‘The Force’ Alumni Honor Jones

Jones recently retired following a 54-year career of directing bands at Indiana high schools and Purdue University. 13 of those years were at Winchester. Under Jones the WCHS band grew to receive national attention. 

During the summer of 1977 a group of seniors from the class of 1978 painted a sheet with the words “The Force” on it following the release of the movie “Star Wars” in 1977 and carried it with the band to display at each competition that year. The sign was influenced by a similar sign on the back of a Blue Devils drum corps touring bus observed at a summer drum corps show that summer. That name stuck and to this day remains the nickname for the band.

That 1977-1978 year was a special one for the band as they remained undefeated in competitions. It was also the year they changed from the older style uniforms to the ones with the “Aussie” style hats we now know. The Drum Majors that year were Jan Pursley and David Rook. The Head Majorettes were Donna Anderson and Kelly Kahle. “The Force” won the State Championship in Class B at the ISSMA State Field Competition that year and were invited to participate in the “Great Bands of the Orange Bowl” National Band Championship in Miami, Florida.

On December 28, 1978 “The Force” won that competition. On January 3, 1979 the six returning chartered tour buses full of students, parents and friends paraded through downtown Winchester with sirens and fanfare before making their way back to the high school. A school convocation occurred that day in the auditorium for the band while a more formal community ceremony with state representatives, speeches and proclamations occurred the Sunday evening of January 7 to a standing room only crowd at the National Guard Armory.

The next day however tragedy struck as band member Linda Segraves of the Class of 1981 lost her life in a train/car accident. Later at that year’s “Extravaganza,” her parents John and Helen and her siblings John and Cindy presented the Band Members who were a part of the Orange Bowl show with a medallion in memory of Linda. The image on that medallion was of Linda standing at attention playing her trumpet. That image has now become the logo for the band, with only a few minor changes over the years.

Younger, a member of the class of 1979 reached out to his former bandmates to put this gathering together. The day began with a breakfast for the band members from the class of 1979. They then went to Winchester’s Fountain Park Cemetery for a quiet celebration of the lives of Segraves, Jones’ wife, Dianne, and others they have since lost. 18 of the 26 former Drum Majors and Head Majorettes contacted by Younger gathered in the school’s choir room before the annual Alumni Banquet for a meet and greet where they posed for a photo with Jones and reminisced over old photos and newspaper clippings from their days in band. Younger is hoping to make this reunion of former band members a regular thing, if there is sufficient interest.