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First Plainview band director dies

By Jared Felkins
The Times-Journal

Published November 27, 2009

Robert Wisner, a DeKalb County gospel music pioneer, Korean War veteran and the first band director at Plainview School, died Thursday morning after a brief battle with lung cancer. He was 80.

Wisner was a Korean War veteran, who served in the U.S. Air Force as a medic and was in the U.S. Air Force Chorus.

In DeKalb County, he was best known for organizing and starting the marching band at Plainview School in 1961.

Plainview principal Ronald Bell was a student at the time.

“He was very energetic about the band,” Bell said. “Whether you were in the band or not, you knew how instrumental he was with the band at the time. He was a great person to be around, as well as a great musician and a great teacher. He lived next to the school, and after I became principal I would see him working in his yard.”

Wisner was a teacher in DeKalb County for 18 years and helped in the early days of the Sylvania, Fyffe and Geraldine marching bands.

In 2006, former Plainview band members organized a reunion in Wisner’s honor during homecoming, and Wisner led the band in playing “The Star Spangled Banner.”

Wisner was also a member of several gospel quartets, starting in the 1950s, including the Plainview Quartet, The Rhythm Boys Quartet, the Golden Harvest Quartet, the Robert Wisner Family, the Diplomats, the Silvertones and more.

Because of his gospel efforts, Wisner and his wife, Mary, were honored during this year’s Pap Baxter Heritage Gospel Singing as part of Boom Days in Fort Payne.

“He was certainly one of the pioneers of the gospel effort around these parts,” said Boom Days coordinator Russell Gulley. “He started the Plainview band and taught music to a lot of students. He was what we called a tradition bearer and passed down a lot of his musical talents to his children and other children in DeKalb County. He opened the gate for other people to learn the gospel tradition.”

At the time, Wisner said he was proud to be honored among his peers.

“I’ve been in the music field since I was a kid,” Wisner said. “I started about the age of 7 or 8 going to my first singing school. I have a proud feeling, but I don’t try to boast. I am just grateful the good Lord allowed me to do this all these years. It’s really a great honor that they would do this for me, and I know my wife Mary of 62 years would feel the same way.”

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