Notable Pryors

Musician - Arthur Pryor

Wikipedia.org Article (offsite)

Arthur Willard Pryor born 1870, died 1942. Pryor was noted as a renowned Trombonist, playing with the John Philip Sousa band and later on radio. "He was born in St. Joseph, Missouri, the son of Samuel Daniel Pryor, a bandleader, and Mary "Mollie" A. Coker, a pianist." Pryor's notoriety includes "300 compositions, including three operettas."¹

Arthur's father, Samuel, first appears on a census in 1870 at age 25 in St. Joseph, MO. It is supsected that Samuel Pryor may be related to two other Pryor men who first appeared on the census in St. Joseph in 1870: Emsley R. and James F. Pryor.

Obituary

Freehold Transcript, June 19, 1942
Arthur Pryor one of the country's leading band masters, and former Democratic member of the Board of Freeholders, died yesterday at his home in Long Branch. He would have been 70 on September 22. Composer of 350 pieces, among them the famous, "Whistler and His Dog," Mr. Pryor was internationally famous and for many years his band was engaged each season to play on the boardwalk at Asbury Park. Two sons, Arthur Jr., an advertising executive, and Roger, band leader and actor, survive. While soloist for the famed Sousa, he was considered the highest paid musician in the world and appeared on numerous occasions before the crowned heads of Europe.

References

¹National Biography, published under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies, vol. 17, Oxford University Press, 1999. Article submitted by James M. Burk.