Hilma LARSON

1897 - 1929  (32 years)

• Name	Hilma LARSON
  Birth	1897
  Gender	Female
  Death	Nov 1929
  Notes	Hilma played piano. She moved with her family to Valley City ND when she was 12. She worked at a bank in Valley City, graduated from high school there and then graduated from the music department of the state normal school. She married William Jennings Bryan Clark 13 July 1919 and moved with her husband to Grand Forks ND in 1924. They had 4 daughters. Hilma "trained her daughters in music". The four girls were born between 1920 and 1926 in North Dakota and were named Jean Harriett Clark, Ann Elton Clark, Margaret Louise Clark and Mary Elizabeth Clark. As youngsters, they were known as the "Clark Kiddies" and were the official mascots of the Grand Forks American Legion drum and bugle corps. In October of 1929 they represented North Dakota at an elaborate vaudeville program in Louisville to which each state contributed one act. The following month Hilma died tragically after a brief illness at the age of just 32, leaving William a widower with four daughters aged 3 to 9. He remarried in 1934 to Rosella Buckley and had two additional daughters, Judy and Susan. Hilma's daughters continued their music careers as they grew up, at one time joining Ran Wilde's band in Nicollet, Minnesota, singing under contract with USO and finally moving up to their billing with Tommy Dorsey's band as "The Sentimentalists". Dorsey hired them on the spot after an audition in their West 45th Street apartment in New York. He had had problems with his previous girl singer group and insisted on renaming the Clark Sisters as The Sentimentalists and retaining all rights to that name, an arrangement that was to cause the girls no end of grief in future years. Among their best known songs with Dorsey are "On The Sunny Side of the Street" and "Chicago". (If you click on these links to go to their songs on YouTube, you will find many other songs there in which they are featured. In some cases, the vocals don't begin until well into the piece, so be patient. You will also find their pictures there, but this is long before the era of the music video so don't expect any live performances.) Not surprisingly, the girls dated and married musicians. Jean married Vernon ("Derf") Friley who played trombone for such notables as Duke Ellington's band. Ann married Leo Quercio, a saxophone player and five years later married Howard ("Pete") Terry, a woodwind player who was a member of the NBC orchestra and played for television's "Laugh-In" and "Dean Martin's Comedy Hour". Margaret ("Peggy") married Wilbur ("Willie") Schwartz who played lead clarinet with the Glenn Miller orchestra. Mary married Bruce Darwin Branson, a saxophonist in the Tommy Dorsey orchestra. As the sisters started to raise their families, the lifestyle that came with being big band singers must have lost some appeal. Not being able to use their connection or name from Tommy Dorsey, most carried on singing as individuals in movie and film work throughout the 1950's and 60's. Ann, for example, sang for the Andy Williams and Carol Burnett television shows. Peggy and Jean were kept busy as studio singers for many years.
  Person ID	I35377	Don Carlson's Tree
  Last Modified	8 Jul 2022

  
  

  Father	Olof LARSON
  Mother	Sarah BARDAHL,   b. 10 Nov 1876, Renville County, Minnesota
  Marriage	13 Nov 1896
  Family ID	F24188	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family	William Jennings Bryan CLARK
  Marriage	1919
  Family ID	F24189	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	8 Jul 2022