Published Monday, Aug. 23, 1999 The 74-year-old, nationally recognized baton twirler and instructor is eagerly anticipating this year's Hickory High School marching band reunion during the Sept. 17 Hickory-Reynolds football game.
At 7:30 p.m. DeVenney will take the field with former band members, musicians, twirlers and dancers from 60 years worth of marching bands.
DeVenney, the band's first drum major, still recalls when he stepped in front of the Hickory Marching Band for the first time.
"I was scared to death," DeVenney said of his debut in the Shenango Valley Armistice Day parade. "I had never been in front by myself. I was told 'Jack, whatever you do, make sure you are in step the whole time.' "
Behind DeVenney, following his every strut, were the first 32 Hickory band members.
"The young ladies who were majorettes made their costumes in home economics class," DeVenney said. "Their boots were snow boots. The rest of the band had white pants where we placed ribbons down the side."
DeVenney's induction into the band was short and sweet. In 1939, DeVenney's high school orchestra director, Louis Cohen, took the then-orchestra drummer to Polagian's Music Store, Sharon, where Cohen bought his student a $10 baton and book on how to be a drum major for $1.
DeVenney taught himself how to twirl and he's been doing it ever since.
There was time for the band to be creative, especially at Christmas and Easter when batons were wired with bulbs and painted. Memorable shows were held when the circus came to town -- setting up where Hermitage Middle School is now -- and for a fund-raiser with a nightclub theme to raise money for uniforms.
"We performed for everything under the sun," DeVenney said.
When DeVenney was a junior he dropped out of school and went to work at the then Shenango Furnace in Sharpsville. He joined the Navy, then returned to work where he was injured in an industrial accident at the plant. He said he again picked up the baton, this time for rehabilitation, which eventually drew him back to Hermitage.
DeVenney said he worked with Hickory's band and earned credit for his high school diploma. Meanwhile, he got involved with VFW bands.
DeVenney worked as a janitor and moved his way up to installation worker for Bell Telephone. In the meantime, he earned extra money marching in parades in Oil City, Franklin, Meadville, and all the way up to Erie.
He also taught baton at the F.H. Buhl Club. DeVenney said 250 girls took his baton class in the five years before he moved to Washington D.C. to take a job as a phone company supervisor.
He and his wife of 30 years, Shirley -- who was a featured twirler for the University of Mississippi when she was 16 -- host Heart of Dixie Half Time camps throughout the world. The couple teach twirling to students from grade school to college. They also own and operate a gown store, A Touch of Class.
DeVenney, a father of four, is the national rules commissioner for the National Baton Twirlers Association and is the second person in the group's 50-year history to receive the honorary title of major.
He said he has no plans to put down his baton just yet.
"It's been a long time, but it's fun," he said.
