Dates

• Existence: 1920 - 2002
• Existence: 1920 - 2002

Biography

Warren R. Durrett was born in Lebanon, KS, December 28, 1920, the youngest of seven children. His parents were Benjamin H. Durrett and Wilma Myers Durrett.

Durrett attended colleges at the University of Oklahoma and Maryville, MO, before graduating in 1951 from Kansas City University with a Bachelor of Arts degree. His schooling was self financed using earnings from playing in college dance bands. In 1945, he started his own band of ten pieces playing weekends at the Continental Hotel Sky Hy Roof at 11th and Baltimore. The band grew rapidly in popularity playing single-night private parties and dinner dances at hotels, country clubs, area colleges, and ballrooms like the Pla-Mor where they set an attendance record for a local band of 1200 admissions in one night. Durrett also expanded the size of the band which grew to 18 pieces by the 1960s and then occasionally to 25 pieces by adding six strings and two singers. During the last years of performance part of the schedule involved performing as the KJLA Music of Your Life Orchestra for ballroom dancing at the Adams Mark Hotel.

Durrett retired the big band when he reached the age of 65. The final performance was a public dance held at the Marriott Hotel in Overland Park sponsored by KJLA radio featuring his 25 piece orchestra. The event was sold out three weeks in advance and marked Durrett's 42nd year as a band leader. During the following 14 years he wrote a 312 page book entitled A Chronology of the Warren Durrett Big Band in Kansas City-1945-86 with pictures and discussions of band personnel and jobbing dates by decades. From 1949 to 1967 Warren operated Durrett Productions, a musical advertising company which composed and arranged music for advertising agencies for use in radio and television commercials throughout the Midwest.

In 1960 he started a career in real estate investment and land development. He formed and directed several syndicates and corporations in this field. He was a member of the National Home Builders Association of Greater Kansas City and the Olathe Chamber of Commerce. He was a member of the Village Presbyterian Church where he sang in the choir for 16 years. In 1991 he was awarded the annual Distinguished Achievement award by Conservatory of Music of the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

Warren Durrett died Sunday, March 24, 2002.

Source Obituary. Kansas City Star 28 March 2002. NewsBank NewsFile Collection. 2 Aug 2007. /infoweb.newsbank.com>.

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