EDITOR’S NOTE: St. Joseph-Ogden will induct five new members into its Hall of Fame on Sept. 15, 2023 at halftime of the school’s homecoming football game against Chillicothe IVC. The new inductees are Brian Allen (Class of 1993), Jerry Hewerdine (teacher and coach), Marvin Lee Flessner (Class of 1951), Susan Pensinger (teacher and coach) and Randy Wolken (Class of 1968). Today’s profile: Marvin Lee Flessner.
By FRED KRONER
Marvin Eugene Flessner won’t show up on any lists of the most influential Central Illinois country musicians of the past 75 years.
That’s because only family and close friends know him by his given name.
The rest of us know about him through his stage name, Marvin Lee.
Now 90, the rural St. Joseph resident has been singing country and gospel songs, playing his guitar, accordion or piano and entertaining folks since his teen-aged years.
Lee has been a fixture on the Central Illinois scene for three-quarters of a century.
He was a regular guest on an area radio show as well as later hosting television shows on two different Champaign stations.
In the mid-1950s, he played with Johnny Cash, Little Jimmy Dickens and Ernest Tubb in summer shows in the park in Monticello. He once shared the stage with a group of musicians then known as Wild Country and, another time, was joined by Champaign resident Alison Krauss.
Lee is also a former St. Joseph-Ogden school board member who served 13 years, including during the time when future Hall-of-Fame coaches Randy Wolken (1979) Dick Duval (1988) were hired.
A 1951 St. Joseph High School graduate, Lee is one of five individuals who will be inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame at halftime of the Spartans’ football homecoming game on Friday, Sept. 15.
As good as he is at captivating an audience, Lee’s memory is equally strong and is filled with a lifetime of stories.
Lee and his band were playing at an anniversary party on a Sunday at the Hitchin’ Post, in Rantoul, in the early 1970s.
Another group had played during the week and would return to the stage when the new week started. They had left their equipment set up on stage and suggested that Lee and his comrades use it for their performance.
It was a gesture he accepted as it reduced the tear-down and set-up time. He even invited them to perform with him.
“They sounded pretty good,” Lee said, “but I thought we did, too.”
The members of Wild Country changed their name in 1977 and now – known as Alabama – have sold more than 75 million records (and produced 41 No. 1 hits) and are in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Lee doesn’t dwell on what might have been for himself. In fact, he’s happy with the way his life has worked out.
He and his band had an audition in Nashville, at the Grand Old Opry, back in the mid-1950s. They were told to go home and record a song, make a hit and they might be considered for the Opry.
“Joe Rider (a Champaign-area disc jockey known as the Country Gentleman) heard us play at the Rose Bowl (in Urbana, where he earned $15 a night in 1955) and thought we were good enough to go to Nashville,” Lee recalled. “It didn’t work, but I’m glad it didn’t.
“That life is not for me.”
When Lee and his wife, Elaine, were married 66 years ago, he said, “I told her I’d only play a couple more years. She has reminded me of that a few times.”
He has a slate of dates lined up through the remainder of 2023, including a return to Philo, where he has played outdoors on Tuesdays in August since 2008.
In the 1950s, Lee was a regular on the Clinton-based radio Station WHOW’s weekly Cornbelt Country Style show.
One of the station’s disc jockeys at the time was John Hartford, who later wrote “Gentle On Your Mind,” which was ranked by BMI as No. 16 in December 1999 on its list of top 100 songs of the century.
Lee is not just about performing. He enjoys giving others the opportunity to be in front of an audience.
“I like to give people a chance to perform and see where it takes them,” he said.
By 1980, a Champaign youngster was making a name for herself by winning state-wide fiddling contests.
Lee found the address for the family of Alison Krauss and showed up at their residence on a Saturday with his guitar.
“I asked her mother to hear her play,” Lee said. “I got my guitar out and we played square dance tunes.”
His TV show is what got him in the door for his unannounced visit,according to Krauss’ mother, Louise.
“We knew who he was because of the TV show,” Louise Krauss said. “I recognized him.”
As he was leaving, he asked the 9-year if she sang.
“I haven’t tried yet,” she told him.
As a parting gift, he gave her the words to “I Saw The Light” and “Your Cheatin’ Heart’ and invited her to a Tuesday rehearsal with his group in Urbana.
“She had them memorized three days later,” Lee remembered.
That rehearsal was a special one.
“There weren’t any rehearsals, except the first one,” Louise Krauss said. “All the band people were nice to her, but she wasn’t planning on it being a career.”
Her mother recalled her interests at the time were “medicine and roller skating.”
Alison Krauss was a member of Lee’s group for almost three years. One of her first gigs with him was on June 15, 1980, and she earned $35. Celebritynetworth now estimates her net worth at $16 million.
