Heritage Presbyterian Church, Alexandria, VirginiaMemorial Service, Frank Worden, July 24, 2001
Pastor Bob Curry
Heritage Presbyterian Church, Alexandria, Virginia
Memorial Service, Frank Worden, July 24, 2001
Pastor Bob Curry
Last summer I embarked on a wonderful adventure. I became a regular golfing partner of Frank. Frank's disease was becoming more difficult and Nancy simply needed some time to herself. Frank needed a golfing partner, and I love to play golf.
I would pick him up at the house and my adventure began. Frank, by then, had a difficult time getting his thoughts articulated. You could see in his eyes that his mind was working - just as sharp as ever, but he simply could not get it out.
I would say to him, "Frank, you know what you want to say but you just can't get it out!" And he would nod his head and his eyes will fill with tears. Altzheimers is a cursed disease!
Arriving at the course, Frank would hurry into the club house and sign us in - I would find our cart and away we would go.
Neither of us were very shy - and so we talked and talked and talked. He told me how he met Nancy. "Love at first sight and forever." He described his experience in Pearl Harbor. And he recounted his music career.
One afternoon during lunch Frank had been describing a command performance they had done for President Roosevelt. As we got out in the hall, Frank started singing the song they sang, and dancing the dance they danced. He never missed a word, a note or step. Frankling Delano Roosevelt!
It was an unforgettable experience done so many years ago and brought to life in the halls of Mt. Vernon Country Club by a man who had been there and was returning to it, as the disease took its dreadful toll.
One morning I arrived to pick up Frank and I ripped a hole in my shirt on their back door. I mean it was bad. Of course, I made a big fuss about it and Nancy had to buy me a new shirt. Looking back on the shirt incident I think I must have done it on purpose. Frank always dressed to the "T's". Everything was perfectly matched, he had no fat at all on his body, and he was a handsome man. I said to him, "Boy, you sure know how to pick your clothes! "Oh no," he said, "I don't pick my clothes. Nancy does it all." Well, that explained a lot and the lovely shirt replacing the one caused by my carelessness proved her good taste.
Our Presbyterian Church Book of Order has a prayer offered at the funeral service which I have always felt expressed my feelings at the time of death. "We thank you, Eternal God, that for our brother death is past and pain is ended and that he has now entered the joy you have prepared, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
Frank's debilitating disease meant that he slowly began to die some years ago. The manifestation of the progress of the disease is that the individual regresses in their mind. The person really begins to live in his past.
An old man turned up some years ago at a Day Care Center in South Carolina. He was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. One day the care givers were startled to hear the old man singing in a clear and sweet voice, nursery rhymes - all in perfect German.
It was discovered that his family had emigrated to the U.S. from Germany when he was a very small child and that his mother had sung to him these very songs in German. It was not long after that the old gentleman died.
So there is great comfort in that old Presbyterian prayer. We are thankful that for Frank death is over. And we are thankful that for Frank, his pain is done. In so many real ways, it is a prayer—the one prayer of thanksgiving that we can offer at the time of the death of any loved one; and genuinely be thankful.
Not only did Frank dress well, Frank was the consummate gentleman. I don't mean a Victorian gentleman, but rather, hyphenate the word "gentle" - "man".
He was a gentle man. Although his disease sometimes denied his gentleness, even the in home that was his last, when visited, the nurses eyes lit up and they expressed their love for Frank.
Frank was released from his disease just a few short days ago. He was surround by his loving family. He was nursed and doctored by caring professionals. But most important, he died with his hand in his beloved Nancy's, and big band music filling his room and the halls of the hospital. And he died gently.
