producer Bobby
Rey; a group by that name was assembled only after the single became a hit.
During the early '60s, Paxton also started his own record label, Garpax, on
which "Monster Mash" was issued, that record originally credited to Bobby
"Boris" Pickett and the Crypt Kickers.
As Paxton fell into the L.A. lifestyle, his eccentricities often tended to
overshadow his work. According to the Wikipedia entry on Paxton, "Brian
Wilson
was known to admire his talents, and Phil Spector to fear him.
His creativity and knack for promotion were legendary, but could also run to
excess: once, after a local radio station dismissed one of his records
("Elephant Game [Part One]" by Renfro and Jackson) as "too black," he
assembled
a protest parade down Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles, California,
consisting
of fifteen cheerleaders and a live elephant pulling a Volkswagen convertible.
He
was arrested after the elephant got scared and began to defecate in the
street."
Nonetheless, Paxton continued to make his mark on pop, producing Tommy Roe's
"Sweet Pea" and "Hooray for Hazel," among others.
By the end of the '60s, Paxton had begun to veer into country music, moving
first to Bakersfield, California, and then to Nashville.
His life was often troubled; he was committed to mental institutions for
substance abuse and survived an attack by a gunman, hired by a disgruntled
artist.
Upon becoming a devout Christian, Paxton augmented his work in secular music
by
producing, writing and recording country gospel and Christian rock. He wrote
and
produced the track "L-O-V-E" for the Blackwood Brothers in 1973, which won a
Grammy for Best Gospel Performance, and two years later Paxton won the Best
Inspirational Grammy for his own album, The Astonishing, Outrageous, Amazing,
Incredible, Unbelievable, Different World of Gary S. Paxton."
In the late ''80s, Paxton was linked romantically with Tammy Faye Bakker,
wife
of the famed evangelist Jim Bakker. Although Paxton insisted they were only
friends, reports of their tryst led to Paxton losing some credibility among
the
Christian audience.
Paxton recorded several other gospel albums under his own name and was
inducted
into the Country Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1999. He is survived by his
fourth
wife, Vicki Sue Roberts, and five children.
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From: Steve <pipeguy920@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [msb-alumni] Second Most-Famous Alumnus
Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2016 23:35:05 -0400
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BlankOk, as promised, here is my nomination...
I didn't realize until I was looking at the appendix to the History of MSB
book
that he had been a student at the school...
Blank
Hal Schram
Pages
/ HalSchram
Hal "The Swami" Schram rose from modest beginnings to become one of the most
famous and well-liked sports journalists in Michigan history. He was born
to working-class parents in St. Johns on Oct. 24, 1918.
Legally blind from birth, Schram was enrolled at the Michigan School for the
Blind in Lansing where he ran track and played on the basketball and football
teams. Upon graduating in 1937, he enrolled at Michigan State University to
pursue his dream of becoming a journalist. He covered freshman and junior
varsity
sporting games because his sight required that he be closer to the action
than
was possible at varsity events.
He became the first in his family to earn a college degree in 1941. Shortly
afterwards, he got the opportunity that would change his life. After a
revolutionary
eye operation at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, he could see
well enough to drive and turn his dream into reality. He began working the
high school sports beat at the Detroit Free Press in 1945 and never left it.
Sports editor Lyle Smith is credited with the idea of turning his prep writer
into a seer and sat him down with artist Dick Mayer, who drew the crystal
ball,
flowing robes and head turban that became his trademarks in print during
the annual state basketball tournament.
During more than 40 years at the Free Press, Schram made hundreds of lifelong
friends with members of the coaching community. Although he retired in the
early 1980s, he was always in the sports department when the state football
and
basketball tournaments were in play.
He died in 1987 after a long battle with cancer. The top Michigan senior
basketball player of the year annually receives the Hal Schram Mr. Basketball
Award. Schram is also a member of the Michigan High School Coaches Hall of
Fame,
the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame and the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame.
"A person cannot survive as a true Spartan fan unless he is a bit of a
masochist
and a very large optimist."
Steve
Lansing, MI
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End of msb-alumni Digest V4 #182
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