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| Carthy Sisco Lee Stripling Jim Ketterman Jim Evans Glenn Berry Harry Johnson Jeff Anderson Marilyn Scott Gil Kiesecker Floyd Engstrom Stuart Williams Vivian Williams Author: Brid NowlanPhotographer: Doug PlummerAbout the projectExhibit ScheduleWA State Old Time Fiddlers Association Home PageArchivesHome
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Glenn was born in
January of 1924, near the small town of Placentia in southern California. Glenn’s
grandfather, James Sanford Berry, had run away from home in Philadelphia at age eleven and
sailed as a cabin boy around stormy Cape Horn. He jumped ship in California and made a
life on the frontier, for a while playing fiddle in a medicine show. James’ wife
played piano; she was, "One of the Boone’s of Kentucky," who had come to
California on the Oregon Trail. Their son Frank (Glenn’s father) also played fiddle
and married a pianist. Glenn learned his first fiddle tunes from a banjo player: "An old old guy out of Arkansas, with old beat-up, gnarled fingers, all crooked." Local musicians met often in the town park to play, their numbers swelled by Depression era refugees from across the Western States. Neighbors would gather on Sunday afternoons. "Nobody had any money, so you made your own entertainment. People would sit around, play that old-time stuff and have a cup of coffee and a piece of cake." When Glenn settled in Bremerton, Washington, after the war, he played with a local band for many years. Health problems forced a temporary retirement, but he is now back in form, playing his tuneful music whenever an opportunity presents itself.
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