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Submitted: 12/4/15 • Approved: 12/6/15 • Last Updated: 4/15/18 • R779621-G0-S3
March 31, 1920 - October 20, 2002
*Obituary
The Monett Times
Monday, October 21, 2002
Robert "Ragtime Bob" Darch, 81, formerly of Newtonia, died Sunday at a Springfield hospital following a year-long battle with cancer.
Mr. Darch was born in the Detroit, Michigan area, where his piano teacher gave him lessons in return for groceries from his father's store. A civil engineer in the U.S. Army, Darch began playing ragtime music full-time after leaving military service in the early 1950s. He began playing in Joplin in the late 1950s at the Glass Hat at the Keystone Hotel, and later at Mickey Mantle's at the Holiday Inn. He helped the Pierce City Kiwanis Club establish Theron Bennett Days in Pierce City, one of the first ragtime festivals in the country, which ran from 1960 to 1970, and was instrumental in reviving the festival from 1997 to 1999. He has traveled extensively for the last 30 years, starting numerous festivals here and abroad.
He is survived by nine children.
The body has been cremated. Private memorial services will be held Wednesday in Springfield. Burial will be in Sedalia, where a New Orleans-style funeral will be held during the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in June.
Bio: Bob was one of the most active and influential of the post war ragtime revivalists. By mid century, Darch, along with people like Max Morath, Johnny Maddox, and Wally Rose, were enthusiastically proselytizing for ragtime and exploring its history.
Darch was one of those truly itinerant pianists, traveling as far as Alaska with his beloved "Five Pedal Cornish Upright Saloon Grand Piano." He was for many years based in Virginia City, Nevada, where he performed regularly and had his own publishing company for his original ragtime numbers, often "Musical vignettes of and about Virginia City," bearing such titles as "Delta Saloon Rag," "A Comstock Disturbance," "A Sawdust Corner Delight", Calico Queens" and one called "Opera House Rag," which commemorates the famous Piper's Opera House. The sheet music states: "By Robert R. Darch, arranged by Joseph F. Lamb."
In addition to playing and composing, Darch was a tireless researcher, and interviewed such ragtime pioneers as Percy Wenrich, Eubie Blake, Arthur Marshall, Joe Jordan, and Charlie Thompson. He obtained the manuscript of James Scott's unpublished "Calliope Rag" from one of Scott's sisters, and made it available to be printed in the third edition of They All Played Ragtime in 1966. He produced a wonderful LP record in 1963 which featured Eubie Blake, Joe Jordan, and Charles Thompson, entitled "Golden Reunion in Ragtime," which included interviews and live performances featuring solo and trio performances.
Contributed on 12/4/15 by wfields55
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Record #: 779621