When Sally Dern was a senior in Taft’s second graduating class, January 1941, the competition to be valedictorian was fierce, chronicled in each edition of
the “Taft Tribune,” but she won the honor. December 1940, when she was profiled as “Girl of the Month,” the author noted her participation in pageants, the debate team, student council and
service hours helping the advancement advisor, Maybelle Capron. She was also frequently recruited to play her accordion. She wanted to be a composer.
At DePaul University, which didn’t offer an accordion degree, Andy Rizzo was the professor offering accordion studies. Sally told the TAA HOF audience how she
and three other students organized the “Andy Rizzo Quartet” to play classic accordion.
“All the music had to be transcribed from piano scores. We did nothing but the
classics, like Bach and Mozart. They at least lent themselves to (the accordion)
keyboard.”
Right after she got married “to a wonderful Marine,” she and the other three
quartet members packed themselves and five accordions (one spare) into her
Buick. They toured for six months, to New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. All
expenses were paid, and since no one had heard of classical accordion they found
several university programs were interested in the idea.
Back in Chicago, the Derns raised their family. She eventually got into real
estate and performed with “Those Were the Days” radio show reenactors, where she
was rediscovered by members of the June 1959 Taft class, who invited her to come
talk to them about the early years at Taft. The accordion is long retired, but,
“At 96, you’ve got a heckuva lot of memories,” she said.