The Life and Legacy of Don and Nadina Baird: Part 1
We would like to thank Julie Collins for taking on another project for the WT Band Alumni Association. This time, Julie has graciously agreed to write an article about the Baird family and its matriarch, Nadina (Baird) Oney. Please take a moment to read these wonderful articles about Don & Nadina, their children, grandchildren, and extended family members. I promise they will bring a smile to your face and most certainly a few tears.
Best,
Don Lefevre
Director of Bands
West Texas A&M University
Nadina Mae Loucks was born February 19, 1934 to Orlando and Mildred Loucks in Ponca City, Oklahoma. Nadina and Don Baird attended church together as children, she as a fourth grader and Don as a sixth grader. At that point they “kind of started liking each other”. They were childhood sweethearts, neither one ever going out with anyone else. Although they “kind of liked each other" they did not start dating until Nadina’s sophomore year and Don’s senior year.
Nadina initiated their first date during Leap Week, where the girls ask the boys out. They had been friends a long time and Don had not seemed to notice Nadina. At the end of orchestra rehearsal Don was putting away his trombone and Nadina her string bass. She asked him to the movies and he said, “Yea, when are you going to come get me”? Just then it dawned on Nadina that she did not have a driver’s license! She told him her mother would come pick him up and he said, “That’s alright! I’ll come pick you up!” They had a movie date about once a week after that.
Not only did Nadina play string bass but she also played flute because she wanted to be in the marching band. Nadina was named Band Queen during her senior year. She had started out on violin, making the All-State Orchestra for two years. After that, the only string bass player in their school orchestra graduated, leaving them without a string bass player. The orchestra director asked who would like to switch to string bass. Nadina shot up her hand because she loved the sound of the bass.
Don’s first lesson on the euphonium (or baritone as it was called at that time) was when he went to college. He had started on cornet but his junior high director recognized that his embouchure was not suited for a small mouthpiece and suggested the baritone. Don said it made him feel like a 'tiger out of a cage' and he really took off on the baritone. He played on a banged up school instrument, of course, and when he went to college he did the same. In the spring of his freshman year at Phillips University the band was getting ready to go on a recruiting tour. They chose Don to be their soloist and surprised him with a new euphonium they had been able to purchase. Don continued playing this instrument until he graduated.
Nadina’s parents were not extremely musical. When Nadina started taking piano lessons her mother started along with her. Her mother advanced faster than Nadina, in Nadina’s words “because she was an adult” and eventually became a music teacher. Nadina’s father wanted to learn music. He got his parents to order him a violin out of a catalog but he had no one to teach him. Nadina started orchestra on that violin!
Both Nadina and Don’s mothers went to college. They were both teachers. Nadina’s mom became a third-grade teacher but Don’s mother never had the chance to teach because she graduated and got married. At that time married women were not allowed to teach. Nadina’s parents got married on Christmas Eve 1928. Her mother had to keep the marriage a secret until the end of the school year because she would have been fired.
Upon Don’s graduation he attended Phillips University in Enid, Oklahoma. He would hitchhike home every weekend to see Nadina. When the weekend was over his father would drive him back to Enid. Nadina and the whole Baird family would go along most of the time. When Nadina graduated she also wanted to go to Phillips University but she received a nice scholarship to Oklahoma City University and her parents insisted she go there, majoring in string bass. Nadina met Harry Haines while attending OCU. She had an aunt that lived near the campus. Don would travel from Enid to Oklahoma City to see Nadina. Nadina had a friend that lived in the dorms in Enid so she would ride the bus to see Don. In college Don took woodwinds class and took a liking to the bassoon. He picked it up and on his senior recital he played both bassoon and euphonium. He performed the Mozart Bassoon Concerto.
In 1953, before Nadina’s sophomore year and Don’s senior year they got married. Nadina transferred to Phillips University. A string department did not exist so Nadina became a flute major. Dr. Millburn Carey, Don’s college band director and head of the music department at Phillips, took Don and Nadina under their wings. In their first year of marriage the Millburn’s hired Don and Nadina to babysit their children while they traveled to Russia for a couple of weeks. They knew Don and Nadina were struggling financially and were very generous. After graduation Don was eligible for the draft in support of the Korean War. Don knew he had to do something immediately or he would get drafted. His uncle, David, and his friend, the Senator from Oklahoma, helped him get drafted into the US Army Band in Washington, D.C. Dr. Carey had found out about the openings in the West Point Band, Navy School of Music and the Army Band. Don chose the Army Band! He was going to teach music theory at the Navy School of Music but decided he would rather play in the Army Band in 1954. This meant a move to Washington, D.C.!
