Descendants of Levi Starkey

Notes

367. Glenn Starkey

THE STARKEY ENTERTAINERS
By
Wanda M. Cochran

My father, Glenn Starkey, had a hobby of collecting old songs and ballads and put them together in book form. Music was a great part of his life. He sang when working around the house or in the field. He organized a string band he called "The Starkey Entertainers", which were made up of members of the family. Dad taught himself to play a guitar and he coached the rest of the family group to play some sort of string instrument before they were five years old. When they began playing in public Donald was 13 and played the fiddle, Arnold was 11 and played the banjo. Von Dean and Louise, who were younger than Donald and Arnold, both played the mandolin. The band played at company picnics, family reunions, business banquets, church socials, lodge and school functions. They got their "big" break in 1931 whenever a group of business men sponsored their appearance on radio station WMMN Fairmont. The family also played on the Wheeling, WV radio station WWVA and became acquainted with Big Slim, the Lone Cowboy, and Doc Williams and Chickie. The family band was forced to disband whenever Donald and Arnold graduated from high school and went off to college. None of the other family members, Wanda Mae, Garnet Ruth nor Patsy, who grew up during this period, ever learned to play any musical instrument. (Note: Most of this information was taken from an article that Donald wrote and had published in the book "We Make Our Own Fun" in 1995.