Remembering Flandreaus All-State greats

After the article we ran this past week on local high school senior Ben Kulm being recognized for making All-State Band all four years of high school and all three years in middle school as well we had a few readers tell us more information about All-State Band and some Flandreau High School four-year members.
First year of All-State Band was 1951. The concert was held in Sioux Falls Washingtons high school auditorium and included 150 of the states best high school instrumentalists. Dr. Frank Simon was the guest conductor.
Flandreaus first All-State Band members that year were Wilma Duncan, ReJean Erickson, Janet Fuller, Gladys Nass, JoAnn Anderson, Bill Byrne, Ron Whalen and Paul Hasvold.
As stated above, Bill Byrne was in that very first SDBA All-State Band being selected as a freshman trumpet player. He went on to become the first four-year all-state band member (1951-52-53-54).
Following him, Audrey Armstrong was seated in 1952-53-54-55 and Patty Whalen was in All-State Band from 1954-55-56-57.
Later in that decade, Dottie Schult was selected in 1956-57-58-59 and John Fenner, on the French horn from the class of 1965, was a four-year member (1962-63-64-65). He sat first chair his senior year.
And as we mentioned in the first story, Jo (Olson) Barboza from the class of 1967 was a four year all stater (1964-65-66-67).
Former Flandreau High School Band instructor Steve Solem wrote us the following:
As a former band director in Flandreau I would like to commend you on your fine arts coverage. One thing that has always been important to me concerning these groups (All-State Band, Orchestra and Choir) is that these students are chosen by competitive audition. They are required to play or sing for a judge and they also test over musical terms. It is a very competitive process.
You mentioned that it (being chosen for 4 years) was a rare achievement and indeed it is, he added.
There are numerous other students from the past 75 years who have been a member of either All-State Choir, Band or Orchestra who have multiple years of memberships in some or all of these programs; just not necessarily all four years.
In checking with Flandreau High School Band Director Pat Weight, he confirmed that during the early years of the All-State Band, Flandreau was very well represented.
There were many multi-year students, Weight said.
In addition, former director, Elden Samp, was the secretary-treasurer of the South Dakota Bandmasters Association the group that founded the All-State Band, he said. Incidentally, Mr. Samp was also inducted into the South Dakota Bandmasters Association Hall of Fame.
Ronald Whalen, Weight added, besides being in the very first All-State Band in 1951, was another former Flandreau band director.
We still perform an arrangement every year on Memorial Day and Veterans Day of the Armed Forces Medley that he arranged, Weight said.