Don was needed immediately for the summer concert season. He auditioned for and won the solo euphonium position. Being a very important position the band needed him right away so his basic training was delayed. Don drove to Washington, D.C. in their 1939 Plymouth. Phillips University allowed Don to take their baritone to the audition. He was only there for three days and drove home. Almost as soon as he got home he had made the decision for the Army Band. If Don had enlisted he would have been in the Army for three years and may never have had the chance to play in the band. The band played two concerts a week. Don was issued a regular (beat up) Army baritone. As soon as he could, between winter and summer seasons, Don got a free Army transport plane ride to Paris. He made his way to London and the Boosey-Hawkes factory and purchased the euphonium everyone is familiar with in the brown faux alligator case! His grandson, David Blanchard, still has and plays the instrument.
Nadina stayed behind in Ponca City. After Don’s basic training she took the train to Washington, D.C. around December 1. After moving to D.C. Nadina got a job at the Pentagon as a clerk/typist for the Office of the` Chief of Staff for the Army. She had clearance for top secret correspondence that came in and out of the office of the Chief of Staff. She said it was a very interesting job! This was in the era of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles! She was too young to understand what was really going on. She just did what she was told! During her time at the Pentagon she went from a grade 3 clerk to grade 5.
After basic training Don was immediately made the rank of Sergeant. Everyone in the band held that position. Don played in the band for two years. Don had the incredible opportunity to play for President Eisenhower. The President was in Walter Reed Hospital and the Army band assembled on the grounds to play for him. The President looked out the window and waved at them!
Don then went to the University of Illinois for his Master’s degree. A move to Illinois ensued to Urbana/Champaign. Remarkably, Don finished his Master’s degree in nine months. By that time Leslie had been born (1956) at the Army Hospital in Washington, D.C. Nadina became a stay-at-home mom to care for Leslie. Leslie was six weeks old when Don left the Army and moved to Illinois. They lived in Illinois for only 9 months.
Don then realized he needed a job! He took the first job available in Caldwell, Kansas (south of Wichita) as band director. At mid-term, around Christmas, his college band director had discovered that a band director was needed at Bowie Jr. High in Odessa, Texas. The position had not been filled in the fall. His director told the people in Odessa that he had” just the guy” for them. Don went down to Odessa and became the director of Bowie Jr. High! In January of 1958 the Baird family moved to Odessa, Texas! Don and Nadina’s son, Steve, came along in April. While at Bowie Jr. High Don had a motorcycle. He was very competitive in nature. Don would leave for work so early and would drive by Bonham Jr. High, their competitor to see if Kyle Crain (band director at Bonham) was there yet!
In 1963 the family moved back to Enid,Oklahoma where Don became the band director at Phillips University. He held this position for three years. The call came from WT needing a low brass teacher. At the time Nadina was pregnant with Janie (1965) and Nadina told Don they were not moving! There was a scandal in the music department at WT during that time. The President of the University was Dr. James Cornett. He was a staunch Baptist and felt that it would look bad for a divorced man to be teaching. Although the professor was not at fault, he was asked to leave. The head of the music department was involved and was also fired. The former brass teacher had established a strong department, teaching all of the brass. At the time Don was hired, it was decided to divide the brass department into two positions. The Baird family moved to Canyon when Janie was five weeks old!
Don was hired for the low brass and brass methods along with Dave Ritter for the high brass in 1965. He was also the assistant director for the marching band and directed the concert band. Teaching the concert band was a very difficult position for Don because everyone wanted to be in the Symphonic Band with Dr. Garner and morale was low. Don taught the concert band until his first heart attack in 1972. After that he needed less stress and gave up the concert band and marching band. Don also taught at the WT Band Camp before he was hired at WT. Don was already well known at WT when hired him for the low brass position. He had taught at band camp and served as the band camp director for a number of years. Don continued in these positions until his death in 1979. There was not another concert band director or assistant marching band director until Don Lefevre in 1987. Ironically, they share the same first name!
