Recently the group “Patches”, an all girl band that spanned 18 years from 1977 – 1995 and played a three state area of Nebraska, South Dakota and Iowa was inducted into the Nebraska Country Music Hall of Fame in Hastings.
The 32nd Annual Nebraska Country Music Awards event was October 19th and 20th in Hastings.
Patches was known for their tight harmony, humor and great dance music. Members inducted were: Jeanie Anderson and Viv Lackas of Wausa, Eunice Palu of Norfolk, Laurie Larsen of Bloomfield, Marj Oleske of Martin, South Dakota and Babs Wolfgram Plainview (deceased).
Honorable mentions were given to Beth Greeno of Loveland, Colorado and Deb Bloomquist of Wausa, Mike Peck of Yankton, Brian Clinton of Clearwater and Ken Crisp, address unknown.
Jeanie, Laurie, Eunice, Viv and Marj had not performed together as an original group for 27 years. They rehearsed four times before the weekend, but never all together. The extended group, Patches II, continued performing until 1995.
They decided to enter in some of the competitions on that Friday night so they could sing and play some of their music. The OutBack Band backed the girls.
Patches backed by the Outback band took first place in the Pro – Group category with 9 people on stage, it was awesome!
OutBack took 2nd place in the Pro-Group Category.
Members are: Laurie Larsen of Bloomfield, Howard and Jan Grimm of Lynch, Dave Bergquist of Lynch and Ken Atwood of Forestburg, South Dakota.
Singing the Auctioneer song, Laurie Larsen took 1st place in the female vocal category.
In 1984 when Patches won the Country Wrangler showdown contest and represented Nebraska in Nashville on the Grand Ole Opry Stage, 96 people traveled on chartered busses to hear the girls and support them in Nashville, TN. Over 70 fans and family traveled to Hastings to again hear the girls and cheer them on. All the girls were honored to have so many family and friends attend and support them at this once in a lifetime event. Greg Wolfgram of San Francisco, the son of Babs Wolfgram, attended to receive the Hall of fame award for his mother.
It was a very emotional and touching moment on stage.
Patches and the OutBack Band on Saturday night sang: Leaving Louisiana, Mr. Sandman and the song they played that rocked the house was Pontoon by Little Big Town.
Patches and OutBack brought back 5 trophies – one of the trophies went to Jeanie and Tim Andersons grandkids for traveling the farthest in Nebraska to the Country Music Festival.
At the end of the night – the members of the Country Music Foundation voted the Patches girls backed by the OutBack Band as Entertainers of the Year 2012 and besides a large trophy won a $1250 recording session at Clamhead studio at Cairo, Nebraska.
