Roberts, Earle Harold (1902-1999) | University of Illinois Archives

Earle Harold Roberts (1902-1999) was a banjo player, bassist, and music teacher who performed with the Danville Symphony, Eastern Illinois Symphony, and Medicare 7, 8, or 9 Dixieland Band. Roberts was born in South Haven, Michigan on July 26, 1902 to parents Jay and Josephine Roberts. He was raised in the southside of Chicago and learned to play piano from his mother and violin from a family friend. By age 16, he was playing for local high school dances. He graduated from Englewood High School in Chicago in 1919. Shortly afterwords, he taught himself to play banjo, guitar, bass, and cello.

Roberts secured his first professional gig at Rainbow Gardens Night Club in Chicago and soon after began accompanying silent films with various theater orchestras. During prohibition, he played for several Chicago-area hotels, clubs, and speakeasies. From 1929 to 1939, he worked a staff musician for the NBC radio station in Chicago. He performed regularly on the "Don McNeil Breakfast Club," "Carnation Show," and "Armour Hour" radio variety shows and also performed for the Sinclair Minstrel Show. In 1939, he gave a multi-instrumental performance at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago, playing a variety of classical selections on banjo, guitar, cello, bass, vibraharp, steel guitar, and tuba.

After his marriage to Leora Roberts ended, he moved to Danville, Illinois and began supporting himself as a private music teacher and as a bassist in the Danville Symphony. In 1949, he began a B.S. in music education, but he never completed the degree. Around 1978, Roberts was approached by University Professor Dan Perrino to join the Medicare 7, 8, or 9 Dixieland Band. Roberts agreed, performing at the 1980 University of Illinois Homecoming Parade. In 1990, Roberts was nearly killed in a traffic incident on his way to a performance in Champaign, but recovered and continued to play with the group until 1999. Roberts died in Danville, IL on January 21, 1999.

Nancy Gilmore, The Magic of Medicare 7, 8, or 9 and All That Jazz (Champaign, IL: Sagamore Publishing, 1993): 75-78, 127.

Earle Harold Roberts, US Find a Grave Index, online at: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/255390580/earle-harold-roberts.

Nadine Duerwachter, "UI has Its Mr. Belvedere - Or Life Can Begin at 47," Daily Illini (December 7, 1949): 4.

"Notes of Music and Musicians," Chicago Tribune (June 11, 1939): 89.