[Dixielandjazz] Sad News - Tommy Loy

[Thompson]

Tommy Loy died this morning around 5:00 a.m. from cancer.  He called and
told us "Good Bye" last Saturday when he knew the end was very near.  We
are thankful for his friendship, the entertainment he gave us, and now
that he is at peace.  Arrangements are pending.  

Rebecca Thompson
Flower Mound, TX


Tommy was a semi-retired real estate broker, but mostly he was a
musician. Longtime fans of the Dallas Cowboys will remember him as the
team's trumpet soloist for the national anthem, a job he began on
Thanksgiving, 1966, and held for 22 years. 

He played the National Anthem for Super Bowl V in Miami on January 17,
1971 before 80,000 people in the Orange Bowl and an estimated 100
million on television.  He is the recipient of the BMI Music In Sports
Award in 1982.

Tommy began his career as a professional musician after a stint in the
U.S. Air Force, where he played with the Air Force Band and also served
as a choir director. During the 1950s, he played with the Cell Block 7
and led his own Dixieland group, Tommy Loy & The Loyalists.

>From 1961 to 1974, he played with Ed Bernet and the Dixieland Seven, a
group that later became Tommy Loy and The Upper Dallas Jazz Band.  He
also played with the Richland College Evening Jazz Ensemble, the
Razzmajazz Dixieland Band, and the Scott Whitfield Dixieland Band. Tommy
was a graduate of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, where he
received a Bachelor's Degree in Music Education and did post-graduate
work in theory and composition. He lived in Plano, Texas and was a
member of the Unity Church of Dallas.