Billy Nalle dead at age 84

Billy Nalle of Fort Myers, Florida, died on June 7, 2005. He was born in Fort Myers April 24, 1921, and graduated from Fort Myers High School in 1939. He studied piano and organ at the Juilliard School of Music, New York, with Gaston Dethier, and the celebrated jazz pianist Teddy Wilson. Nalle served in the U.S. Navy, 1943-46; during his last year of service he was assigned to the U.S.N. Entertainment Unit, where he toured with Bob Fosse. Following postgraduate studies at Juilliard, he pursued a music career in New York City for television shows on CBS, NBC, and ABC, which lasted over a quarter-century. In 1975 Billy became Artist-in-Residence at the Century II Center, Wichita, Kansas, where he played the organ that had been at New York's Paramount Theatre. He played concerts (both in Wichita and nationally) and made several recordings. In 1993 he was voted into the Theatre Organists Hall of Fame by the American Theatre Organ Society.