Jerry Burke

Jerry Burke (July 26, 1911 - February 13, 1965) was a musician who played the organ and piano for the Lawrence Welk orchestra from 1934 to 1965.^[1]

Born in Marshalltown, Iowa; he spent most of his youth in South Dakota; first in Aberdeen, where he took up the pipe organ and taught piano. After playing with several other local bands, he joined Lawrence Welk's band in 1934 when the band consisted of only 6 people ^[1] and was headquartered in Yankton.

Jerry's career with the music makers spanned more than thirty years, from the one-nighters throughout the Midwest, at radio station WNAX, later in Chicago at the Aragon Ballroom and eventually in Southern California on television, first locally and later nationwide on the Lawrence Welk Show on the ABC network. His talents with the keyboard instruments, such as the Novachord was a perfect fit to Welk's champagne music. He also recorded several solo albums of his work as well.

In his later years, Jerry was absent from the show for nearly a year (1963–1964) due to ill health and eventually died from cancer in 1965.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} welkshow.com Brief bio

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Name	Burke, Jerry
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Date of birth	July 26, 1911
Place of birth
Date of death	February 13, 1965
Place of death