Lumberjack Band: The majorettes

Continued from last week

Carol Jean Collard wasn’t quite three when she started with the Lumberjack Band and is noted as the band’s first majorette.

“Within the next several years, the Packers band drum majorette became a permanent fixture at Packers home games (both in Green Bay and in Milwaukee),” wrote Lee Remmel.

Each year, tryouts were held for young ladies interested in entertaining with a baton and executing complex formations, with the top three individuals selected to perform with the band in Green Bay.

Three other Milwaukee girls were selected to appear with the band at State Fair Park in West Allis for the Milwaukee games.

The majorettes took lessons from Don Marcouiller, in De Pere, who was a former national high school champion and one-time major of the Lumberjack Band; he later led the University of Wisconsin band.

In the 1940s, the band donned red and green uniforms — trying to keep with the Lumberjack theme — and was just one of two bands in professional football at the time.

In 1948, the number of majorettes went from three to six, selected by tryouts.

The band also had one major, including Don Marcouiller in the early years and longtime major Bruce Stengel.

Other early Green Bay majorettes included Germaine Pirlot, Shirley Schwaller, Marge Lambert, Rosemary Schwebs, Phyllis Kessler, Bernadine Boyere, Beth Gale, Pat Lison, Dolores Vander Loop, LaVona Lefebvre, Sharrell Wadzinski, Jane Sibilsky, Pat Parins, Susie Nelson, Donna Weckler and Shirley Remich, daughter of band drummer Walter Remich.

In the early 1950s, Mary Jane Van Duyse joined the band as a majorette, while teaching dance and twirling at her Sturgeon Bay studio.

“At the urging of Wilner Burke, the leader of the Packer Lumberjack Band, Mary Jane auditioned in 1949 to join the Packerettes of the Packer Lumberjack Band. She was the Packer drum majorette from 1951 to 1966. She was named ‘Miss Majorette of America’ in 1953 and in 1956,” Mary Jane’s obituary later recalled.

Van Duyse became head majorette in 1954, replacing Bernadine Boyere, who retired that year.

Mary Jane went on to become an enigma in her own right.

In the 1960s, when Vince Lombardi urged her to work on another project, Mary Jane retired as the head majorette and LeAnn Christiansen took over.

According to the Press-Gazette, Christiansen was a protégé of Bruce Stengel, the former drum major.

The original majorette, young Carol Jean Collard spent 12 years with the band before joining the Dominican Sisters.

In 1957, she entered the order at Sinsinawa, based in Hazel Green.

To be continued