LaVerne Donald "Verne" Meisner (December 4, 1938 – June 10, 2005) was an American polka musician born in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

, and raised in

Whitewater, Wisconsin Whitewater is a city located in Walworth and Jefferson counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located near the southern portion of the Kettle Moraine State Forest, Whitewater is the home of the University of Wisconsin–Whitewater. As of the 2 ...

. He was inducted into five halls of fame, including the

International Polka Association The International Polka Association (IPA) is located in Chicago, Illinois and dedicated to the study and preservation of polka music and the cultural heritage of Polish Americans who have made this music tradition part of their heritage. The IPA ...

Hall of Fame as a "Living Legend" in 1989. He is best known for the songs "Memories of Vienna" and "El Rio Drive." Meisner was known for playing Cleveland-style polka

waltz The waltz ( ), meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom and folk dance, normally in triple ( time), performed primarily in closed position. History There are many references to a sliding or gliding dance that would evolve into the wa ...

es. Radio personality George Mlay said, "No one can play a waltz like Meisner." He released 30 singles and 20 LPs/

CDs The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octo ...

, wrote over 60 songs, and sold approximately one million records in his career. He toured the

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, Europe, and

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, playing 200 to 250 dates per year for 40 years.

Career

Meisner began playing polka music in a band as an 11-year-old after receiving his first

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

as an 8-year-old. He attended dances and learned how to play music by ear after several months of listening to

Frankie Yankovic Frank John Yankovic (July 28, 1915 – October 14, 1998) was an American accordion player and polka musician. Known as "America's Polka King", Yankovic was considered the premier artist to play in the Slovenian style during his long career. He ...

's music on his

phonograph A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

. Meisner formed his first band, which began performing in 1950 as "Verne Meisner and the Polka Boys". He briefly toured with Yankovic in 1955. His first recordings were created in 1957 when the band recorded the original tracks "Memories of Vienna Waltz" and "Polka Dancers Polka" on the Paragon Label. Meisner and his band began to be noticed around Milwaukee after they appeared on the Fritz the Plumber Radio Show. They recorded their second record, "The 400 Polka and Waltzing in Vienna", in 1957 and followed it up with 1959's "Pretty Polly and Till I Return". When Meisner's

National Guard National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. Nat ...

unit was called up in 1962, the band did not release a record until it came out with the

LP album The LP (from "long playing" or "long play") is an analog sound storage medium, a phonograph record format characterized by: a speed of rpm; a 12- or 10-inch (30- or 25-cm) diameter; use of the "microgroove" groove specification; and a ...

"A Polka and Waltz Holiday," on

Cuca Records Cuca Records was an American independent record label, of Sauk City, Wisconsin, United States, was founded by James Kirchstein in 1959 and actively produced LP and 45 rpm recordings until the early 1970s. During this period, Cuca recorded and rel ...

Halls of fame

Meisner was inducted into five halls of fame. Besides his 1989 induction into the

Hall of Fame, he was inducted into the Cleveland Style Polka Hall of Fame and the Minnesota Polka Hall of Fame, and received the Wisconsin Polka Hall of Fame Lifetime Achievement Award. Meisner and his son, Steve Meisner, were the first polka artists to receive the

Wisconsin Area Music Industry Wisconsin Area Music Industry (WAMI) is an American volunteer organization founded in 1980, and based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Its stated purpose is "to educate and recognize the achievements and accomplishments of individuals in the Wisconsin music ...

(WAMI) award in 1988.

Personal life

Meisner was married to Judith Ann Kutz and the couple had three children (

Steve ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

, Daniel, and Michele Bush) before divorcing. His second wife, Shirley Tyson, died in the 1980s. He suffered from

alcoholism Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol (drug), alcohol that results in significant Mental health, mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognize ...

after spending so much time performing in bars, but he became sober in his 40s and alcohol-free for the final 20 years of his life.

Death

He died from

melanoma Melanoma, also redundantly known as malignant melanoma, is a type of skin cancer that develops from the pigment-producing cells known as melanocytes. Melanomas typically occur in the skin, but may rarely occur in the mouth, intestines, or eye ( ...

complications on June 10, 2005. He was living in

Waukesha, Wisconsin Waukesha ( ) is the county seat of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. It is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Its population was 71,158 at the 2020 census. The city is adjacent to the Village of Waukesha. History The area that ...

at the time. In his death announcement in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', the newspaper said "Considered one of the titans of polka, Mr. Meisner was a bridge between the classics of the Lawrence Welk era and the pop-infused polkas of contemporary artists. To thousands of fans, he was second only to Frank Yankovic, the acknowledged king of polka."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meisner, Verne 1938 births 2005 deaths Polka musicians Musicians from Milwaukee