Frank-Jerry duo a monthly hit for Park Place seniors
Park Place Five Star Senior Living Theater rocks with excitement at least once a month thanks to Frank and Jerry, “The Music of Your Life, Songs of the 20s through the 60s.”
Rows two and three were especially enthusiastic as the Farragut duo of lead singer Jerry Thomas and singer-piano man Frank Galbraith belted out hit songs, including audience requests, during a recent monthly visit.
Among the more enthusiastic of 35 residents present was Carmen Moctezuma, a former volunteer librarian at Farragut Middle School during the time Galbraith was a history teacher there.
“Oh, I enjoy it. It brings back a lot of memories,” Moctezuma said. “They put on a good show. …. Frank Galbraith taught my son [Richardo Moctezuma],” a U.S. Navy and U.S. Army veteran.
With several smiling residents clapping, waving their arms or doing various body gyrations to the music, requests included “Harbor Lights,” “Far Away Places” and “Blue Moon” during the one-hour performance.
“We love it,” resident Joan Brink said, adding she encouraged fellow Park Place chorus members to join in with “Alexander’s Ragtime Band.”
“I said to them, ‘Come on chorus members, sing it.’ And they really did. I was so thrilled,” Brink said. “They were swinging their legs.”
Though Galbraith, 75, and Thomas, 77, are senior citizens themselves, Frank and Jerry is a relatively young singing duo.
“We started this in October of 2012,” Galbraith said.
However, “We’ve known each other for more than 25 years,” Thomas said.
With Galbraith and Thomas both members of Union Cumberland Presbyterian choir [Galbraith, choir director], Thomas said, “The congregation seemed to enjoy Frank and I so much that about four years ago I said, ‘Frank, why don’t we start going to assisted living places, things like that, and do some songs? We could do Gospel, or we could do old songs? Or old love songs or we could do 50s music?’
“And he said, ‘Let’s do it,” Thomas added.
“God called us to do this,” Galbraith said. “You can see I get a lot of joy doing this. … It’s a blessing for them and it’s a blessing for us.”
“Before the year is over we will have done over 400 appearances,” Thomas said. “… Occasionally we go to churches, and we do some funerals also, and some weddings, too.”
In addition to Farragut and Knox County, “We do outlying counties, Loudon and Blount, and Oak Ridge and Anderson County,” Thomas said.
One key to remaining popular, Thomas added, “is we know so much music we keep it fresh.”
“We happen to know probably a couple thousand songs,” Galbraith added.
On top of the joy Frank and Jerry bring to Park Place and other audiences, “It gives me something to look forward to at my age. I felt like I needed something to do,” Thomas said. “And what could be better than these shows and singing and entertaining these folks and see a sparkle come into their eyes. … We have a lot of [locations] we do once a month.”
Galbraith tossed in a thumbnail biography of legend Irving Berlin that included information where various residents responded, “I didn’t know that.”
Among those enjoying Frank and Jerry in their early years at Park Place was Galbraith’s mother-in-law, the late Inez Simon.
