Gerald E. 'Crowbar' Stevens, 53, of 1210 W. Seventh Ave N., died at his home in Clear Lake.
Funeral services were held at 11am on Thursday Feb 6, 1992 at St. Patrick's Catholic Shurch, 1001 Ninth Ave. S., with Monsignor Joseph J. Slepicks and the Rev. John Ayers officiating.  Burial was in the Mount Verson Township Cemetery, rural Swaledale.
Visitation was after 3 p.m. Wednesday, Feb 5th at Ward-Van Slyke Colonial Chapel, 101 N. Fourth, with a Scriptual wake service at 7:30 at the funeral home.
Mr. Stevens was born June 28, 1938, in Clear Lake to Lyle and Jennette Stevens.  He graduated from Clear Lake High School in 1956.  He attended the University of Iowa.

On June 29, 1958, he married Mary Jo Christensen at St Patrick's Catholic Church.  They lived in Clear Lake and he worked as a salesman for Alexander Manufacturing.  Later he became a heavy equipment operator.  During this time, he also played drums in several area jazz bands.
He and his wife bought and operated the Half Moon Inn in 1972.  In 1982 he got back into the construction business as a heavy equipment operator.
He loved to draw, the arts, especially music, golfing, baseball and reading.
Survivors include his four daughters, Annette Stevens, Mrs. Jeff (Deborah) Stevens-Heine and Joan Stevens, all of Clear Lake and Kathryn Neilsen of Coralville; and one granddaughter in Clear Lake.
He was preceded in death by his parents and one brother.
Pallbearers were Bryan Nielsen, Joe Nielsen, Jeff Heine, Harold Mason, Vern Severson and Allen Crabb.  Honorary Pallbearer was Allen Yeager. 















Gerald Stevens
'Memories'
from Larry Andersen

What I remember about crowbar is how he got his nickname.  It came from the Ma and Pa Kettle movies. One of the Indian characters was called crowbar!  I also remember how at basketball games they would turn him loose at halftime to play his drums- a regular Gene Krupa!  What a guy and talent! 
Larry-Andy Andersen 
'Memories'
from Al Yeager 

It seemed like I always played in some kind of a band with Gerald.   Rosemary Christensen's father Christy got us started in our first small group when we were 11 or 12.  It was Gerald, Dave Traub, Rosemary, Gary Leach, Terry Hildreth ( who moved away) playing mostly Dixieland arrangements.   We played for a few events but really didn't do that much on a professional basis up to and including high school.  When I got out of the Navy in March of 63 and returned to Iowa, Crowbar was the first person I called.  And Larry Anderson is right with how Gerald got his nickname Crowbar and our friend and classmate Bill Beedle gave it to him.  Incidentally, my purpose in returning to Iowa with my wife Denise and son Bryan in June of 1963 was to live with (read sponge off ) my parents while attending Mason City Jr. College.

The following are some of my remembrances of this time frame in Clear Lake from March of 1963 to July of 1965 and specifically my relationship with my friend Gerald Stevens.  These 2 + years are admittedly a relatively small part of Gerald's life.  This time though brief however, was a very important part of mine.   Brevity has never been my strong suit so I will be sharing a story or two as to some of our behind the scenes activity.  With that in mind .......

    How about Caravan one more time
by Al Yeager

When I returned to Clear Lake, Crow and I started playing together at anything we could find.  Sometimes it was for drinks just to get in the door.  We would sit in with the genius of Hob Mason at the All Vets and play jazz and blues every chance we got.   Club owners at that time would hire a single or a duo, and sometimes even a trio - piano, bass, and drums but that was about it.  A trumpet player would cost them extra money so I was learning to play the bass to enhance my ability to work.  And Crow and Hob, God Bless them, were both extremely patient with me.  As I progressed and time passed, we started working on a pretty steady basis sometimes still with Hob but mostly on our own and finally making some decent money.

We backed "semi name" singers at Tom MacNider's Red Llama in Mason City as well as Carroll Anderson's small room in the Surf Ballroom.  Tom was a lot of fun to work for because he would frequently have after hours parties at his house that we would sometimes play for or just be welcome to attend.  Tom also had a huge freezer in the back area of the Llama filled with pheasants.  It appeared that Tom supplied some of the better hunters of the area with shot gun shells ... and quite possibly other assorted amenities.  We were welcome to help ourselves, within reason of course.  Crow and I saw Tom an awful lot because when he wasn't escorting his featured act which was usually a good looking young lady, he would be going out with a headliner from another establishment where we worked.   

