Moon Maids

Band leader and singer Vaughn Monroe is no longer here "Racing With The Moon," but his Moon Maids are in perfect voice today, singing the hits of the '40's. Remember that terrific quartet of cute girls who backed Vaughn's band? They had a perfect blend of musical tones and they still have that marvelous mix. They've added a guy -- Harold Grogan, Sunset High graduate and a husband of one of the girls. They call themselves the Moon Maids Plus One -- Tinker Rautenberg, Mary Jo Grogan, June Braton, and Carol Piper. Harold's the Plus One. They sing all of my favorite tunes, and if you're one of the older better bunch, they sing your favorite tunes too! Actually, eveeryone loves to hear them sing.

I first knew the Moon Maids at North Texas State University when they appeared on the Saturday Night Stage Show. The college sponsored an amateur talent show each Saturday for all of the students, because in those days college students in Denton had no transportation to Dallas or Fort Worth. We stayed in Denton over the weekends to catch the acts of fellow students. Four North Texas girls organied a group which they called the Singtet [sic] -- a close harmony group. They won a talent contest in 1943, and this win gave them the opportunity to travel with a USO troop [sic] for a year. The girls came back to North Texas and continued singing in the area. They would readily approach band leaders at the Casino in Fort Worth and Lu Ann's in Dallas and beg for a chance to sing with the band.

They were a bold group, but rather shy individually. Nevertheless, they knew one thing -- they could sing and they loved it. One evening, they ran into a talent scout for Vaughn Monroe. In those days every big band had a vocal group, and this scout decided that the girls were just what Vaughn Monroe needed. Vaughn heard a recording of them and decided that they were perfect for his band. The news that they had the job reached them exam week, January, 1945. They could hardly believe it. Sight unseen, Monroe took them. They joined the band on March 2 with 15 arrangements in their repertoir. Off they went on the road to sing for postwar America. These were the concluding years of the big band era, and they were great years.

When Vaughn did see the girls, he commented on Tinker's height. "If you were any taller, I'd have to send you back." The rather vain Vaughn wanted to be the tallest on the stage. Tinker, of course, stayed, but one of the girls didn't. She went back home to get married. One could get tired of traveling. Playing one nighters was hard, but it was such a great experience. They played the Capitol Theater in Washington, D.C. They were at the Meadowbrook on Long Island. There was the Paladium in California and the Strand and Commadore [sic] Hotel.

Then came the big deal -- the Camel Caravan. The girls sang the songs and the commercials. "How mild -- how mild -- how mild can a cigarete [sic] be!" It was all a picnic for the cute girls from Texas.

They appeared in a movie, Carnegie Hall, which was a collection of scenes from night clubs. Vaughn was featured with one of the Moon Maids in one of the scenes. All in all, the girls made 58 records for RCA while they were with the band.

When the girl left to go home she recommended another girl from North Texas to take her place. This was June Brtone [sic] who had her own singing group. "Would you like to join us, June?" "Would I!!! It's what I dreamed of!" A Sunset High graduate, Harold Grogan was singing with June's group. It so happened that they were in Ohio, the same place where Vaughn was appearing. The connection was made. I should say "connections" because this is where Mary Jo met Harold. They were married in 1951. All of the girls married in 1951.

Tinker tells of the time that the band went to A&M to do a show. Vaughn insisted that they sing "The Eyes Of Texas." The girls told him that this song would not be well received by the Aggies. Vaughn didn't listen and they did the number anyway. There was no response. "We told you so!" Vaughn was always surprised in Texas. When the Caravan went to Denton, it was the girls who got the standing ovation -- not Vaughn. They were at home.

What's happening today? Well, June married a violinist who eventually retired and they are in Dallas. Mary Jo married Harold Grogan, and they live in Dallas. Tinker Rautenberg is happily married in Dallas. What's this? The girls are back together again? How ironic!

