At age 17 Welk decided to form his own band. Although he regularly performed with local bands, his extremely loud and sometimes off-key playing often prompted his removal from the group.

By the time Lawrence was 13, he was playing at barn dances, weddings, and other social events. He remarked, 'There's something you learn by hardship, by a little fear.'Īt night, blacksmith-turned-farmer Ludwig Welk tught his son to play the accordion. In the New York Times, Welk credited his incredible success in part to his hard youth he did not speak English until he was 21. He lived in a rural German-speaking town and dropped out of school in the fourth grade in order to farm full time. Although his polka-playing accordion talents led people to believe that Welk was Polish, his parents actually emigrated from France to Russia and then to the United States, resulting in a mixed German and middle European twang.Īlthough Welk was born in the United States, his second-generation accent was thick. The mixed heritage of this area-it was once part of Germany-helps explain Welk's unusual accent. To avoid religious persecution, his parents, Christine and Ludwig Welk, had fled their home in the Alsace-Lorraine region of France.

With his signature phrases 'ah-one an ah-two' and 'wunnerful, wunnerful,' Welk either thrilled or bored hundreds of thousands of people every Saturday night for years, and in reruns after the show ceased production.īorn on March 11, 1903, in a sod farmhouse near the village of Strasburg, North Dakota, Welk was one of eight children. From 1951 to 1982 this camera-shy bandleader stiffly conducted his orchestra's trademark 'champagne music,' while good-looking, clean-faced young men and women danced, sang, and smiled their way across the television screen. Shirley Donna.Īdored by loyal fans, ridiculed by the younger set, bandleader Lawrence Welk still managed to lead one of the longest-running shows in television history. Born March 11, 1903, near Strasburg, ND son of Ludwig (a blacksmith and farmer) and Christine (maiden name, Schwab) Welk died May 17, 1992, of pneumonia married Fern Renner (a former nurse), 1930 children: Lawrence, Jr.

Lawrence welk cause of death