RICHARD JAMES “DICK” KRUEGER
1922-2019
Longtime Houston stage, screen and radio performer Richard James “Dick” Krueger, 97, passed away peacefully October 21, 2019 in Houston, Texas.
Dick, the self-described “Young and Adorable
Star of Stage, Screen and Radio”, and who the Houston Chronicle dubbed the “Voice of Houston”, staged a 35-year residency at the legendary Shamrock Hotel with his
Dick Krueger Orchestra. He also enjoyed a national reputation performing in front of thousands of audiences, including two U.S. presidents.
Born in Keokuk, Iowa on July 26, 1922, to Waldo and Ruth Krueger, The Kruegers later resided in Navoo, Illinois, then settled in St. Louis. Dick graduated as valedictorian of his Christian Brothers Academy high school class, and earned his bachelor’s degree, with honors, in economics, with a minor in mathematics, from St. Louis University.
Dick’s career began as a teenager when his father, a dentist, bartered dental work for voice lessons with Irene Blades, the leading voice coach in the city. During his high school and college years, Dick performed with St. Louis’ famed Municipal Opera singing 72 shows in six summers.
At the height of World War II, Dick enlisted in the U.S. Navy, where he served on the destroyer escort U.S.S. Bates. He and his shipmates helped lead the way to the Normandy invasion, and rescued fellow Navy sailors from a nearby ship that struck a mine. While Dick was proud of his military service, he told his war stories like a comedy routine more on par with “McHale’s Navy” than “Band of Brothers.”
In 1949, Dick joined the original national touring production of “Oklahoma!”, which took him across the U.S. and back, for two years. Dick played the role of Will Parker proclaiming “Everything’s up to date in Kansas City” night after night. And although the show’s dancing coaches and fellow cast members did their best to teach Dick how to dance, they soon accepted the fact that he was a singer and not a hoofer. Whenever Dick performed the role, he had what he called his “stunt double” to do the dancing alongside him.
After two years of touring, Dick left the show and, ironically, moved to Oklahoma City. There, he studied voice with Minnaletha White, the former head voice coach at MGM Studios who had returned to her hometown. Lelia Cook, who ran the
Hahn Funeral Home, hired Dick to sing at funerals.
She also hired Henry King’s orchestra to perform at dances at the country club and suggested to King that Dick sing with his band.
The Oklahoma City audition resulted in the perfect match. Dick launched his career with the Henry King Orchestra in San Francisco at the famed Top of the Mark Hopkins Hotel. From that show onward, Dick toured the country as the orchestra’s vocalist.
A few months later, Dick settled in Houston. Glenn McCarthy, famed Houston oilman turned hotelier, signed Henry King and his orchestra to open the Shamrock Hotel and to become its signature entertainment. Dick was seen and heard regularly at the Shamrock’s Cork Club and International Club.
He was featured for many years on the national radio broadcast “Sunday at the Shamrock” and entertained listeners coast-to-coast.
Dick also hosted his own radio show on Houston’s KXYZ. Dick spent more time interviewing celebrities at the Shamrock’s poolside than he did in the station’s studio, and collected autographed photos of all of them. Many of these photos were featured in Dick’s home on his “Wall of Fame”.
Even though Dick settled in Houston and maintained a steady gig at the Shamrock, he still got around. He sang vocals for the Henry King Orchestra at the Washington, D.C. inaugural balls of both President John F. Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. Years later at Johnson’s presidential inaugural soiree, Dick introduced the song, “Lady Bird” backed by Henry King’s band to the pleasure of the first lady.
In Los Angeles, Dick recorded six record sides for RCA Victor including ‘Many Happy Returns of the Day,” “The Most Beautiful Girl in the World,” and “I’m Alone Because I Love You.”
In 1955, Dick appeared on Don McNeil’s Breakfast Club radio show in Chicago where he performed popular selections from the era. During the interview, Mr. McNeil and Dick joked about how his father, the dentist, got Dick started singing. “I was pulled into show business,” Dick giggled, to which Mr. McNeil quickly shot back, “And you discovered that musicians lead a hand-to-mouth existence.”