For years they made television jingles. The jingle business has been a big business in Dallas for the past 30 years. When close harmony was needed, the girls were ready. At the recording studio they met Carol Piper. Her husband is a musician who writes jingles. The three and Carol got together and began to sing the old songs. Harold joined in. They realized that they were producing some great sounds, so the Moon Maids Plus ne [sic] was founded. Their band consists of their children. Bryan Piper is a pianist. Paul Piper and Tim Grogan are drummers. Dan Grogan plays bass, and Richard Braton plays guitar. It's all in the family. They sing and play everywhere and have made several recordings. And here's more irony -- Vaughn Monroe has a daughter who is a student at North Texas!

The Moonmaids (sometimes styled as two words: Moon Maids) were an American female jazz and popular vocal quartet that started out as college student entertainers under the name "North Texas Swingtet." As the Swingtet, they launched and performed with the Aces of Collegeland at the University of North Texas in 1943 and grew in popularity throughout the region. Vaughn Monroe hired the group, renamed it "The Moonmaids," and debuted them with his orchestra on April 11, 1946, at Loews Theater in Washington, D.C.[1] The Moonmaids rapidly rose to national acclaim performing and recording with the Vaughn Monroe Orchestra for RCA Victor. Within four months of joining Monroe, the Moonmaids were on the cover of Down Beat (August 26, 1946)[2] and featured in Radio Mirror (January 1947)[3][4] With personnel changes now and then, the Moonmaids performed with Vaughn Monroe from 1946 to 1952.[5]

Members
Founding members
Katie Myatt
1943–1947 Katie Myatt (née Verda Kathryne Myatt; 1926–1965) — sang with the group for the initial 15-month engagement with the Monroe Orchestra, then returned from New York in July 1947 to marry Moddie Eugene Smith (born 1927) on July 19, 1957, and re-enter college at North Texas as a senior that fall. At birth, she had been adopted by John Franklin Myatt (1888–1968) and wife, Lois "Nana" Myatt (née Denton; 1892–1959), who had taken her home from the hospital after her mother died giving birth to her. Her biological father's surname was McClendon. Moddie and Katie had two children, Steven Lynn Smith (born 1950) and April Smith (born 1952).[6]
Hilda Tinker
Cunningham
1943–19?? Tinker Cunningham (née Hilda Grace Cunningham; born 1928) married Bill Rautenberg (né William Guido Rautenberg; 1924–2004) on July 16, 1951, in Denton, Texas[6][7]
Arline (Arlene) Truax
1943–19?? Arline Truax (1927–1985) left to marry James Rex Meek (1926–1989). She was connected to music and North Texas through her father, Glen Truax (né Alvah Glen Truax; 1896–1968), who was a distinguished pioneer music educator at the high school and college levels in and around Canyon, Texas. He had been an orchestra director, double bassist, and swing band leader. His also had held short posts at West Texas A&M University (orchestra director and director of instrumental music around 1946) and had studied music during the summer at the North Texas (1944).[8]
Mary Jo
Thomas
1943–19?? Mary Joe Thomas (born 1927) married singer Harrold Curtis Grogan (born 1920) on April 7, 1951, in Dallas[6][9]
Other members
Maree Lee
1947–1952 Before joining the Moonmaids, Maree Lee (née Ahn; born 1924) currently ninety-six years old, from Bellevue, Ohio, had been a singer with the Lee Sisters Quartet (aka Le Ahn Sisters, two of whom were her real sisters) performing with Horace Heidt (beginning in 1940), Ted Lewis, Monroe, then as soloist with Dick Rogers, then with the Norton Sisters, then, after the Moonmaids (who replaced the Norton Sisters) had been working with Monroe, she joined the Moonmaids, turning it into a quintet. In addition to her ensemble roles, she had been Monroe's lead singer. Soon after two Moonmaid singers left to get married, the quintet became a quartet again, with Lee filling the third spot (replacing Myatt) and June Hiett filling the fourth.[6] Lee left Monroe's band on December 20, 1952, to get married.[10] She was married to George William Eger, Jr. (1918–2002).
June Hiett
19??–19?? June Hiett (né Dorothy June Hiett; born 1925) married Ed Bratone (né Edmund John Braghittoni; 1910–1981), a violinist with Monroe’s orchestra,[6] on January 6, 1951, in Arlington, Texas.[11]
Lois Wilber
19??–1953 Lois Wilber (née Lois Marguerite Wilber), originally of Minneapolis, was a member of the Moonmaids for several years. In 1952, she married Ernie Johnson (né Ernest Eugene Johnson; 1921–1970), originally from Rockland, Maine, who played piano and arranged for the Vaughn Monroe Orchestra for 7-1/2 years, and later, for his own band.[12]