By the time she was 19, Krauss was the second-youngest Grammy winner in history. She currently has won 27 Grammys, fourth-most all-time.
In 2022, Lee authored a 222-page memoir entitled, “It’s me … Marvin Lee.” Krauss was one of the people who was quoted in his book.
She said: “He gave me the first chance to perform ever. My first band experience. He did me a huge favor. If he hadn’t called and said, ‘Come play on the show, I mean, I don’t know, I’d probably still be roller skating or something.”
By chance, Lee helped jump-start the career of Westville native Logan Kirby, who has played throughout the region with his own band (the Logan Kirby Band) for the past seven years.
“They had a jam at the community center in Georgetown,” Kirby said. “Marvin was the MC (master of ceremonies). I didn’t know him but could tell he had a personality.
“It wasn’t planned, but on the spur of the moment, I got up and sang, ‘Folsom Prison Blues.’”
Kirby didn’t get a chance to hear any immediate feedback from Lee. He had to exit the stage and rush off to his job at a pizza restaurant.
“A week later, I got a call from Marvin – I don’t know how he got my number – and he asked me to come to St. Joe to rehearse,” Kirby said. “I was a 15-year-old kid.
“I worked with him for 12 years. I played 50 to 60 shows a year with Marvin.”
And then?
“He told me, ‘You’re too good for this. It’s time for you to spread your wings,’” said Kirby, who is a worship leader at his church.
Kirby hasn’t forgotten a message he received from Lee (who borrowed it from Leo Buscaglia).
“He told me, ‘Your talent is a gift from God. What you do with it is your gift back to him.’”
Kirby has been booked at The Beef House (in Covington, Ind.) as well as numerous other venues throughout Illinois and Indiana.
He’s not just an occasional performer.
“I did 238 shows last year and cut back to 170 this year,” said Kirby, who supplements his income by driving a truck.
“I owe everything to Marvin and the guys in his band,” Kirby said. “He took me under his wing. He has made impacts all over the world and is always giving young people a chance. There are not many who will do that.”
The birth records confirm that Lee turned 90 in February. Kirby said you would never know it.
“He’s an ageless person,” Kirby said. “I’ve looked at pictures of him from when he was younger and the only thing that has changed is the color of his hair.
“What he does keeps him young. I don’t know if I can ever pay back what he gave me, the heart and passion for the trade. He is a big, powerful man, someone you can look up to.
“He is a down-to-earth human that is friendly to everybody. I can’t help but admire him.”
As a tribute to his mentor, Kirby opens every performance with ‘Folsom Prison Blues’ and closes with either a gospel song or a patriotic tune, which has been a trademark of Lee’s concerts for years.
“I made a name for myself because of him,” Kirby said. “I wouldn’t be where I am without him.
“I still have hand-written letters from him with advice, telling me to sing standing in front of a mirror and develop a smile, and that the audience and the fans are the No. 1 focus.”
Kirby said it doesn’t take much for him to consider a performance a success.
“If someone can watch anyone perform and forget their troubles for a couple of hours, they’ve done their job,” he said.
In the late 1960s and into the ‘70s, Lee operated a guitar store in downtown Urbana.
A teen-ager from Mahomet, Vince Emmett (Class of 1976), came in for guitar lessons and also appeared on Lee’s TV on WCIA that aired from 1968-75.
For the past 30 years, Emmett has been a fixture on the Hollywood scene, producing artists such as Kris Kristofferson, Ricky Skaggs, Alice Cooper, John Travolta and Emmylou Harris, among others.
Emmett has worked with Oscar-, Grammy-, Golden Globe- and Emmy-winning artists.
He also became the first composer to apply a musical score to a John Steinbeck work for stage, scoring East of Eden. Emmett is now President and CEO of American Troubadours.
In his memoir, Lee has comments from Emmett: “It’s all because of my mom and dad and you, Marvin, believing in me. … You have no idea how much impact you’ve had on my life, and I’ve always been grateful.”
Even after having his left leg amputated in January, 2022, Lee hasn’t slowed down. He recently played a show in Collison (Wednesday, June 21) – “they built a ramp for me,” said Lee, who gets around in a wheelchair – and will play a series of shows on Tuesdays in Philo, starting in August.
He will also appear at the Champaign County Fair in July on Senior Citizen’s Day.
Fifty-five summers ago – in 1968 – Lee opened the County Fair show, joining Porter Wagoner on stage. Wagoner brought with him a then-unknown female performer named Dolly Parton.
Lee received $225 for his appearance. Wagoner commanded a check of $1,350.
In a different year, Lee opened for Waylon Jennings at the County Fair.
Over the years, Lee has written songs. He seldom plays any of his works.
“I usually do songs people can relate to,” Lee said. “I never did much (with his songs).”
