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"He comes from that era where jazz started," said Ron Schexnayder, Ferbos' grandson. "Even though a lot of his friends are all gone, he's met all these big guys; so it's wonderful to have him still alive and still on stage and still performing." Ferbos is believed to be the last living member of the New Orleans WPA band, a group formed in the Great Depression by laborers in the Works Progress Administration under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Ferbos said he was digging out one of the lagoons at New Orleans' City Park for the WPA when he was asked to join the band. Manual labor wasn't something foreign to him. Like many musicians of that era, Ferbos had a day trade. He worked for decades as a tinsmith, first in his father's French Quarter workshop, then eventually taking over the family business and building his own workshop. The business made everything from gutters and roofing material to air conditioning ducts for homes and businesses. "Everywhere you drive with him around the city, he's pointing to a place where he had at one time worked," Kennedy said. "He did a lot of work putting tin up in bars." Ferbos retired from the craft while in his 70s. His artistry in metal making was featured in the acclaimed exhibition on Creole building arts at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Despite his long music career, Ferbos made few early recordings. He played at clubs on South Rampart Street, the city strip that in the 1920s and
'30s was the epicenter of a bustling black entertainment district. After he joined the Ragtime and the Palm Court bands, he was recorded on several CDs on the GHB label. He is also featured on other recent recordings with New Orleans musicians. "I just admire his dedication to his music," said Krystle Ferbos, the musician's granddaughter, who attended both birthday celebrations. "The discipline that he's exhibited with his craft is something that I aspire to do with the things that I enjoy in life." Ferbos was part of the original stage band of the off-Broadway hit "One Mo' Time," though he dropped out of show in the
'70s when it moved to New York. He rarely performed outside his hometown New Orleans, which is where he met his wife, Creole seamstress Margarite Gilyot. The couple married in 1934 and remained inseparable for 75 years. Friends and family say they were rarely seen apart before his wife's death in 2009. "When you talk to Lionel you realize how quick a life goes," Kennedy said. "For him, those 75 years vanished in the blink of an eye. It's a lesson to all of us out there to really treasure what life you have at the moment because it's so fleeting." Ferbos won the "2003 Big Easy Lifetime Achievement Award" and has frequently been called on to tell about his experiences in the Depression, as well as in music and with metal making, on panels and in history classes. He plays weekly at the Palm Court Jazz Cafe, where he leads the Palm Court Jazz Band on Saturday nights. At home, he practices often. "He believes in being prepared," Kennedy said. "He will go through his song list to make sure that if he can be bandleader one more time, he's going to be ready."
[Associated
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