Edwardsville — Playing music may not be the secret to a long and healthy life, but for Marion Stroman of Edwardsville, it certainly helps.
Strowman, who turns 93 in February, was a longtime art teacher and yearbook sponsor at East Alton Wood River High School. He is also a longtime member of the Edwardsville Municipal Band and leader of the Diz Stroman Big Band.
“I played in the Wood River Community Band for decades, but when their bandleader passed away, I replaced him as conductor for 12 years,” said the trombone. Strowman, who plays, said. “I no longer play with the Wood River Band, but I still play with the Edwardsville Municipal Band and the Granite City Community Band.”
Stroman started his own band as he was preparing to attend his first high school reunion in 55 years in Chariton, Iowa.
“I picked a group of talented musicians and traveled 300 miles to perform for the reunion,” Stroman said. “A year later, we decided to celebrate our wedding anniversary with a party featuring my big band at the American Legion (in Edwardsville). When they opened again, I started playing there and have been ever since.”
Strohman’s band typically schedules six to eight shows a year on the American Legion Post 199. Dances are usually on the 4th Sunday of each month from 3-6pm.
Stroman has lived in Edwardsville since 1959 and began teaching at Wood River during the 1959-60 school year. He retired in 1994.
“When I got there, there were only six art classes. But during my tenure the art department expanded to 11 classes,” he said. “I also had a theater production arts class and in my class designed and directed all the sets for their productions.
“They held a big event each year for the Coronation of the Queen of the Harvest, called the Coronation Ceremony, and I was responsible for organizing it. and all attendees participated one at a time, choosing a theme each year to decorate the entire gym and transform it into a magical or exotic world. The band played, the choir sang, and the training team danced like they were playing for royalty.The gymnasium was always packed.One year there were nearly 3,000 people. .”
Stroman was also a yearbook sponsor throughout the 35 years he worked in high school, and continued to work part-time for another five years after retirement.
He originally started playing music in high school in Iowa.
“Originally I wanted to play the flute, but my father could only buy a $10 trombone,” he said. “My high school director gave me some lessons, but after that I was on my own. I was nicknamed ‘Diz’ because the leader wanted my name on the front of the band.”
Stroman attended Northeast Missouri State Teachers College (now Truman State University) in Kirksville, Missouri as a music major.
“I started majoring in music because I wanted to be a band director,” he said. “I made a dance poster. An art professor saw it and tracked me down and convinced me to get an art degree as well.”
He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Arts and Music and later a Master’s degree in Fine Arts from Iowa State University in Iowa City. He then earned a master’s degree in music from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
While at SIUE, Stroman sang in a concert chorale for the late Dr. Leonard Van Camp. He and his wife Marilyn made his three tours of Europe with the group.
“I went with him in 1971, with a group of alumni in 1985, and again in 1999,” Stroman said. “In 1985 we went to the Holy Land and sang in a church in Jerusalem.”
Strowman met his wife in Kirksville while visiting college campuses with the band director who trained there. He saw his future wife perform “The Pirates of Penzance”.
“I saw her on stage and said, ‘Who is that?'” he said. She wasn’t even going to go to a dance sponsored by the Chariton High School Band afterwards, but her girlfriend talked her into it, where she met her and asked all her friends to dance with her. Recommended.
“We started dating after we started school in Kirksville,” he said. “We didn’t get married until 1954, when I returned from Korea.”
Stroman served in the Army for three years, including 16 months in South Korea during the Korean War.
“They were going to draft me, but they wouldn’t let me graduate at Kirksville because I couldn’t get a deferment for my music or English majors,” he said. I went to Leonard Wood and I was in an army band and of course when you get in the army you get three years of service so you get an extra year that way, but if you get drafted you get two I only serve a year.
“One day, they were billed by the headquarters, and 12 were to go to Europe and 12 to go to South Korea. I didn’t have it, so I was sent to Korea. ”
While in South Korea, Stroman was ordered to report to 9th Infantry Regiment headquarters because his typing skills were in Army records. But Strowman is the first to admit that he wasn’t a lightning-quick typist.
“When I was taking a typing class in high school, they changed the letters on the keys to no letters. I was on vacation with my parents at the time,” Strowman said. “When I came back, the letters were gone. I had to come at night and learn where those letters were. I reached a staggering speed of 28 words per minute.”
“I was in the 9th Infantry Regiment that morning, poking at the typewriter with the short paragraph they assigned me,” he said. typist. I just couldn’t get to the front line.”
The front line was only a mile (1.6 km) away, and Stromann was terrified on his first day on the job.
“We were north of Seoul, almost near the 38th parallel, sitting in a tent and doing what we had to do,” he said. “Suddenly, everyone in the tent fell to the floor.
“Our plane dropped a bomb near us because they thought we were a North Korean group,” he said. After that, he learned how to know when the plane was coming. ”
Upon returning to the United States from South Korea, Stroman spent the remainder of his Army duty at Fort Bliss, Texas, where he was in charge of a rotation group of soldiers and helped send soldiers to their next destination.
After the war, Stroman completed a bachelor’s degree at Northeast Missouri State Teachers College, moved to Iowa State University, and ended up in Edwardsville, where he taught at Wood River.
“I liked music more than artwork, so I decided to teach art and enjoy music,” Stroman said.
Stroman has two children, daughter Stephanie Nunes and son Stephen Stroman, and four grandchildren.
Marilyn Stroman died in January 2009 at the age of 79, just months before the couple’s 55th wedding anniversary.
For over 60 years, Stroman has been part of the Edwardsville community.
“I have served as commander of the Edwardsville American Legion three times,” said Stroman, a longtime member of St. John’s Methodist Church of Edwardsville. “I couldn’t join the Corps right after I came here because I was too busy with my teaching career and other things. I joined the Corps around the time of our 55th high school reunion. I was doing it, so it was a natural thing for me.”