We backed stripers at Leon's Tap and Grill in Mason City where we made 90 bucks a week but had to kick 10 of it back to Leon.   We actually thought some of the people came in to hear us play.  I'll never forget our first rehearsal at Leon's where the "artist" explained to us that there were " high points" in her act and when they occurred, the audience would applaud.   She emphasized how important is was not to start up the music again for a full 30 seconds during "her" applause.  I'll let your imagination fill in what these high points might have been.  That night the first high point came and a couple of guys clapped for maybe 2 or 3 seconds.  After a brief pause, the somewhat stunned artist turned around and motioned for us to begin playing again ... only to find Crow and I  looked dutifully at our watches counting up to a full 30 seconds.  Needless to say after the first set, her timing requirements  were dramatically modified. 

We also worked at Jack Christensen's ...I think is was called The Pink Pussy Cat also in Mason City.  Jack was a kick to work for as well and some of you may remember the photo in the paper of Jack's tummy being patted by Nikita Khrushchev when he visited Iowa. 

Our longest run (off and on) was at the Holiday Inn Lounge (who can forget George Hassapopulus) which is now the Best Western.   George really liked Crow and I but piano players were in short supply and we couldn't seem to keep one for over two or three weeks.  During one stretch we actually had to use a young guy from college who knew a total of four songs.  That was the longest two weeks of our life because we had to stretch those four songs over 4 hours - six nights a week.   We'd play the first song with a Latin beat and then the next time around use straight time and .... well you get the picture!   Luckily, we were able to teach him some blues as well as Caravan which was a must as it featured Crow's drum solo.  Much, much later, when one of us would bring this up, we'd laugh so hard tears would roll down our face.

My time in Clear Lake went by much too quickly and towards the end of my second year at Jr. College, we heard about a piano player from Waterloo.  His name was Denny Mentle and he was supposed to be great at sing along songs.  And he was but his specialty happen to be  "dirty college songs!"   He was available for three weeks though so we rolled the dice.  Our first night at the lounge there were 15 or so people and Denny went into one of his "songs" and we could see George rolling his eyes.  The very first break, George called Crow and I over and told us to tone it down.  The next night, word must have gotten out because there were a lot more people but we still got the same reaction from George which was ... "keep that kind of stuff to a minimum!"   The third night the place was jammed and when Denny went into his "material" the place went nuts ....and guess who was waving his arms and leading the applause ... George!   At the end of our first week, Denny informed Crow and I that "we" needed a raise!  We told him he was crazy that we had a contract with George.    Denny smiled and said something very similar to what I would hear years later in a Godfather movie ..." that we shouldn't worry about it ... he'd talk to George and ...  he'd take care of it!"   We never knew how much more Denny got but Crow and I got another 30 bucks a week for the last two weeks. 

It turned out that Denny not only played the piano but  managed a place called the Golden Garter in Waterloo.  His three weeks off were because the place was being renovated.   In any event, at the end of the three weeks Denny offered Crow and I a job on weekends - actually Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at great money with extra money thrown in for the drive.   I needed a 4 year school and this one had a built in job so Crow and I started making that terrible drive to Waterloo and heading home most of the nights at 1 or so.  My family finally moved to Cedar Falls where I would continue to work with Denny (a 10 minute drive)  while I went to school and Crow would continue to make that terrible drive alone and join us on the weekends. 

Fast forward nine months and I got the call to join Harry's James Orchestra.   I had to leave Denise and Bryan to fly out to join the band in Las Vegas.  Now ... who could we get to drive Denise, Bryan and a small U-Haul trailer out to Las Vegas?   I called Crow and told him if he would drive them out, he could rest for a few days and we'd show him around and then fly him home.   Denise would want you to know that their 3 day trip from Cedar Falls to Las Vegas was  ... interesting! 

Mary Jo and Crow came out to visit us in a year or so and Crow also came to see me when Harry's band played around the Chicago area.  As much as I wanted to play the Surf Ballroom,  it never worked out and so Crow's Chicago visit was the last time I ever saw him.

In closing, writing this and putting my thoughts together about this time frame has been extremely good for me.  It  has obviously brought back a whole bunch of great memories.   We both had our challenges but it's funny how you only remember the good times.

And we're still thinking of you Crow so, how about Caravan ... one more time? 

Your friend Al 

If you would like to share your memories or thoughts of Gerald,
please email them to ChatNutz@aol.com.
Thank you. 
Greetings,

I came across this newspaper ad of Crowbar for Councilman and thought you may want to add it to the website.  I came across it in one of my scrapbooks and thought it was worthy of sharing.  I wish I knew what year the ad was placed. 

I was pretty young the last time I can remember seeing Crowbar and the memory is vague at best.  But, my parents (Allen & Betty Johannessen) spoke highly of him and have quite a few stories, as most people that knew him do.  Crowbar was quite a character from what I can surmise from some of those stories. 

Todd Johannessen
Vail, AZ