Person:Wade Mosby (1)

"Band More Than Music Sheets and Mouth Pieces:, Eileen Gosman

How - and why - does someone who knows diddly squat about music start a band? My curiosity was piqued when I read a letter to the editor in the May 31 Herald, reminding readers that Bay resident Wade Mosby founded the Whitefish Bay Community Band.

I dialed up Mosby to get the answer. He said, "Way back, when I had completed three terms on the Whitefish Bay Foundation, I felt the one thing we missed in the village was some musicians."

Mosby said his fellow foundation members, who like himself know nothing about music, suggested that he do it. So, although Mosby had wanted "to leave the foundation with a good idea to work on," he took on the job himself.

It was just a matter of finding one or two musicians, Mosby said, because every community has a network of amateur musicians. He found Wally Just and George Hardy, and they rustled up the rest. Getting rehearsal space, Mosby said, was easy, first at the old Henry Clay School, then in the Lydell gym and finally in the Whitefish Bay Middle School band room, where to this day the band rehearses on Wednesday nights, May through August.

Mosby, who described his role as "the person who kept things glued together," has praise for the Department of Public Works: "The village cooperates about a billion percent. I can be sure there will be a nice tent, 27 to 30 chairs for musicians and a wire to work the public address system.

The band's first concert will be at 7 p.m., June 27 at Schoolhouse Park, and Mosby, as always, will be there. Although he no longer attends rehearsals, he said he wouldn't miss a concert for anything. The band will also play Wednesday nights, July 11 and 25, and 3 p.m. Sundays, August 5, 12 and 19.
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Died Monday, August 1, 2005. Born March 19, 1917 to Wade Hamilton Mosby, Sr. and Elsie (nee Carter) Mosby in Madison, WI. Married Joan (nee Hensel) Mosby on January 26, 1946. Served in the United States Army during WWII. Prior to retirement was employed by the Milwaukee Journal for over 30 years. Survived by wife Joan Mosby, daughters Elizabeth. . ., Sally. . ., and Scott. . ., and 3 grandchildren, . . . . Memorial Service Saturday, August 6, 2005 at 10AM at United Methodist Church of Whitefish Bay, 819 E. Silver Spring Dr., Whitefish Bay, WI. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Whitefish Bay Civic Foundation, 414-962-6690.
Published in Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on Aug. 3, 2005

Aug. 2, 2005
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal staff-written obituary:

One of the first stories Wade Mosby filed after earning the plum assignment as New York correspondent for The Milwaukee Journal was the sinking of the Andrea Doria.

Mosby figured there must be passengers from Wisconsin who survived the 1956 collision between the Italian ocean liner and the Stockholm, so he made a sign identifying himself as a Journal reporter and held it up at the New York dock where survivors were getting off rescue boats. He found a Marquette University professor and his bride, a Maltese marchesa, and "wound up dictating a terrific story of the sinking of the Andrea Doria from the survivors," said former Journal editor Dick Leonard.

Mosby, 88, died Monday at the Congregational Home in Brookfield after a brief illness.

Before he retired in 1981, Mosby edited the popular Green Sheet and the TV-Screen for many years. He was known for his quick wit, his terrific writing - which his co-workers said seemed to be almost effortless - and his mentoring of younger reporters.

"I sat six feet from him for 13 years," said Mike Drew, who succeeded Mosby as TV critic in 1976, "and that was just a continual journalism class."

Celebrity encounters
After serving as the Journal's last New York correspondent, from 1956 to 1958, he returned to Milwaukee and became a feature writer before moving to TV-Screen, a job that sent him to Hollywood periodically to interview celebrities.

When he returned to the newsroom, Mosby recounted stories about actors and starlets he interviewed. Leonard recalled Mosby's story of a famous movie star who mixed him a martini, though Leonard couldn't remember which actor made Mosby the martini.

Then there was the article Mosby wrote about bosomy actress Jayne Mansfield, who posed for a photographer while wearing a revealing white gown and holding an ocelot.

"While she was posing," Mosby was quoted in a 1981 article announcing his retirement, "the ocelot reached out and scratched her on one of her principal assets. The guy from 20th Century Fox yelled: 'Be careful, honey, or we'll both be out of work.' "

George Lockwood, who was the Journal's managing editor for features before retiring in 1986, used to tease Mosby about his taste in television shows. Mosby panned "The Beverly Hillbillies" and "The Flintstones" , and "I never stopped kidding him because they became huge hits," Lockwood said. "I said, 'Helluva columnist you are - you don't know what the public likes.' "

Then there was the crossword puzzle flap. As editor of the four-page Green Sheet, a beloved mix of folksy columns, comic strips and puzzles, Mosby decided one day the crossword was way too easy. So he asked Lockwood, who was in charge of contracting syndicated features like puzzles, to find a tougher one.

"Wade took one crossword in the middle - not the easiest and not the most difficult - and the roof caved in," said Lockwood, vividly recalling the flood of complaints from irate crossword lovers. "He found out our readers didn't want a puzzle that puzzled them. They wanted one they could actually finish."

Mosby caved. He decided to mix up the puzzles with a couple days of easy ones, a couple of days of hard ones and a tough New York Times puzzle for the Sunday paper.

Inducted into the Media Hall of Fame by the Milwaukee Press Club, Mosby grew up in Madison and earned a journalism degree at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. His first journalism job was at the Sheboygan Press. He enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War II and was later commissioned as an officer, serving in Australia and the Philippines.

His daughters, Sally Mittlesteadt and Elizabeth Adler, remembered when their dad was on the zoo beat, writing stories about new animals arriving at the Milwaukee County Zoo. Mosby went to Florida in the early 1960s to cover the arrival of two baby gorillas in Milwaukee.

"He was on the flight and carried one on his lap," said Mittlesteadt.

The Journal's 'Lou Grant'
Mosby, whom Drew called the "Lou Grant" of his generation of Journal reporters, had a great sense of humor which often showed up in his writing. He also liked to tell jokes and was noted for telling a zinger at the end of Journal alumni gatherings.

"Some of them I couldn't repeat and you couldn't put them in the paper," said Howard Fibich, Journal deputy managing editor who retired in 1993.

Mosby was a talented freelance writer whose short stories were published in national magazines and various anthologies. One of his stories, "Death Rides the 12:15," was dramatized on the "Jane Wyman Show" in 1957.

Among his other accomplishments, Mosby was on the advisory board for the broadcasting industry Peabody Awards and served as president of Park People of Milwaukee County, president of the Whitefish Bay Foundation, and founder and president of the Whitefish Bay Municipal Band.

He is survived by his wife, Joan, and children, Mittlesteadt, Adler and Scott Mosby.

A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at United Methodist Church-Whitefish Bay, 819 E. Silver Spring Drive.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=345661 broken link
http://calbears.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4207/is_19950331/ai_n10191147broken link
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/article_brief/eandp/1/1001010541 - out dated link, now links to a different story