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- Somerset Commonwealth Journal
March 17, 2008
Fred Moore, former SHS band director, dead at 95
By CHRIS HARRIS, CJ Staff Writer
A music teacher at Somerset High School from the pre-World War II era died this week at the age of 95.
Fredrick Moore Sr. ? better known as ?Fred? ? passed on Wednesday. Although he became a successful businessman in Lexington, Ky., after opening the Fred Moore Music Company on South Ashland Avenue, he?s still remembered by many in this community for the work he did with Somerset?s students.
?I would assume if there was any music in Somerset, he had something to do with it,? said Fred Moore Jr. The deceased?s son, Fred Jr. now owns and operates the music store in Lexington, and was himself born in Somerset during his father?s time here.
Fred Moore Jr. recalled his father as being very successful in his time in Somerset, where he came in the late 1930s after graduating college. A jazz lover, Fred Moore Sr. directed the male chorus and high school bands which took high rankings and trophies in contests around the state and country in which they participated, including the Macy?s Thanksgiving Day Parade, as Fred Jr. remembered.
He also left a musical legacy behind him ? he helped Don Stone, a longtime musical leader in the community, get his job. That?s according to the late Stone?s wife, Fanie, whose family remained good friends with the Moores. (Fred Sr.?s wife, Evelyn Curtis Moore, was a Somerset native who passed on last year).
Don Stone, who died in 2003, was band director at Somerset High School until the late 1960s, and also taught elementary general music, and directed the Somerset Civic Orchestra and the choir at First Christian Church. And according to Fanie Stone, it was Moore who helped Stone get his start at Somerset in the early ?50s.
?He was a pretty good cut-up and very slow mover, very easy going,? recalled Fanie Stone of Moore. ?He loved his music and loved to play the trombone.?
It wasn?t long after the U.S. entered into the fray of World War II that Moore left his position at Somerset High School and joined the Coast Guard. He went to become the director of the Coast Guard Band in St. Augustine, Fla., in 1943, a year after Fred Jr. was born.
Fred Moore Sr. was born in Lawrence County, Ky. He graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in music, something which he wove lovingly into his life throughout its entire span. He played in the Ben Ali Vaudeville Orchestra in Lexington, the Dave Parry Dance Band, the Notables Dance Band, and the Oleika Shrine Temple Brass Band. He was a member of the Lexington Rotary Club, Oleika Shrine Temple, and Park United Methodist Church, and held a position as past-president of the American Federation of Musicians.
He is survived by his son, Fred Jr., and a daughter, Jennifer M. (and Dan D.) Brock, of Lexington; three grandchildren, Zachary Duncan Brock, Brooklyn, New York, and Ashley Noelle Moore and Frederick Curtis Moore, both of Lexington; a nephew, Dr. John E. Moore Jr., Atlanta, Ga.; and a niece, Malinda M. Coleman, Greenville, S.C. He was preceded in death by a sister, Ruth Moore Reneker, and two brothers, J. Watson Moore, Winchester, Ky., and Dr. John Everett Moore, Ashland, Ky.
Funeral services will be at 11 a.m. on Monday at Park United Methodist Church on East High Street in Lexington, with Rev. Jerry Beck officiating. Burial will be at the Lexington Cemetery. Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. on Sunday at the W. R. Milward Mortuary ? Broadway with Masonic services at 6:30 p.m. Casket bearers will be Joe Thompson, John Anderson, Doyle Rambo, Edsel Arnett, Robert Pybas, Tim Lake and Dennis Davis.
Memorials may be made to Hospice Care Center at St. Joseph Hospital, Shriners Hospital for Children, or Park United Methodist Church Memorial.
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