Sun, Jan. 27, 2002

Loonis McGlohon, N.C. musical treasure, dies at age 80

DAVID PERLMUTT

He was raised in small-town Eastern North Carolina and became one of the Carolinas' most eloquent ambassadors.

But, really, for Loonis McGlohon, the world was his stage.

He wrote songs with succulent lyrics and melodies, recorded more than 35 albums, and on the piano accompanied many of the world's finest singers -- to list just a few: Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Eileen Farrell, Judy Garland, Mabel Mercer, Marlena Shaw and Marlene VerPlanck.

Still he always found his way home to Charlotte, where he found stability in a glittery life.

Early Saturday, Loonis Reeves McGlohon -- once pegged as one of the top-three piano accompanists in the world -- died at home after a nine-year battle with cancer.

Born Sept. 29, 1921, he was 80 and leaves a legion of family, friends and fans to mourn the considerable loss of someone many call an N.C. treasure.

"He fought a hard, long fight," son Reeves said Saturday. "He was ready to go. Fortunately he got to stay home and his wife, children, in-laws and grandchildren were with him. We count that as a blessing.

"Dad meant a lot to this city, and state -- both meant a lot to him. He has been the leader of this family. He led it well."

To say McGlohon lived a full life seems an understatement, even trite. Like the New York deli sandwiches that he loved, his life was overstuffed.

Many marveled at how he fit it all in.

Saturday, singer VerPlanck e-mailed the news to dozens of McGlohon's musical friends: "Loonis was much more than a fine pianist. He was ... a fine human being, a husband, father, friend, songwriter, scriptwriter, producer, humanitarian. A renaissance man of the first order."

VerPlanck, who worked with McGlohon since 1976, mused in an interview that she always considered herself McGlohon's best musical friend -- until she realized many others felt the same.

"He made everybody feel that way," VerPlanck said Saturday. "He made you feel so special from the start. That's a rare bird. It's so sad; a world without Loonis seems unthinkable."

As longtime friend and former Observer columnist Jerry Shinn put it: "When you became Loonis' friend, your world enlarged."

Music always

From the start, music consumed McGlohon's life. In Ayden in Pitt County, where McGlohon grew up the son of an auto mechanic and a teacher, he'd tune in nightly at 10:15 to WPTF from Raleigh. Over the airwaves, he was seduced by the sounds of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Woody Herman and other band leaders from New York."It was as though somebody had turned on a light," McGlohon once said.

At East Carolina State Teachers College (now East Carolina University) in Greenville, he dropped out of the only music course he took because he was making a D-minus. But there he met his first professional musicians, older students who'd left the road to get an education.

"They had this music I liked," he said. "They understood music, they talked music."

One was Spence Hatley, who became McGlohon's first piano teacher and mentor. Hatley also got him his first job, playing piano with a 17-piece big band of college students at Carolina Beach during the summer.

At a dance at East Carolina, McGlohon was introduced to Nan Lovelace, who would become his first love.

Both graduated in 1942, and McGlohon reported to the Army. He was headed for field artillery when Hatley called him to play piano with an Army Air Forces band. They spent the war performing.

In 1943, McGlohon and Lovelace married. Two weeks after he was discharged in early 1946, they were headed for New York, where Loonis was to play piano for Ralph Flanagan's band, and stopped in Charlotte. They liked the city's smallness and decided to stay. Loonis joined a band of ex-GIs and went to work for Southern Railway, matching cars with cargo that needed hauling.

About that time, 1948, WBTV in Charlotte had signed on and teamed McGlohon with broadcaster Bob Raiford for a late-night jazz program, "Nocturne." They showcased local musicians and touring bands.

McGlohon also met a high school student who'd begun hanging around the studio, and soon he and Charles Kuralt would become best friends.

In 1956, Loonis and Nan built a house on Wonderwood Drive off Randolph Road in the Cotswold neighborhood. Over the years, their home became refuge from the road for many famous singers, actors and journalists, and Nan's kitchen table became an anchor to their lives.

By 1960, McGlohon was directing another show, "The Newcomers," using high school students as musicians, actors, dancers and set designers. He thought his audience needed exposure to fine music. He had grown up on the music of Alec Wilder, the famed, eccentric New York composer who lived in New York's Algonquin Hotel since age 6.

McGlohon began planning a show of Wilder's music. He wrote the composer at the Algonquin, offering to send him a tape after it was done. Wilder wrote back that he'd rather come to Charlotte and hear the music taped.

Two months later, McGlohon mustered the nerve to send Wilder a couple of original songs. Soon the phone rang at the McGlohon house: "Where the hell have you been!" Wilder said without introducing himself.

"I beg your pardon," McGlohon responded.

"I love the songs; I've been looking for you for a long time. How would you like to write some songs together?"

They did, and during the 1960s and '70s, the two wrote some of the most beloved songs in popular music: "Blackberry Winter," "Be a Child" and "Let Me Stay," the theme song for the award-winning "American Popular Song" series that Wilder and McGlohon co-hosted on public radio in the 1970s.

During that time, McGlohon soloed other hits: "Songbird," "The Wine of May," "Where is the Child I Used to Hold," and religious songs such as "Teach Me Lord."

The nationally broadcast show, which launched McGlohon's career on an international scale, was recorded in a lake house near Columbia.

After the first show, Sinatra, Bennett, Vic Damone, Steve Lawrence and others called Wilder, asking to be on the show.

McGlohon accompanied the singers during its six years.

Wilder spent huge chunks of time in Charlotte, writing songs with Loonis and eating Nan's home cooking.

Focused on friends

McGlohon always seemed uncomfortable talking about himself, preferring to tell stories about his many heroes.

"I gained more than they did," he said. "They opened windows I never would have seen. Alec Wilder wrote music I can't imagine anybody being able to dream of. I can't imagine making sounds that come out of throats like Eileen Farrell's.

"I find them much more interesting; I bleed off them."

Beyond his music, McGlohon was a strong booster for Charlotte and the Carolinas throughout his globetrotting.

"He was as passionate about performing at a local church as he was at Carnegie Hall," said longtime friend Ty Boyd of Charlotte. "Even with all his wonderful notoriety, he never gave up his roots."

At the request of former Gov. Jim Hunt in 1983, McGlohon and Kuralt wrote the musical "North Carolina is My Home" as a gift for the state's 400th birthday. The two performed it throughout the country and in Europe.

Even after he was diagnosed with lymphoma in late 1993, he continued to perform. At home, as he'd done all his life, he spent weekends with his trios playing at Carolinas country clubs, wedding receptions, parties and local clubs.

But nightly dinners and church Sunday with the family were sacred. For decades, he directed the church choir, first at Westover Hills Presbyterian Church, then Carmel Presbyterian.

In December, when McGlohon was honored at the elegant FireBird Russian Restaurant in New York, he was thrilled to find the audience full of N.C. friends. "It seemed like all of Charlotte was there," he said.

He spent his final days connected to oxygen, son Reeves said, but he spent them doing what he loved best -- listening to music.

Singer VerPlanck closed her e-mail to friends with: "Words cannot describe how much Loonis will be missed. He is known around the world in the best of musical circles as one of the greats. One of our favorite Loonis songs is `Good Old Friends.' He was definitely that ... he was more than that. We'll try to remember all the things he taught us.