After A Wait Of 50 Years, Elation

When Shirley Robinson was attending UW-Madison half a century ago, she was one of only eight women in the concert band. But what she really longed to do was play with the marching band, and that, in the early 1950s, was not possible.

The band promotional material at the time read: "Open to all male students."

"I felt terrible about that," Robinson was saying Thursday.

As bad as Robinson felt then, she felt elated Thursday, a little before noon, still flush after playing the tambourine with the UW Varsity Band and being introduced to a cheering crowd at the Overture Center by band leader Mike Leckrone.

Leckrone plucked Robinson, 73, from the audience during a participatory segment of the band's concert for Madison school students Thursday at Overture and brought her on stage.

Robinson's colleagues at St. James School had alerted Leckrone last fall, and the man who in 1974 opened up the marching band to women happily agreed to honor the longtime Wisconsin music teacher.

Longtime? Robinson graduated from UW-Madison in 1954 and began her career in Prairie du Sac, teaching music and physical education. Before long she was back in Madison, teaching music at Schenk, Lowell and Hawthorne schools, eventually moving to the Monona Grove School District, from which she retired in 1993 after winning numerous awards.

Retirement didn't last long. For the past decade Robinson has been working half-time teaching music at St. James, and she's not leaving anytime soon. How appreciated she is there was evident in the elaborate surprise sprung Thursday at Overture.

"It was wonderful," Robinson said of her gig with Leckrone and the band. "I feel very honored. Music has given me a fulfilled life." ...

This article is reprinted courtesy of  The Capital Times Newspaper. It appeared on Friday, February 3, 2006, and was written by Doug Moe. The image was sent to us by the Overture Center.