Band Brings Vets Back to an Era Past

When 81-year-old Ruth Sargent belts out the Big Band tunes, those gathered to listen often find themselves daydreaming of another era.

Frederick Smead, 79, flashes back to his Army days in World War II and remembers the English and French countrysides.

Phyllis Liebman recalls the grand orchestras at dances in the 1940s and ‘50s and how she didn’t like to date because she wanted to dance with different boys.

Today and every Thursday for 23 years, like clockwork, Georgia and Her Friends entertain veterans at the Sepulveda Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Many veterans are in wheelchairs now. A few watch the performances on rolling beds. But when the music starts, many tap their toes and drum their fingers. Those who can’t, manage a smile.

Some veterans’ wives visit either to dance with their husbands or just sit and reminisce about such songs as “Skylark,” “The Shadow of Your Smile,” “Sentimental Over You” and “Body and Soul.”

“I come every Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday and I always bring him special food,” said Alma Gump, who visits her husband, Larry, 68. “I spoil him.”

Each week, the nine-piece band plays “Satin Doll” for Phyllis and Sol Liebman, who dance. Sol, 75, can’t lift his feet much anymore, but he can still twirl his wife of 10 years.

Georgia Shilling, 80, the bandleader, is pretty strict with group members. If they can’t make it, she said, they must send a substitute.

“I just do it because they don’t have too much entertainment,” she said of the veterans. “They really enjoy it.”

The band, whose members are in their 70s and 80s, has changed over the years--some have died. But Georgia and Her Friends continue to play for the veterans because they want to. Some feel they have a duty.

“Those boys have done a lot for us,” Sargent said. “The least we can do is give a little back, and that is a pleasure.”