Daniel J. Ory

Daniel J. Ory grew up in Reserve, Louisiana, near LaPlace in St. John the Baptist Parish in an area permeated with the rich culture of Louisiana’s French and Spanish colonial history. The town’s local newspaper in the early 1900’s, L’Observateur, gives a vivid sense of the vibrant cultural life of this rural community, just thirty miles from New Orleans but dominated by such vast sugar-cane plantations as nearby Woodland. In weekly editions of the paper we can read about local agricultural concerns, such as soy bean testing, farm tool improvements, weeding pastures and preventing cow disease. For the many inhabitants of the area who still spoke French, there was a serialized French novel, such as Alphonse Daudet’s Soutien de Famille, which appeared in issues of 1917. The paper also carried news stories about the world war in Europe, and after the United States entered World War I in April of that year, many articles began to appear championing the bravery of US troops as well as propaganda besmirching the Germans. Reserve and LaPlace nurtured a strong community of musicians, some of whom would make significant contributions to the emergence of jazz and blues as important parts of American popular culture. Most notable of these was Edward “Kid” Ory, a French-speaking banjo player and later trombonist, who performed all over the United States and made many recordings. Young Daniel Ory, about the same age as “Kid,” must have imbibed this culture as he came of age, for when he entered LSU in 1907 he joined the band as a piccolo player. The LSU yearbook The Gumbo records that he also played on a championship football team before leaving the university in 1909. Eight years later he responded to the call of duty after the U.S. declaration of war, enlisting in May 1918. His musical talent and background led him into a U.S. army band stationed at the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, PA. While on duty in Philadelphia, he died of influenza, one of the millions who succumbed to this deadly pandemic between 1918-1920. His death was recorded in the Reserve L’Observateur on October 26, 1918.