Years with Vaughn Monroe

1946 - 1953



Summary of Group



Maree Lee



In Memory of

Katie Myatt



In Memory of

Arlene Truax



Mary Jo Thomas



Tinker Cunningham



June Hiett



Ruth Wetmer



In Memory of

Lois Wilber



Betty McCormick



Kathleen Carnes



Dee Laws







Arlene Truax, Maree Lee, Katie Myatt

Mary Jo Thomas, Tinker Cunningham

photo courtesy of Jay Montague





Maree Lee, Mary Jo Thomas,

Tinker Cunningham, June Hiett





Ruth Wetmer, Maree Lee (top), Lois

Wilber, Betty McCormick (bottom)

photo courtesy of Maree Lee Eger







Kathleen Carnes and Dee Laws






Main

Orchestra

Musicians

Photographs

Female Vocalists

Marylin Duke

Rosemary Calvin

Cece Blake

Del Parker

Murphy Sisters

Norton Sisters

Lee Sisters

Moonmaids

Shaye Cogan

Betty Johnson

Male Vocalists

Ziggy Talent

Moonmen





























































Summary

On the Name . . .

Monroes' new fem vocal group which was first hired as a quartette, has now been increased to a quintette, with the addition of Mary Lee, a former member of the Lee Sisters.

The four girls, who were discovered by Dixon Gayer, NY publicity agent, have had a variety of tags in the short time they have been with the band. First they were to be known as "The Moonbeams" but it was discovered that Kay Kyser used a group of that name on a recent record. They switched to "The Moon Racers," dropped that and are now known as "The Moon Maids."

(Newspaper clipping submitted by Jerry Furris)

Lois Wilber

From Lois's Niece . . .

I'm saddened to let you know that my Aunt, Lois Wilber Johnson, who was a Moonmaid until 1953, passed away December 15, 2014 in Minneapolis MN. It was 44 years to the day after her husband, Ernest Johnson, pianist and music arranger for Vaughn Monroe, passed away. After my Uncle Ernie left the orchestra, they moved to Dallas, Texas, where he started his own band, and when he passed away, Lois moved back to Minnesota with their four children to rejoin her family.
Sincerely,
Karen Anthony

Mary Jo

On being a Moonmaid . . .

I was one of Vaughn Monroe's original Moon Maids from March 1946 to late December 1949. What a great experience! Being on the weekly Camel Caravan radio show kept us constantly reading music and learning! We met many celebrities who were guests on the radio show. There were long stints at The Meadows night club, The Commodore Hotel, Atlantic City and Asbury Park, as well as theaters across the country. And there were those one-nighters, all across America! We were on more than 50 Victor recordings with Vaughn and the band.



On those one-nighters . . .

Yes, those days with Vaughn Monroe were fun, (and TIRING) but exciting! We Moonmaids lugged around heavy luggage, as we lived out of a suitcase and a trunk! We had make-up kits to drag along too. We also kept our gowns in hanging bags. Much of what we used was carried in the equipment truck that went to our jobs separately from the bus we rode in. It sometimes had to be carried by us though.


We traveled by bus most of the time, but occasionally by train. I can remember only a time or two that we flew to a job. We would arrive in the town we were to appear in, in the wee small hours of the morning---after playing a job somewhere else, then riding all night to the next venue. We checked into a hotel, bedraggled and groggy, and tried to get a little more sleep.


