A River Blenders History, By Pam Royle

 

In the summer of 1975 Vicky McKinley and Pam Royle sat on the edge of the River Bend Club House pool watching their kids play Marco Polo.  Somehow the subject of music and singing came up.  Both Vicky and Pam had been avid choral singers in high school and missed the days of ensemble singing.  Each thought it would be a great idea if they got a bunch of friends together some night to sing.  That fall Pam met Mavis Herring on the steps of the tennis courts and, again, the subject of music came up.  Mavis, who incidentally lived across the street from Vicky, said she used to belong to a barbershop chorus (turns out it was Vienna Falls) and that she still had some of their music.  The seed was born and all winter long the three friends kept saying “we should really get some people together and try it”.  Finally in March of 1976 at the River Bend ladies tennis luncheon, Pam and Vicky announced that they were getting a group together the following Wednesday night to sing.  Everyone was invited.  Eleven women showed up.

 

And so it was that on March 10^th, 1976 those eleven women met at the home of Julie McAllister.  Mavis brought her barbershop music, divided us into four parts, and we were hooked after the first chord.  Who knew that this one evening would, in time, change lives, form friendships and challenge talents, minds, patience and inspire so many.

Our numbers kept growing and all summer long we sang every Wednesday afternoon at a variety of houses.  Since none of us had jobs, we simply sent the kids to the pool for the afternoon and we sat around on the floor smoking and singing.  We were AWESOME!  All you had to do was ask us.

 

In July, 1976 the River Blenders made their first public appearance at the River Bend bath and tennis 4^th of July celebration.  The Post Dispatch covered the event (we had a few connections in the neighborhood) and described the group as “ a makeshift choir of River Bend housewives singing patriotic songs.”  An onerous beginning to be sure, but it could have been worse had we followed our first inclination and called ourselves the “Hog Hollow Honnies” or “The Missouri Bottoms” as was originally suggested. 

 

Rehearsals were at various times... and places.  And, as interest and attendance grew we became much more sophisticated, adding costumes and choreography and making the first of many appearances in the River Bend Repertory Show.

In 1978 – two years after our first meeting – we joined Sweet Adelines.  The application required us to submit three possible names for the chorus... which we did... River Blenders, River Blenders, River Blenders.  And so it came to be.  The River Blenders became a blend of neighbors, voice parts, friendships and song; and through the years that blend has grown to include so much more.

 

We blended with our new organization at our 1^st regional competition in Memphis where we won the “novice chorus” awards.

 

At our second regional contest in Peoria Betty Bob Smith and her costume committee stayed up all night making bouquets only to have our coach, Betty Oliver, suggest that it might not be a wise idea to use them, since we’d never practiced with them. (We were pretty loose in those days.)

In 1981, our third regional contest,  we had a new director, Chery Green , and we startled the region by leaping from 14^th the year before to third place medals.

The following year, we dumbfounded the region and each other by winning our first, chorus competition.  Yipes!  We were on our way to Detroit to blend our voices with the big babes at our first International Competition. 

And speaking of Detroit, many of us will never forget Andrea Trunfio who single handedly flew us all to Detroit in our own chartered plane, with our own risers resting comfortably in the hold, checked us individually into our rooms and then got the hotel to overlook the $3.00 corkage fee for the 50 bottles of champagne that, incidentally, Reverend Carl Norton transported to Detroit in his car

 

When Chery Green retired as our director, we were fortunate to have Diane Huber, our assistant director, step in front of the chorus.  Under her leadership we’ve risen to heights that weren’t even on the horizon back in 1976.  When you consider that our original goal was to sing in front of the produce counter at Dierbergs, you have to admit we’ve come a long way baby.

 

Twenty five years of desire, belief, action and enthusiasm have brought us to 9 regional championships, a network of acquaintances that are more family than friends, a respect for our collective and individual talents and a belief that our lives have been changed, because we belong to this unique and wonderful group.   Viva the fabulous, fun-loving flamboyant River Blenders.  We definitely have the Perfect Blend.

River Blenders Chorus

Diane Huber

(636) 300-3645
 St. Martin's Episcopal Church, 15764 Clayton Road, Ellisville, Missouri