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Oliver P. Hobbs (1907-1993) was a resident of Tallahassee, Florida from 1950-1993 and the band director at Tallahassee's Leon High School from 1950-1967. Born in Lawrence, Kansas, Hobbs was the youngest son of Emory Hobbs, a buggy painter and farmer, and Ada Belle Keifer Hobbs, daughter of an Illinois farmer. Hobbs' only surviving sibling, Wilber Abram, was 20 years older than Oliver.
Oliver Hobbs attended Lawrence, Kansas public schools and sang in the Glee Club, boys choir, and his church choir. He showed strong interest in vocal and instrumental music as a very young boy. While in junior high school, Wilbur purchased a catalog trombone for him, and Oliver developed a great talent and passion for the instrument. He studied privately with local musicians, some at Kansas University and others from the Kansas City Symphony.
Tired of digging potatoes for extra money in his early high school years, Hobbs took a job as a pit musician at the local theater, playing background music for silent movies and developing improvisational skills and delicate musical nuances. He dropped out of high school in the 10th grade and took to the roads of the Midwest playing with local traveling bands and pick-up musicians at venues in Colorado, Oklahoma, Missouri, and Nebraska. When he met Beryl Montgomery in Estes Park, Colorado in the summer of 1929, he decided his traveling dance band days were over. He returned to Lawrence to attend Kansas University and attained a degree in music education.
Hobbs first honed his skills as a band director under the mentoring of Clarence Sawhill. They worked as teachers at Liberty Middle and High School in Lawrence, Kansas, and Hobbs became Music Director at Lawrence High School when Sawhill left. In 1945, Hobbs accepted an invitation from Karl Kuersteiner, whom he knew from Kansas University, to assist in directing the bands at the summer music camp at Florida State College for Women in Tallahassee. This started an 18-year summer commitment that Hobbs greatly enjoyed and also introduced him to many Florida musicians and public school music programs.
In 1950, Hobbs accepted the position of Band Director at Leon High School in Tallahassee, beginning his 17-year career as Director of the Leon High School Marching Redcoats. He also became involved with the Florida Bandmasters Association and Phi Beta Mu, Omega (Florida) Chapter, working to provide high quality band programs in all counties for as many public schools as possible. Hobbs' peers from the 1950s and 1960s said that he changed everything about the sound of bands in Florida and the southeast, bringing to them the big, full, balanced sound of the midwestern university bands to replace the smaller chamber music bands typical of Florida public schools at the time. In 1990, Hobbs became the first inductee into the Florida Bandmasters Hall of Fame. He passed away in Tallahassee in June 1993.
Summary:
This collection consists of a variety of materials documenting the life and career of Oliver P. Hobbs. The types of records include personal and professional correspondence, photographs, musical programs, audio and video recordings, news clippings, and other papers.
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Subject Access Fields:
Hobbs, Oliver P., 1907-1993.
Leon High School (Tallahassee, Fla.)
Bands (Music) Florida. Education--Florida--Teachers Marching bands Florida. Music Instruction and study Florida Music Societies, etc School music Florida. Teachers Florida
for detailed listing.