Bay City, Michigan 48706
Front Page 04/26/2024 08:14 About us
www.mybaycity.com August 30, 2012
(Prior Story)   Arts/Theater ArTicle 7315   (Next Story)

HARRY JARKEY: Still Remembered After All These Years by Local Fans

August 30, 2012       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

Printer Friendly Story View

Harry Jarkey celebrates his 99th with a single candle as his friend Joni, left, admires the retired comedian.
 
Artie Kane was 18 when he played drums in Jarkey's act at the Wenona Beach Casino.

Several hundred local fans of Harry Jarkey, Wenona Beach Casino comedian-musician, sent him wishes on his 99th birthday on Aug. 11. Jarkey now lives in Palm Desert, California.

The outpouring of sentiment was ginned up by Jerry Jopke, retired General Motors executive and board member of the Dobson Firehouse Museum, who put Harry's address in The Bay City Times so local folks could wish Jarkey "Happy Birthday."

Linda Jarkey, Harry's daughter, tells the effect of the birthday wishes:

"Harry would like to say, "Thanks for the Memories," to everyone who shared their stories of happy times at the Wenona Beach Casino. These shared experiences, still so vivid after more than 50 years, have evoked laughter, tears and joy. It has given Dad such a lift to hear that he is so fondly remembered.

"I am attaching a photo of Harry and Joni, his loving companion these past 40-plus years. They simply cannot get over the response. The second photo is of Harry and his pal, Artie Kane. Artie played piano at the casino as a teenager of 18.

"The following messages are some of Harry's favorites, and are representative of what folks had to say."

"Thank you for the many years of joy and fun we looked forward to every year at the Wenona Beach Casino."

"You brought a lot of joy, happiness, smile, and, yes, belly laughs, to the people of Bay City and surrounding areas. And you will live on forever in the hearts of a lot of us "Alter Kockers."

These comments were all on one card...

"We have great memories of you when my husband and I were in our teens dating each other. We really enjoyed coming out to see you. Love, Lillian, 88, Bobby, 89, MaryAnn, 82; Maxine, 79, Fran, 91; Theresa, 83, Kay, 86, "The Bay City Gang!" "When you performed there, you were the greatest. Nowadays, comedians can't hold a candle to you."

" You were the social highlight of my parents' life. I heard many stories about you."

###

Printer Friendly Story View
Prior Article

February 10, 2020
by: Rachel Reh
Family Winter Fun Fest is BACC Hot Spot for 2/10/2020
Next Article

February 2, 2020
by: Kathy Rupert-Mathews
MOVIE REVIEW: "Just Mercy" ... You Will Shed Tears, or at Least You Should
Agree? or Disagree?


Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

More from Dave Rogers

Send This Story to a Friend!       Letter to the editor       Link to this Story
Printer-Friendly Story View


--- Advertisments ---
     


0200 Nd: 04-22-2024 d 4 cpr 0






12/31/2020 P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm

SPONSORED LINKS



12/31/2020 drop ads P3v3-0200-Ad.cfm


Designed at OJ Advertising, Inc. (V3) (v3) Software by Mid-Michigan Computer Consultants
Bay City, Michigan USA
All Photographs and Content Copyright © 1998 - 2024 by OJA/MMCC. They may be used by permission only.
P3V3-0200 (1) 0   ID:Default   UserID:Default   Type:reader   R:x   PubID:mbC   NewspaperID:noPaperID
  pid:1560   pd:11-18-2012   nd:2024-04-22   ax:2024-04-26   Site:5   ArticleID:7315   MaxA: 999999   MaxAA: 999999
Mozilla/5.0 AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko; compatible; ClaudeBot/1.0; +claudebot@anthropic.com)