Chandler Worley on trumpet (left) and the Ole Miss Band, 1919

Chandler Worley: Instructor in Music and Band Director

The University of Mississippi’s “The Pride of the South” Marching Band began by designation of Chancellor Alfred Hume when he appointed Roy Coats as its director. Growing out of military band history, the “Pride of the South” was preceded a decade prior by a military, regimental band formed in Oxford by Chandler Worley, an instructor of music at the University of Mississippi. Chandler Worley’s position as instructor is listed in the 1917-1919 University of Mississippi Bulletins and the Ole Miss yearbooks. Worley had been leading and forming bands all over Mississippi prior to his employment at the University of Mississippi. From at least 1900, Worley’s activities as a band director and music educator are documented in Greenville, Greenwood, and Oxford newspapers.

Worley was born in 1875 in Oxford, Mississippi, and was known as “Fess” to his friends. Lauded for his devotion to music education, he is said to have supplied free instruments to help musically gifted students who could not afford them, and he gained a reputation for improving band performance as a band director. An article in the Oxford Eagle in February 1900 says, “The Citizen’s Band [of Oxford] engaged Mr. Chandler Worley as their instructor, so the public may expect a rapid improvement in the already excellent performance of these musicians.”

Worley lived in Greenwood with his wife Sue Pinson prior to taking the job with the university. He worked at Greenwood High School where his title was “Band Master.” The Daily Commonwealth newspaper of Greenwood announced Worley’s leaving his position with the schools when he was hired as an instructor of the military band at the University of Mississippi in October 1918. The band Worley formed in Oxford is seen in the photograph above and titled the “Ole Miss Band 1919.” The official tile of the band and in what capacity it served the university has not been determined. What is known is that Worley extended music instruction to greater Lafayette County. In 1919, an ad in the Oxford Eagle asked for Lafayette County boys interested in learning music to join a brass band that would practice in the Lafayette County court room at the courthouse.

Worley left his university position in 1920 to move to Ruleville, Mississippi, where he organized a city band that was later inducted into the Headquarters and Service Company. It was known as the 160th Engineers Band. While working in Ruleville, he began bands in the Mississippi counties towns of Drew, Cleveland, Boyle, Shaw, Indianola, Minter City, Schlater, and Yazoo City.

Jeannie Speck Latartara, University Archivist & Assistant Professor

Notes:

For more on the formation of the “Pride of the South” see the link to the book “The Pride of the South” 1928-2014: The Ole Miss Rebel Band, a History by Bill DeJournette and Anna McGayhe Sayre in University Archives & Special Collections.

To access the University of Mississippi Bulletins, LD 3406 M7A5 1917-1919, visit the UM Archives Reading Room.

Oxford Eagle (Oxford, Mississippi) published two articles on Worley’s work in Oxford during this period in February 1900 and July 1919.

Manuscript material referenced is available in University of Mississippi Small Manuscripts, and the photograph is part of a new University of Mississippi Collection Photographs.

Worley’s photograph is available in University Archives Collections.