Midweek Bulletin from Kenosha, Wisconsin • 19

Hie Midweek Bulletin August 4 1992 19 O' Vi ft i jlsfclP fcjs i 5 Yj v- IIS 'vV'Ti vrrnri jM pf fill I il 1 1P -i 4p i had been put forth to produce the champions Rehearsals ground to a halt and the Queensmen and the Squires hung up their flags horns and drums in the fall of 1970 A few joined the Racine Scouts but most choose to become involved in other activities and simply hung on to the memories Thanks to Louis Rugani for sharing his photo and story of the Queensmen to a secret! £57-03 Old Kenosha with Diane Giles This photo should be properly introduced with a drum roll Standing at attention was one of the best Drum and Bugle Corps in the nation the Queensmen It was taken in 1966 outside of Holy Rosary Church by Kenosha photographer Marshall Simonsen In the spring of 1963 Holy Rosary Pastor Father James Torsi was inspired by St Joseph High production of King and At a Holy Name Society breakfast the following morning Torsi raved about the musical talent of the students he had seen the night before A discussion ensued regarding the feasibility of starting up a drum and bugle corps at the parish Parish corps were very common in the east coast and even in our own area Milwaukee had a number of them an Armenian Church started the Racine Scouts Corps in the 1920s and even the famous Racine Kilties was a Christian affiliated organization started at the YMCA The VFW Drum and Bugle Corps also was very popular in Kenosha during WWII Drum Corps are generally structured for youngsters from 14 through 21 years old and the Queensmen adopted that age range they encouraged" both Catholics and non-Catholics to join It took nine months of ground work before the corps actually got off the ground Pre-owned instruments and uniforms were purchased and taffeta bought for the flags The uniforms came from a corps in Libertyville and the from a corps in Chicago the latter of which includes military grade blouses made before 1950 Katherine Rugani went to work and made the flags (except for the American and VFW flags) and the skirts for the color guard seen here in program that was on a smaller scale and a little easier to handle too much of the facilities had been used by the corps in the preceding years They gave the organization six months to find another meeting place The corps had trouble finding another sponsor and decided to merge temporarily with the Racine Scouts The Scouts sent a bus to Kenosha to take the musicians to practice The Queensmen performed with the Scouts for the 1970 season and briefly met at the Salvation Army building downtown But the volunteers also were wearing thin Endless hoprs 1 11 the photo The Queensmen colors were royal blue sky blue and white Volunteers were recruited to become instructors There was such an overwhelming response at the first organizational meeting on January 10 1964 that the following week a second corps was founded for 10 through 13 year olds the Queensmen Squires Both corps were started with $2500 in borrowed money The first formal appearance was in the Memorial Day Parade in 1964 (Kenosha held its annual parade on Memorial Day through 1975 it was moved to Independence Day for the Bicentennial in 1976 and has remained there) The youngsters practiced hard and by August the corps was good enough to play before 40000 people in a exhibition at Milwaukee County Stadium It was Night and the Braves game and the corps appearance was sponsored by St Order of Foresters By the following year the corps began drawing young musicians from all over southern Wisconsin The Queensmen ranks swelled to over 100 members the group performed in 36 competitions a year A fleet of six vehicles 4 (buses and trucks) was purchased to haul musicians staff and equipment In 1967 a year after this photo was taken the Queensmen replaced their outfits with brand new uniforms All the hours of hard work paid off the same year they donned their new uniforms the corps won the Midwest Circuit District Championship In 1968 and 1969 the Queensmen were ranked in the top ten corps in the nation in the US Open and the Queensmen Squires were undefeated in the national competition for three years running in the novice class At that time there were about 80 drum corps in Wisconsin alone But even though the Queensmen organization was a quality operation on the field financially they had been operating on a shoestring By 1969 the wear and tear of drum corps life had taken a toll on the equipment the two-year-old uniforms were patched the bugle valves were wearing out and the flags were sporting holes But the Queensmen were about to suffer a greater blow The organization had grown so quickly and had been so successful that some people at Holy Rosary church began to worry They wanted a youth FREE TRAVEL PRESENTATION To Be Held Tuesday Aug 11th at 6:30 pm CARIBBEAN CRUISE 4 TO MEXICO Departure January 16-23rd 11 Presented by: APPLELAND TOURS Games Prizes! Free No Obligation rYi BerryLea Farm Restaurant 5006 Sylvania (West Frontage) South of Hwy 11 Sturtevant WI (414) 886-8500.