Ralph and Marilyn Harper, among the most senior members of Unity Church of Clearwater, have, since the 1980s, entertained area retirement and nursing home audiences, always for free. “Old Time Music,” featuring Marilyn on the piano and Ralph on “anything with strings,” is their fourth band. In January, they were featured on Bay News 9 as “Everyday Heroes.”
For this gifted and dedicated couple, music has always been an integral part of their lives. Not only did Ralph once sing with Fred Waring, but when Burl Ives came to one of Waring’s shows, noting the talent and height of the young man, he came backstage with an offer that Ralph did not refuse. He worked weekends with Ives for two seasons, after that performing in musical comedy in four states.
Recalling how he got his start in “show business,” Ralph told of the time in 1939 when he and his brother bought a 10-cent joke book, developed a skit and talked their way into performing in a minstrel show in Upton, MA. The Harper boys came from a truly talented family. Their mother graduated from the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, and their dad and his three brothers acted in vaudeville, traveling and performing with such greats as Wallace Beery.
At 16, Ralph, joined a barbershop quartet, growing a moustache to look older, and later advancing to the position of chorus director. At 18, he became the first licensed male LPN in New Hampshire. He also worked in the furniture industry, and it was in a Worchester, MA department store where he met Marilyn. Marilyn was looking for a chair, and, when told that “our Mr. Ralph will help you,” the petite shopper looked straight ahead right into a belt buckle. Her eye drifted upward to a smiling 6 ft. 4 salesman, and she ended up buying the chair, a love seat, two end tables, a coffee table and two lamps.
With the help of her ukulele, Marilyn has written nearly 80 country and religious songs. The mother of a son and daughter in Ohio, she is known for her knitting. When entertaining at nursing homes, she always leaves a knitted gift for a resident celebrating a birthday. A Marine Corp Reserve veteran, she knitted helmet liners for soldiers during the Korean War. Ralph, who served in the Army, is father to 5, and there are 17 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren.
The couple began coming to UCC shortly after moving to Florida in 1973. They have rarely missed a Sunday service, the few exceptions occasioned by hospitalization. “The church,” Marilyn says, “is like family. On Sunday, you can sit at any table in the café, and even those you may never have seen before are simply friends you haven’t met yet.” “The people in this church are all top-shelf,” Ralph says, and “I hope Leddy never retires.”