By Sherrie Benes
Whitewater Banner volunteer staff
whitewaterbanner@gmail.com

Acknowledgement: “I would dedicate my story to my wife Lavona, the love of my life. For without her, there wouldn’t be me….

Introduction: All I can say after my visits with Jerry, is what an eventful life he has had with so many stories to share! The life of someone who shared music with so many; I’m sure you may remember a time or two when he may have brought happiness into your heart!

If you’ve not heard him play, then stay tuned….

On July 11, 1937 Jerry Hartman, the youngest of four, was born to Carl and Alice Hartmann. He was born at the local veterinarian’s home, near Fireman’s Park down by George Street, where his father was also employed by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), constructing the Whitewater Armory building. For some reason, his surname on his birth certificate was spelled with only one “n,” and it stuck. All others in the family spell their name Hartmann.

Jerry recalls as a young boy, traveling to Milwaukee to visit his Grandma and Grandpa Hartmann’s farm for family reunions. He remembers his Grandpa Hartmann being a bootlegger and running his moonshine between Milwaukee and Galena, Illinois. “At that time, we had moved to South Street after living in Milwaukee, and he would stop at our house as a layover with his 1937 Essex Coupe with a rumble seat! I don’t even know how he started that Essex! It had a crank!”

Living on South Street, with few houses at that time, the Hartmann kids often found themselves playing football and baseball with the neighbor kids in the empty lots. He recalls how one time when they had a big snowfall, they waited for two days for the city to show up to plow South Street. Since this was the path the kids took to school, a neighbor (Mr. Wagi) and his father Carl, decided to start shoveling the street. After shoveling out all of South Street, Jerry remembers how the city plow showed up the next day!

While living in Milwaukee, Jerry’s father had worked at a bakery making bread, and when he moved the family to Whitewater, he went to work at the bakery in Fort Atkinson. After spending a lot of years there, he decided to start his own bakery in Whitewater, calling it Hartmann’s Bakery. The family owned bakery was located next to the old Gus’s Pizza on Center Street. His father Carl would bake the bread while his mother Alice would run the front end of the store. During the summer months, his mother would also work at the canning company and in the winter months, she would work at the raincoat company.

When I asked Jerry about his musical interest, he said that it came from his mother’s side, the Meisners. When the Hartmann children were young, they all played some sort of instrument, he said. His sister Esther played the cornet, Carl played the trombone, Ron the baritone, and Jerry learned the drums while in 6th grade. (Of course later on, you will know of Jerry playing the accordion, which Vern Meisner got him to play!) At one time, all of the Hartmann children even played in the high school band together! Although Jerry was not in high school yet, the band director needed a drummer and came to ask Jerry to play.

When Jerry was in the 7th grade, he started playing in the Meisners band. It consisted of just him, and Vern Meisner. Jerry played the drums, while Vern played the accordion! “He was the best accordion player I ever heard!” Later on, when Vern got Jerry to play the accordion, his mom and dad bought him a new one. “I really wasn’t that interested in the accordion, but I heard my dad say to my mother, ‘he’s never gonna play that thing!’ Boy, that really irritated me…” (and now you know his incentive as to why he started playing the “squeeze box”!)

The first time he recalled playing the accordion in public, it was for an assembly in the school auditorium. Vern and he were playing polka songs, and pretty soon everyone was singing along! (He still said that he wasn’t that interested in it!)

During his junior year in high school, he met his soon-to-be wife Lavona while attending a dance at the Armory. She and her family were getting ready to leave when he asked her to dance. Lavona’s dad said, “Go ahead Lavona. We will wait for you….’

Jerry’s senior year found him living with his sister and brother-in-law to finish out his last year of school, while his parents moved to Brodhead to start up another bakery. While he was still unsure of what he planned to do after high school, his “soon- to-be” father-in-law found him his first job at the canning company in Fort Atkinson.

Then on August 24, 1957 Jerry and Lavona became husband and wife.

After their wedding, Jerry found himself at the Dodge/Chrysler dealership for a while, before signing up for the National Guard. After six months of basic training in Missouri, he returned to Whitewater and started working for the Whitewater Post Office. Shortly after, in 1960, the National Guard was called up to report to Washington State over the Cuban Missile Crisis. At this time, he had two small children at home, (Kim and Kevin) with one on the way (Kori). Jerry was allowed to fly home for the birth of his third child, and then was asked by his fellow guardsman if he would drive back his car to Washington State. Of course he did, while loading it up with an accordion belonging to Vern Meisner (who was also stationed out there), and Jerry’s drum set, with the hopes of playing at the Officers’ Club.

He said they didn’t do much while stationed out there, so they were allowed to visit the Officers’ Club. There he met up with some important people such as Tony Kubek (in the Reserves) from the Yankees, and Detroit Lineman John Gordy (Reserves). Jerry said he would also see Ray Nitschke (Reserves) while he was picking up his rations. This was still during their careers and Jerry said he would see Nitschke’s wife come pick him up to take him to training, in their brand new 1960’s Oldsmobile convertible!

After one year and three months, Jerry finally got to return home to his family and back to his job at the Whitewater Post Office. He remained in the National Guard for two years and then signed up to become a volunteer fireman for the Whitewater Fire Department. At one time, he recalled, there were seven volunteer firemen working at the post office, which could’ve been interesting, since five of them could leave each time for a fire call!

Working as a volunteer fireman, he recalled the fire of “Old Main.” “I was playing at the Red Barn in Evansville that night and didn’t know anything about it! But after I dropped off the band members, Lavona met me with my fireman’s suit so I could get right over there! I knew it was trouble. The following night, I remember Randy’s Supper Club feeding all of us firemen afterwards. That was a bad one….”

After working at the post office for 11 ½ years, he began a new job at Weilers, while still playing in his band. The Jerry Hartman Band played at the Red Barn in Evansville once a month, the Harvard Moose Club once a month, along with playing the first dance held at the American Legion! “We have done a lot of anniversaries and weddings there!”

Jerry said he learned to play instruments mostly by ear, although he did take maybe ¾ of a year of band lessons. This seemed similar to his story about Rick Hartmann…

“I really had all good musicians! Rick came along and started drumming for us. He had sat and watched Vern’s drummer and studied him for about two years and that’s how he learned to play! He is a really GOOD drummer!”

Steve Meisner also sat in with Jerry Hartman’s Band and now Jerry sits in with him!

When I asked him what he thought was the craziest thing he ever did, he responded, “I raced cars! Who talked me into that?! I bought a 1939 Ford four door, for a stock car. I bought ¾ cam to soup up the motor with three carburetors on it. If I wasn’t playing, I was racing in Jefferson!”

Of course I needed to know his track record…”I won once, my first race. I got the checkered flag and $7 or $9 for first place!”

On September 28, 2020 Jerry lost the love of his life and his best friend Lavona (Scooter), who stuck by him through all of these crazy adventures.

But I can guarantee you that she will be watching and smiling from above, as he performs in his 73rd Fourth of July parade next week with the Steve Meisner Band! Over those years of playing in the parade, he was with Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, band, booster band, The Jerry Hartman Band…) “I think we’ve made a lot of people happy…” he said with a smile, as we finished up our conversation.

E I E I E I O!! (Yes, you have!!)

Our thanks to Jerry Hartman for sharing his story for our feature Chapter Story!

If you know of anyone who would like to share their story, or your own, please contact me at: sherbenes@gmail.com. Subject Line: Chapter Story

I would love to meet you! ~Sherrie

Our thanks, also, to the sponsors of this Chapter Story!