After Henry King’s retirement in the mid-1960s, Dick formed his own the band,
The Dick Krueger Orchestra. In New York, Dick and his orchestra furnished the music for fashion designer Oleg Cassini and actress
Gene Tierney’s party for their debutante daughter. He debuted “San Antonio.” written by composer Walter Jurmann, with the San Antonio Symphony Orchestra. “We sang it four times,” Dick told the Houston Chronicle
of that evening that honored the Alamo City to the delight of an enthusiastic audience. Dick sang at several extended engagements at the Eden Roc Hotel in Miami, the Rose Festival Coronation in Tyler, Texas, as well as many other hotel and club gigs across the nation.
While friends and family teased Dick that he never worked a day in his life due to his seemingly bon vivant lifestyle, Dick hustled. “The Young and Adorable Star of Stage, Screen and Radio” jokingly added a tagline to his brand: “Available for weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs and other occasions.” Singing at weddings, funerals, and bar mitzvahs proved to be a lucrative business.
Dick purchased a new car every two years (as income tax laws in those days allowed for a full business write-off ). His criteria for a new car wasn’t necessarily its speed, style, or luxury: It was the size of its trunk that mattered most. He carried a library of hymnals from various denominations and plenty of sheet music just so that he’d have the right hymn or song available for that last-minute call to sing at a funeral. From the traditional “The Lord’s Prayer” to Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” Dick was prepared to sing. At the height of his career, Dick averaged 600 funerals a year, plus 25 weddings, and just as many dance club engagements.
On any given weekend since the early 1950s, the always ecumenical Dick could be heard Friday evenings as cantor at a synagogue, singing in with his fellow Catholics at Saturday evening Mass, and leading the tenor section on Sunday mornings at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church. Bill Roberts, Houston’s first gossip columnist, wrote of Dick, “The kid may not know where he’s going, but he’s sure not taking any chances.”
Dick was an icon at St.
Martin’s Episcopal Church since its founding. As the church’s first choir member, Dick served for 58 years as a tenor soloist and section leader. Ever the professional, Dick “retired” from active choir duty at age 92.
In his free time, Dick always kept his body and mind active. He was an avid gardener who landscaped his own front and back yards, and he played a lot of tennis.
Dick almost never turned down a bridge game and sat with a variety of bridge clubs around Houston, including those at St. Martin’s. Dick loved to travel, especially to California where he visited family and friends in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Carmel. He also loved Europe, as well as cruises.
Dick was immortalized in two best-selling novels, Thomas Thompson’s true crime stunner “Blood and Money”, and Anton DiSclafani’s “The After Party,” set within the very prosperous and romantic post-war 1950s Houston society.
Dick is survived by his long-time partner of nearly 30 years, best friend and loyal caregiver, Robert “Bobby” Meehan of Houston, Texas. Dick also is survived by numerous loving relatives of California: brother-inlaw, Michael Martini of Pacific Palisades; nieces and nephews, Barbara Martini Laubacher (Tom) of Oxnard;
Eileen Martini McCranie of Newbury Park; Msgr. Richard Martini of Carpinteria; James Martini (Michele) of Reseda; and Joseph Martini (Jennie) of Mill Valley; and an ever-growing crowd of grand- and great grandnieces and nephews.
Dick is preceded in death by his sister Elaine Martini, and niece Kathleen Martini.
The family wishes to thank all of Dick’s caregivers at Brookdale Galleria for their dedication to and love for their very own “Young and Adorable Mr. Krueger.”
A memorial service is to be conducted at three o’clock in the afternoon on Monday, the 18th of November, at St. Martin’s Episcopal Church, 717 Sage Road in Houston, where the Rev. Dr. Russell J. Levenson, Rector, is to officiate. Immediately following, all are invited to greet the family during a reception to be held in the nearby Bagby Parish Hall.
Please visit Mr. Krueger’s online tribute page at www. GeoHLewis.com where words of comfort and condolence may be left electronically for his family.