Music Lovers Say Goodbye To Mr. Weed

Music lovers say goodbye to Weed

Published: Friday, September 16, 2005

By Ed Shamy
Free Press Staff Writer

ST. ALBANS -- Ninety feet tapped in four-quarter time Thursday as the music began for "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee."

Sterling Weed's funeral in the First Congregational Church was now officially under way, for now there was music.

Weed, who died Sunday at 104, dominated the northwestern Vermont music scene like no other through the 20th century. He taught thousands -- including many of the funeral-goers -- how to play musical instruments, how to read music and how to tap their feet in four-quarter time.

He played for audiences at dances during World War I, World War II, the tumultuous '60s, the Reagan '80s and through the 1990s. He continued to play his saxophone daily at his home -- and sometimes publicly with his band -- until his health declined earlier this year.

Weed was born to a musically inclined dairy-farming family on the outskirts of St. Albans. His parents sent him by train to Burlington for regular music lessons. He set out to become a piano tuner but learned he preferred playing the music rather than repairing the instruments; he would eventually start a band with his two brothers. It became Sterling Weed's Imperial Orchestra.

Burlington musician Rick Norcross, at the funeral, offered a glimpse at the longevity of Weed's career: Weed had a gig playing music at the Welden Theater in St. Albans during the moving pictures six nights a week for $13 per week. His career and his income took a hit when talking pictures started -- in 1930 or so.

Weed supplemented the income by teaching music, both privately and in high schools. He taught sax and clarinet, trumpet and trombone, tuba, violin, drums, piccolo and practically anything that could produce a melody.

His students did not fear "Mr. Weed's" wrath -- because he appeared to have little if any anger within him -- but they shrank from his disapproval.

Mr. Weed expected his students to be punctual, properly attired and well-rehearsed. When they were not, he expressed his disappointment; the lessons he taught contributed to shaping the characters of tens of thousands of Vermonters over decades.

He neither smoked nor drank, he outlived two wives and did not have children of his own. He carried reams of sheet music on every musical outing so he and his band could play any song they wished on a moment's notice. He encouraged his charges to listen to other youth bands -- to hear the simplified arrangements he would not allow them to play. He challenged them, and those who spoke Thursday said they were better for it.

They thanked him for the music lessons in the basement of his Stebbins Street home; for helping find them jobs and houses; for guiding them to the once-grand, annual All-State Band performances in Burlington; for teaching them self discipline, confidence and self respect.

Thursday's funeral ended with the Constitution Brass Quintet playing "Oh, When the Saints."

The notes cascaded out the open doors of the church into the muggy, still late summer air, through the gazebo in Taylor Park where Weed had performed so many times, and across the green into downtown St. Albans.

Mr. Weed's pupils sat in their pews, nodding their heads approvingly in unison to the beat.

Contact Ed Shamy at 660-1862 or eshamy@bfp.burlingtonfreepress.com