'Danny Boy' stirs special memories, emotions for readers

When we explored the song "Danny Boy" on St. Patrick's Day, we triggered a trip down memory lane for many Northwest Life readers, including Vilem Sokol, 87, longtime conductor of the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra.

"The lovely tune had been a part of my repertoire from the time I played Fritz Kreisler's beautiful arrangement on my violin," Sokol wrote. "Toward the end of World War II I met and married a beautiful girl in the Air Force, whose name was Agatha, and whose mother was Nellie O'Hare.

"Eventually we moved to Seattle and raised 10 children. While teaching at the University of Washington, I also conducted the Seattle Youth Symphony for 28 years. Providentially, I discovered a gorgeous setting of 'Danny Boy,' arranged for strings by Percy Grainger. It is this arrangement that I will conduct at Benaroya Hall on the 10th of May when the SYSO celebrates its 60th-anniversary season with alumni players from all over the country.

" 'Danny Boy' will be played in loving memory of Agatha, who went to heaven five years ago. Until your article appeared, I had not known all the words to the tune. When I read them (sung them), so simple and tender, so utterly beautiful, I was overcome with emotion."

Midge Batt of West Seattle told of a poignant memory. A few months ago, she help spread the ashes of a dear friend from the bow of a boat off Alki Point. "And, at her request, we all held hands and sang 'Danny Boy.' "

Batt, 60, said, "My family has been singing 'Danny Boy' for generations — in the car, by the campfire, at the piano, and my grandmother sang it on her radio show in the '30s."

Julia Reid of Mercer Island noted that St. Patrick's Day is the birthday of her son, Dennis.

"He was named, indirectly, for the song and a singer, Dennis Day who sang in his Irish tenor voice on the radio ... on the old Jack Benny show," which Reid, 64, said her parents never missed.

"I can remember his pure high voice, leaping up that interval ... near the end of each verse. When we named our son on March 17, 1965, it was going to be Dennis or Danny."

Joe Giannunzio, 60, a longtime Seattle radio broadcaster under the name "Joe Cooper," said he "always wondered about a song that generates so much emotion no matter how many times you hear it." To our partial list of artists who have recorded the song, the Bothell resident added Elvis Presley and — his favorite, Jim Reeves.

And Patti Warden, 58, of Renton, sent a songbook copy of an introductory verse written by Joseph McCarthy Jr., which begins, "Soft thru the mist that curls above the meadow grass, there walks a maid so gentle and so fair. Beneath the stars that cling like blossoms to the trees, she softly sings a Londonderry Air."

Jack Broom: 206-464-2222 or jbroom@seattletimes.com