Lola Alberta Zerbe was born on 26 March 1898, a daughter of William Zerbe & Emma [Knerr] Zerbe, of near Hebe, Northumberland County. On 12 December 1914, she married Sinary Raymond Kessler, who was born 13 December 1896 in Lykens Township, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, son of Charles H. Kessler & Mary E. Erdman. At first, Lola and Raymond lived in Klingerstown, Schuylkill County, but later moved to Erdman in Lykens Township.
The couple was very musical and passed that interest on their children and grandchildren. Lola played piano and Sinary played trumpet in the Zion (Klinger’s) Church Sunday School Orchestra.
However, the family was poor and could not afford lessons for their children Leon Kessler and Carolyn Kessler, so they gathered at the Laudenslager’s who lived next door, and listened outside the window while their children had lessons. With no instruments, they had to improvise, creating a guitar with a wooden board and some wire, and a microphone from a tin can and a stick, often pretending to broadcast over the radio from their back porch. After acquiring an old guitar and fiddle, they went to Wheeling West Virginia to record their first record. Afterward they appeared on the WWVA Jamboree, and then toured Canada. When they returned to Pennsylvania, they became regulars on WGAL-TV and WLBR Radio. But fame and travel was not in Leon’s life plan, and he refused many opportunities, which later in life he regretted.
Sinary died on 8 January 1963 and Lola died on 28 November 1966. They are both buried at the Zion (Klinger’s) Church Cemetery in Erdman.
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See also “Pennsylvania Night Hawks.”
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