Nadina was a member of the Odessa Symphony Orchestra playing flute. She and Don were also members of the Amarillo Symphony Orchestra for 17 years. They both held principal positions, Don on trombone and Nadina on string bass. However, Don first went to the symphony as the principal bassoon. There was no opening on trombone and Don did not feel proficient on trombone. Eventually the principal trombone made a decision to switch to percussion and Don received the trombone position. One concert Don had to play Ravel’s Bolero. Leslie recalls he was very upset all week. She asked him why he was so upset, after all he was a professional musician. He asked her how she would feel playing a piccolo solo in front of 2000 people! “ I’m playing the hardest trombone solo that there is,” said Don. He knew that some symphony trombone players state in their contracts that they will not play the solo in Bolero. Don continued playing in the symphony until his death in 1979.
Along with Mr. Baird and Mr. Ritter, the WT Music faculty was very strong. Emerson Haraden was the horn teacher. Later Ron Lemon replaced him. Don also taught with other esteemed educators: Rowie Durden (clarinet), Dr. Gary Garner (flute, saxophone, orchestra, wind ensemble and band), Charles Veazy (oboe), Dr. Robert Krause (oboe), Bill Davis (bassoon) and Dr. Harry Haines (Head of the Department of Music). Nadina served as the secretary of the Music Department and Band Camp.
Sadly, Donald Ray Baird suffered a fatal heart attack while playing golf at the Canyon Country Club with Russ Blanchard. He was 47.
Nadina had taken a few courses at Phillips while Don was band director, studying things that she enjoyed. Nadina had also taken a few classes at WT along the way. In the early 80’s Nadina started out as a junior, learning to play the organ. An organist was needed in her church so Nadina started there and decided she needed some lessons. Nadina earned a Bachelor of Composition and Organ from West Texas State University in 1986.
After Don’s death Nadina took jobs at the WT Post Office and the Retirement Village in Canyon, often working long nights. I had first made friends with Janie, ironically, at band camp during the summer of 1979. Little did we both know that our friendship would become a lifelong friendship. Janie was my big sister in Tau Beta Sigma and I approached her about renting a room from her mom. Nadina graciously opened her home to me and allowed me to rent a room for $100.00 per month. Nadina often helped me with theory and piano late at night. I remember a beautiful rug on the wall of the small office in their home at 1110 Sixth Avenue. It said, “A euphonium is merely a baritone with flowers in the bell”! I have fond memories of sitting in the kitchen late at night while Janie was making reeds and Nadina was catching up on our day and learning about Don, whom I never had the honor of meeting.
After Don’s untimely passing, Nadina continued to live in Canyon until 1986. She moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma to help care for her parents. Janie was ready for her senior year at WT and Steve, Nadina’s son, was teaching in Tulia. Steve, and his wife, Kathy, agreed to move into the lower floor of her Canyon home, rent free and keep up the repairs and bills. Janie and I lived upstairs. That freed Nadina to move. Nadina got a job with the State Agency for Older Americans and rented a house near her parents. That September Nadina attended her 50th class reunion and reconnected with Dick Oney, who had been a childhood friend since 1st grade. He had never married and said he was just waiting for Nadina. They fell in love and married April 2, 1988. Dick was a sales representative for W.W. Grainger in Kansas. They lived in Topeka. Dick retired in 1999. Since he had no children, they were free to move near Nadina’s children and they chose to move to Las Cruces, New Mexico, near Leslie and Janie, who were living in El Paso. Don and Nadina’s only son, Steve, passed away on January 3, 2011.
Nadina and Dick enjoyed traveling until Dick became ill and passed in 2020. Nadina then moved to the Woodlands, Texas where she has resided since 2021. Nadina is currently moving into a home next door to Leslie and Russ Blanchard. Her daughter Janie, and her husband Anthony Sanchez, live nearby in San Antonio. Nadina still enjoys playing piano, sewing, quilting, embroidery and riding her electric bicycle. She also just returned from a family cruise to The Caribbean. Nadina tells me she has had a hodgepodge life! I think we can all agree that Nadina has had a wonderfully full, exciting, interesting life and is still going strong at 91 years young!
I know of no other family as musical as theirs. The rich musical heritage of the Baird family is astonishing. It reaches from Nadina and Don’s parents to their great-grandchildren. I imagine it will go even beyond that!
Stay tuned for Part II-an interview with Leslie Baird Blanchard and Janie Baird Sanchez, along with memories of Steve Baird.