We are thankful, loving God, that for Frank death is over, his confusion is over, and his pain is over. Now be a presence to Nancy his children and those whom he loved, even as you were a presence to him. Amen. Bob Curry
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BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Frank Newell Worden, born August 14, 1921 in Friendship, New York, departed this life at Dewitt Army Hospital on July 18, 2001 after a lengthy illness. Frank enlisted in the US Navy on August 18, 1939, and was commissioned October 30, 1945. He was accepted as a student at the Navy School of Music located at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. In 1941, he volunteered to replace a trumpet player in the band scheduled to go to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. At that time, almost the entire Pacific fleet was stationed in Pearl Harbor and every battleship had a band. Frank was assigned to the Commander of the Pacific Submarine Force Band. On the evening of December 6, 1941, his band, one of four finalists, played in a "Battle of the Bands" won by the USS Arizona Band. The next morning, December 7, 1941, Frank and a friend were walking back to the barracks after breakfast when they saw a low-flying plane with the rising sun insignia. "We wondered what the plane was doing there. It only took ten seconds. The Japanese were strafing us and the war was on." The Navy sent Frank to Bowling Green University where he fell in love with and married Nancy Jane Marsh on November 3, 1945. Frank transferred to the University of Michigan where he played trumpet in the Wolverine Marching Band and graduated from the Business School. He furthered his education, graduating with distinction from the Harvard Graduate Business School with a Masters of Commerce in Supply Management. In 1961, he received an M.B.A. from George Washington University. Commander Worden served on many ships and in many ports. He retired from the US Navy Supply Corps on August 31, 1965. He lectured at George Washington University Graduate School of Business for several years then co-directed General Business, Inc. Training Institute in 1967 and 1968. He became a Certified Financial Advisor and instructed business courses at Northern Virginia Community College. In 1970, he was Vice-President of Economic Development for the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce, and until 1994 he served as a business consultant for General Business Services. Commander Worden was on the Board of Directors of many companies and organizations in the Washington DC metro area. He also organized and played in the Mount Vernon Swing Band. Commander Worden was preceded in death by his son, James Carlisle Worden. Left to cherish his memory are his wife, Nancy Jane, son Jon Marsh Worden and his wife Elizabeth Draper Worden, his daughter Jane Newell Shepherd and her husband Jerry Alvin Shepherd, as well as grandchildren and a great grandson. A memorial service was held July 24th at Heritage Presbyterian Church. |
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REMEMBERING FRANK Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Owen Hammett, and we are the Mount Vernon Swing Band. Up until a few years ago I would have added, under the direction of Mister Frank Worden. How many time have I spoken those words since I became the band's announcer? Frank was a gifted musician. He learned to play well in high school. When he graduated in 1940 he had no specific direction for his life, and he decided to join the Navy as a musician. In those days the Navy would form a new band and send the entire band through both basic training and music training at the same time. Then, the band would go as a single unit to its new assignment. All major ships and all commands had their own bands. A new band started each month, and each month a band graduated from training. When Frank's band neared graduation, the band ahead of his lost a trumpet player. The other bands were asked to nominate their best trumpet players to join the band about to graduate. Frank's band did not yet have an assignment, but the band about to graduate was going to Hawaii. The time is Summer 1941. Frank is chosen to join the band assigned to the Commander, Submarine Forces Pacific, stationed at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. To entertain the sailors, the various command and ship bands in Hawaii would hold music competitions, called "the battle of the bands." Frank's new band would enter these and always did well. On Saturday night, December 6th, 1941, the latest contest ended with the band of the USS Arizona taking honors, beating out Frank's band by only a few points. By 10:00 the next morning the entire band of the Arizona lay at the bottom of Pearl Harbor with their ship, the victim of the attack Sunday, December 7th. The irony is that the band from the Arizona was the band Frank originally trained with. After Pearl Harbor the Navy began to expand, and Frank was offered a slot in officer training school and was sent to college. Frank continued to perform while in college, in both the marching band and in swing bands. Frank retired near Mount Vernon and became a respected accountant. This allowed him to indulge his love of music. In 1979 he joined Mr. Al Hall and others to form the Mount Vernon Community Band. The purpose of the band was to provide music for local events and at retirement homes. Frank also played with a number of semi-professional swing bands in the Washington area. It was while playing with one of these bands at a local retirement home he decided that the Mount Vernon area needed a swing band. The band he was playing with usually charged a high fee for its music, but was performing for free because the band leader's mother was a resident of the retirement home. Frank's business brought him in contact with a wide circle of other professional people, and he happened to know the lady who was the activities director of the retirement home. After the concert he noticed that she was drying her eyes. He was concerned that there might have been something wrong with the performance and he asked if there was a problem. The activities director said "no", and then pointed out an elderly lady in a wheelchair. She said "that lady has been here over a year, and this is the first time she has come out of her room, except for meal." At that moment Frank decided that the retirement homes needed to hear the music of their youth, the music of the golden age of swing. He started with the members of the community band. Rehearsals were at the Mount Vernon Presbyterian Church in the old barn. Sometimes there were only a handful of musicians at rehearsals, but Frank did not become discouraged. He built the band into one that, today performs more than 50 times a year, and the Dixieland Band performs another fifty. The Dixieland Band is smaller than the swing band and will fit into smaller retirement home venues, such as Summerville, Aarondale and Sunrise. Frank leaves a musical legacy that will continue to serve the Mount Vernon area for many years to come. Thanks Frank for your vision and patience, and, mostly, for calling what we do, "music." |
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Participating in the service:
Rev. Robert C. Curry, Pastor |
Remembering Frank:
Owen Hammett - Band Master |
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