Some of the time we gals had a dressing room, but usually we dressed in a restroom, or even in the back of the instrument truck. NOT what one would call glamorous! It was a way of life we accepted as part of the job. We had little time for glamour! We did our own hair and make up, and took care of laundry and cleaning. I think the entertainers of today have a
much different life style. Our bus was just that---A BUS! No TV, or restroom, or beds! I could tell you many tales about that bus!


One nighters were our most common types of jobs. We traveled all over the U.S., and did the Camel Caravan radio shows every Saturday night from a different University. Vaughn Monroe was not always with us on the bus. He owned his own private plane, ----and, he also was a pilot.



On her subsequent career . . .

After leaving the band, I married Harrold Grogan--also a group singer who had sung as one the the "SonnySiders" with Sonny Dunham's big band. Together we sang in various vocal groups and recorded jingles and commercials. We were a part of the creation of singing radio jingles in the 1950's! Later, we recreated the Moonmaids, adding Harrold to the girls' voices, and naming him our "Plus One." Vaughn's wife, Marian, gave us the OK to use the Moonmaids name for our group. Thus, the Moonmaids Plus One, who sang for more than 10 years, standard songs of the big band era! We recorded two cassettes and one CD during that time.



February 2004

Tinker Cunningham

On working with Vaughn Monroe . . .

We were probably so young at the time, we didn't fully realize how very fortunate we Texas gals were! We just knew he [Vaughn] was a very fair "boss" and easy on us when we flubbed!!! We loved it when he called us "his Texas kids."



On the two new girls . . .

When Mary Jo left in Jan. of '50, Ruth Winston was hired to be our new lead singer. But that next 6 months was a grueling continuous time of one-niters, with a week stand in one or two of the places, so it was no wonder that June and I were ready to pack it up and head back home. However it was the hardest decision I ever had to make!!!

Dee Laws

On the Last Engagement as a Band...

We were the last group of Moon Maids! Vaughn gave up the touring band with a last date at West Point. Edie Gorme was the guest singer and I think it was a Camel Caravan Radio Show. Edie was just starting out in those days and had worked with us before in "borrowed gowns"! Whenever I saw her later in NYC she always called me the "Moon Maid".


On Current Endeavors...

I am presently an instructor at College of the Desert in Palm Desert, CA. I teach Human Communication and Public Speaking there and I also teach ESL for the Palm Springs Adult School and work as their Publicity person, creating brochures, writing press releases and ads. I'll start teaching a graduate course in Career Counseling for Chapman University this fall as well.
I'm very involved with the Community College Association in the state (the higher ed. division of California Teachers Association, largest in the country) and am on the board of directors. I'm also Chair of the Part Time Committee and lobby important community college bills in the capitol at Sacramento.



May 2002

...It all started when two college music majors, Mary Jo and Tinker, talked Arline and Katie into becoming the Swingtet, a harmonizing female quartet. Their satin-smooth harmonies helped win the College Capers contest and the prizes included being broadcast on a weekly radio show in Dallas and a nine-week USO tour. The tour was cut short for the Swingtet when the Defense Department discovered that War Department regulations forbid the employment of females under 18 years of age: Tinker was 16, Arline and Mary Jo were 17. Only Katie was 18....

..."Maree Lee taught us everything," said Tinker. "She gave us a crash course on stage life and got us over our fear of being in front of people."

After a year in New York, two of the original girls returned to Texas. Katie left to be married and Arlene left because of an illness. Faces with a decision of finding new singers, it was decided to return to a quartet format and they hired another Texas girl, June Hiett.

June's addition was not surprising as she had entered North Texas State University two years before with hopes of joining the Swingtet after hearing them sing on the radio. When there was no open position, June formed her own girl quartet called the Blue Notes. Her group later recruited Harrold Grogan and eventually was asked by the Sonny Dunham band to be their vocal group and they became known as the SonnySiders...