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This was wonderful. I was a student, (tuba player), of Mr. Baird’s in the mid to late 60’s. Thanks for letting me get to know him better through this history of his life.
Rick Perryman
Mr. Baird was my trombone instructor at WT when I arrived in 1967. After my Bachelors degree in Music Education, Mr. Baird asked my to stay one more year, get my Masters degree, and be his grad assistant and teach some young (usually freshmen). trombonists. During the spring semester, Don had his first heart attack. At that point, Dave Ritter (the fantastic trumpet prof ) and I took on the teaching duties of Don’s students for the rest of the semester while Don was recuperating. Dave Ritter then became my new instructor, helping me prepare for my Masters recital. I loved Don Baird, who was a terrific teacher to me. Also, I was so appreciative of Dave Ritter to get me through my Masters Recital, and we continued to gig together in jazz groups. A wonderful friend! These WT brass instructors will always be in my heart and memory.
Well done Julie! A family of musical legends indeed!
What a great article about an amazing family! Getting to study with Don Baird in the mid ‘70’s was one of the best highlights of my musical career, and while I never got to know Nadina very well, I knew that she was a very special lady! Thanks for this insight into their lives, and allowing some awesome memories to come flooding back!!
When I was a Junior in high school my band director urged me to go to band camp to study with Don Baird who he said was the best euphonium player he had ever heard. I went and Don wrote me a letter to help me get a much better instrument to play. It worked. I got a new instrument and practiced a lot more. I now have a doctor’s degree in music composition. My first college teaching job was at WT. I was really glad to discover that Don Baird taught at WT. I taught his wife and all of his children. One of my most memorable experiences was playing a duet and a quartet with Don on one of his faculty recitals. Nadina was our daughter’s piano teacher. I composed “A Cantata for Band to Remember Don Baird” after his death and a solo for Euphonium or Tuba and piano called “October in July”. I remember well Don saying “It feels like October but it’s July” one early morning at the WT band camp. He was one of the most important people in shaping my musical career.
Joe Nelson
And Julie Collins, thank you SO MUCH for writing about Don Baird. Your work was wonderful, and I loved every word.
I began studying with Mr. Baird when I was a seventh grader in Wellington. I remember the long drives to WT on Saturdays and being so excited to take each lesson. I began my college education at Sam Houston State under duress. We had moved to Sugarland my senior year of high school so it was decided I should attend SHSU rather than WT. After two and a half years I decided to pack up and head to WT. Mr. Baird found me a house, a job and helped me enroll. I could not have succeeded without Mr. Baird. His love, encouragement and teaching helped me through some pretty rough years. I am eternally grateful for everything he did for me. I think of him often. Thank you for the article and sharing what a great human Don Baird was.
In the fall of 1966, Mr. Baird started giving me trombone lessons my senior year at Canyon High School. He was extremely helpful in me receiving some music scholarships so I could attend WTSU. Mr. Baird was not only my private trombone instructor, but a mentor in helping me to mature as a musician and band director and later as the bandmaster at Missouri Military Academy in Mexico, Missouri for 21 years. I remember as a freshman during one of my lessons, Mr. Baird recommended we get a cup of coffee and talk. This was my first taste of coffee and to this day I enjoy a good cup of coffee. However, the coffee break was a reminder how he genuinely cared for me; not only as a musician, but as a person. Mr. Baird was my private trombone instructor from the fall of 1967 to my graduation in December of 1971. I will always have fond memories of him. I truly enjoyed reading the article about Mr. Baird and his lovely wife, Nadina.
Thank you for posting such a fine, detailed biography of Don and Nadina. I knew him through marching band at WT when I was there from 1969 – 1975. His musical abilities were evident from the very beginning. Hearing him play his baritone was always a privilege. The music department at WTSU was made better by his presence and his dedication to excellence in all that he did. His death at such an early age was a terrible loss for the university and his family. His legacy will go on through his descendants. Thank you, Mr Baird, for all you have done to encourage your students over the years.
By the way, even though I was a French horn player at WT, I am currently playing baritone with the Energy City New Horizons community band in Houston. I am really enjoying learning how to play this beautiful instrument.
Great article Julie! Don Baird was such a kind gentleman. I admired him greatly.
I was teaching in Tulia in 1983. Steve Baird came to be my assistant. We had a GREAT time together those years. Later we always reveled in being a part of the rich legacy of band directors who taught in Tulia over the years.
Such a wonderful family. All close friends.