by Dennis Dalman
Music was the “best medicine” for famed rock ‘n’ roller Bobby Vee and his family when he was struggling with the last stages of Alzheimer’s disease before he died at 73 in 2016, just months after his wife, Karen, died of kidney failure.
Less than a year later, a widow in Avon, Irene Linn, also died of Alzheimer’s at age 65. The mother of five boys, she was diagnosed with the disease in 2009.
The happy but often heartbreaking memories of Vee and Linn motivated their survivors, their loved ones, to start the annual “Rock 4 Alzheimer’s” in St. Joseph seven years ago. The next event will take place from 1-8 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 11 at the parking lot behind Bad Habit Brewing Co. in downtown St. Joseph. Doors open at noon. There is no admission charge, but a free-will donation is suggested. To learn more, visit rock4alz.com.
Presented by Sentry Bank, the event will feature musical performances by “The Killer Vees,” featuring Bobby Vee’s sons and other musicians, “Slip Twister,” “Collective Unconscious,” “Anderson Daniels” and several others. There will also be musical and singing performances by young people during a “School of Rock” event on stage.
The Vees (family name Velline) are well known in St. Joseph as they own Rockhouse Productions, a recording studio in an old bank in downtown St. Joseph. The family was also instrumental in starting the Joetown Rocks music event in St. Joseph the night before the annual Fourth of July Festival in the city.
A tandem event, “Walk to End Alzheimer’s” will take place Saturday, Sept. 10 at Lake George in St. Cloud. Check-in starts at 9 a.m. To register, visit act.alz.org/stcloud.
“We are determined to do our part to end this horrible disease and to support those who suffer from it, as well as their caregivers,” said Jeff and Tommy Vee, sons of Bobby Vee. “Everyone has a story so please come out and enjoy a great day and share yours.”
Money raised will go to the Alzheimer’s Association (St. Cloud area chapter), and some of the funds will be donated to the Bobby and Karen Vee Scholarship for Youth Arts and Music in Central Minnesota.
Music has always been a daily bond and a healing force in the Vees’ family.
“Music has the power to soothe, to heal, to bring joy and connect memories,” Jeff Vee said. “We have experienced this as performers who brought joyful music from town to town with our father and many others. This concept was never so intensely real to us as it was when we witnessed the power of music brings smiles, tears of joy and special memories to our Dad as he struggled with the disease and nothing else seemed to work. Music was our best medicine.”
The Walk
The “Walk to End Alzheimer’s” will begin with registration at 9 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 10 at the Lake George Municipal Complex by downtown St. Cloud. The walk will begin at 10 a.m. right after opening ceremonies.
It is one of 600 events to fight Alzheimer’s that will take place across America that day. The goal is to raise $170,000 for the non-profit Alzheimer’s Association. Contributions are tax-deductible.
The walk is expected to attract 200 or more participants, including team walkers. To join the walk, it’s best to register ahead by going to its website at act.alz.org.
Volunteers are needed for set-up, clean up, registration, water stops and other duties. If interested, call the event’s coordinator, Jenny Theis, at 320-257-0696.
Alzheimer’s
Alzheimer’s, an especially tragic and terrifying disease, is just one form of dementia that can cause memory loss to occur, along with language impairment, interference of normal activities and relationships. In some cases, the disease can cause anxiety, agitation, delusions and hallucinations.
More than six million Americans now have Alzheimer’s disease, and one in three Americans died of that disease or of another form of dementia.
Alzheimer’s kills more people than breast cancer and prostate cancer combined.
More than 11 million Americans provide unpaid care for people suffering from forms of dementia. In 2022, the disease will cost the United States $321 billion, and by 2050, that cost is expected to increase to $1 trillion.
Bobby Vee
Born Robert Velline in Fargo, Bobby Vee became an overnight teen-star sensation in 1959 with the release of a single record called “Suzy Baby.”
Velline and his “garage” band, dubbed “The Shadows,” were huge fans of singer Buddy Holly, and they were all eager to hear Holly perform in Moorhead one night in early February 1959.
They were all devastated when they heard the terrible news that on the night of Feb. 3 four men died in a small-plane crash in a farm field near Clear Lake, Iowa. One of them was Holly; the others were hit-singers Richie Valens (“La Bamba”) and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson (“Chantilly Lace”); and the 21-year-old pilot of the plane. They had been enroute to the planned performance in Moorhead.
On radio, a call was put out to request any band or bands in the Fargo-Moorhead area who could perform in place of Holly and the other stars.
Velline and his band volunteered. A talent scout in the audience liked what he heard. That led to the recording of the hit song “Suzie Baby,” rapidly followed by other gold-record smash hits like “Devil or Angel,” “Rubber Ball” and “Take Good Care of My Baby.”
In 1963, Vee married Karen Bergen of Detroit Lakes. In the early 1980s, they and their growing family (three sons, one daughter) moved to St. Cloud and later to the Richmond-Cold Spring area.
The musical family did a benefit concert for many years to raise funds for Cathedral High School (where the children attended school) and for many other causes throughout the years, including some for St. Joseph, such as Rock 4 Alzheimer’s.
In this photo taken circa 1960, a young Bobby Vee (third from left) shows the beaming optimism of a music star on the rise as he and his band (“The Shadows”) began to record hit after hit in the early 1960s. The others in the photo are Jim Stillman, Bob Korum and Bill Velline (Vee’s older brother).
Participants at a “Walk to End Alzheimers” event carry artwork flowers in honor of people who are suffering from Alzheimers disease and/or for those who died of it.