Lee was raised on a farm north of St Joseph and attended a one-room schoolhouse, Stanton Center, that held grades 1-8.
His parents, Ekke and Katie Flessner, were of German descent and Lee said, “I didn’t know how to speak English when I got to school.”
With help from the older students in the room, he learned the language.
When Lee was in eighth grade, Gayle Bartell came to the school as a first-grader. Lee and Bartell were two of the 16 children in the schoolhouse that school year (1946-47).
“I’ve known him for 77 years and played with him from 1963 to 2013,” said Bartell, a bass player. “Ninety-five percent of the time, we played dances.
“He was a driven individual and kind of a pioneer in our area. He loves to play. He loves to be on stage, and he has helped a lot of young kids.”
In the fall of 2022, Bartell and Lee were having dinner at The Ribeye, in Champaign, with two long-time band members, Michele Osterbur Smith and Denny Kolata.
Lee’s phone rang, and he took the call.
“It was Alison Krauss,” Bartell said. “She talked to us like we were her next-door neighbors. She has no ‘airs’ about her.”
It’s a trait she shares with Lee. He doesn’t need to perform for money or recognition.
“He goes to shut-ins at nursing homes, takes his guitar and plays,” the 83-year-old Bartell said. “Nobody pays him.
“He’s one-in-a-million.”
Through her tour publicist, Mark Maher, Krause recently paid homage to Lee.
“Marvin is so deserving of honor and celebration,” Krause said. “He has always been very generous, kind and a great encourager, giving opportunities to young musicians who would’ve never had them otherwise.
“I’m very grateful to have been one of those people. He has stayed in touch with our family for over 40 years.”
Lee learned to play the accordion when he was 10 and picked up the guitar at 15.
“I took four lessons and they said, ‘You play by ear. You don’t need more lessons,’” Lee said. “That was a mistake.”
Unable to read music, he sings and plays three chords.
Years later, he said one of the greatest compliments he received was about his ability to tune a guitar without needing a pitch-pipe.
Not only does he not read music, Lee also rarely determines a set play-list in advance.
“We’d end one song and he’d get to the microphone and holler over (to the band), ‘Key of E,’” Bartell said. “We didn’t know what we’d be playing, but we knew the first note we’d play would be ‘E.’”
The approach works well for Lee.
“I wing it,” he said. “I get up and start playing music.”
Bartell called Lee “probably my best friend,” and they keep in touch regularly. “Almost on a weekly basis,” Bartell said.
All of these years later, there’s still one mystery Bartell hasn’t solved.
“Why he picked me (to join the band), I don’t know,” Bartell said.
Lee excelled as an athlete at St. Joseph High School, “playing all of the sports,” he said.
He was an end in football.
“Not enough kids went out for football, so we played six-man,” he said.
At 6-foot-1, he was a center in basketball and a first baseman in baseball.
“When we played Monticello, they had a shortstop named Loren Tate (whose career in journalism in Central Illinois rivals Lee’s tenure as a musician in Central Illinois),” he said.
In 1954, Lee was drafted into the Army and served 16 months in Korea.
A devout church-goer, Lee said, “In Korea, I prayed to God to send me the right mate.”
His parents had encouraged him to marry a young lady of German heritage, but Lee encountered one problem.
“I lived in the Flatville area and all the good-looking ones were my second cousins,” he said.
Shortly after he returned home, he went to a friend’s wedding at the Flatville church where he saw spotted a young lady walking up the steps to the balcony.
“My heart went bang,” Lee said.
Through acquaintances, he learned her name and where she lived. He drove to her home east of Royal, but was unsuccessful in finding her at home.
She was still a student at Armstrong High School.
“I went to the school one day at noon and asked a kid I saw to have Elaine come out,” Lee said.
It was their first face-to-face meeting.
“We made a date,” he said.
Lee and the former Elaine Rademacher have been married for 66 years and have two adopted sons (Darrin and Bryan), one adopted daughter (Sheri), seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Darrin has taken over operation of the farm.
Lee started farming with 120 acres and wound up with nearly 800 acres.
In a recent interview, Lee paused while answering questions and showed the strength of his voice as he belted out a verse (without accompaniment) of, “Nobody’s Darling But Mine.”
As he reflected on his decades of performing, Lee said, “I never really got nervous.”
Another career highlight for the Central Illinois icon will take place in September with the SJ-O Hall of Fame induction. If it had been up to Lee, he might not have voted for himself.
“Other people were more deserving,” he said, “but I am proud to be picked.”
For the last word on Marvin Lee, his longevity, his impact and his success, the floor belongs to Logan Kirby.
“They don’t call him ‘Marvelous Marvin’ for nothing,” Kirby said. “From the bottom of my heart, a great big ‘Thank you.’”
