Francis Zappa
Francis Zappa (Partinico, Sicily, May 7 1906[1] - April 7, 1973) was the father of Frank Zappa. In the 1930 and 1940 US Census he is listed as Frank Zappa.
He was born in 1906 as the first son of Vincenzo Zappa (1876) and Rosaria di Lorenzo (1875). They arrived in the US in 1907. He went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to study history in 1926 and graduated in 1930. He supported himself while studying by working as a barber until, in 1928, he met fellow student Jack Wardlaw[2] who was starting a banjo band[3] and asked him to play guitar with them.
Zappa bought a guitar in Raleigh and for the next three years played in two popular bands headed by Wardlaw…. In the Banjo Boys he played hillbilly and ragtime guitar, while in the Carolina Tar Heels he performed jazz music and Dixieland on both guitar and banjo.[4]
My dad... played guitar in some sort of ‘strolling crooner’ trio. (I still get birthday cards from the insurance company owned by Jack Wardlaw, the banjo player.) They used to go from dormitory window to dormitory window, serenading coeds with songs like ‘Little Red Wing.’ [5]
His serenading attracted fellow student Nel Cheek. They married and, in November 1931, had a daughter Ann Zappa.[6] Francis was teaching at Rose Hill, North Carolina but growing marital problems and dissatisfaction led him to take a teaching job back in Baltimore. His wife did not want to leave her family and friends so they divorced and Ann stayed with her mother[7]
In Baltimore he taught history at Loyola College in Maryland.[8] Around 1935 he met Rose Marie Colimore whom he dated for four years. On 11 June 1939 they married and resided at the Colimore family home.[9] [10]. They had four children; three sons Frank (1940-1993), Bobby (1943-2018) and Carl (1948-2020) and one daughter Candy (1951).
He worked at various times as an analyst, engineer and metallurgist for the Lockheed and Convair aircraft corporations. His occupation required the family to move to Florida in 1944 and back to Maryland in 1946, to Edgewood beside the Aberdeen Proving Ground. He was then employed at the Naval Research Center & School in Monterey in 1951 and he and his family relocated to Pacific Grove, California.
He wrote a book CHANCES: And How to Take Them (Art-Craft, 1966). He can be seen on the cover of We're Only In It For The Money, on the far left, above a skull and below the first Zappa dummy from the left. His son dedicated a chapter of The Real Frank Zappa Book to him.
Notes
- ↑ According to the 1930 and 1940 US Census
- ↑ Wardlaw would continue to enjoy modest success with his band. In 1936 recruiting a young singer called Norma Egstrom who would later become Peggy Lee
- ↑ At this time the banjo was a popular instrument in dance bands as it provided a high amount of volume to compete with the brass instruments and could be picked up by early recording technology. But music was evolving from small jazz/dance ensembles towards big bands and the banjo's dominance would soon be replaced by the guitar.
- ↑ Frank Zappa’s Musical Roots are from Chapel Hill by Charly Mann at Chapel Hill Memories
- ↑ The Real Frank Zappa Book
- ↑ Ann Zappa remained in Chatham County, North Carolina, on family property where she was born and raised. She is retired from a career as Head of the English Department at MacCormac Junior College, and Administrative Assistant at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She belongs to several Southern historical organizations. She is a member of an Artillery Battery from Charleston, South Carolina, and also serves on the crews of other North and South Carolina Artillery Batteries as a Lady Cannoneer in battlefield re-enactments throughout the Southern States.
- ↑ Frank Zappa: A Biography by Barry Miles
- ↑ Frank Zappa Interview on WCBN Strobe Show Aired Nov. 18, 1967
- ↑ My Brother Was A Mother - A Zappa Family Album by Patrice Zappa
- ↑ 1940 US Census
