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WBM july 2019
HE Vietnam War lasted from
Nov. 1, 1955, to the fall of
Saigon on April 30, 1975 — the
longest war in American history.
In Vietnam, Wilmington lost 20 sons —
seemingly ordinary men who, through raw
courage, gave their lives under the harsh-est
conditions imaginable. Wayne Lanier
was one who gave all even as he saved lives
around him.
Some men are engineers, at ease in the
linear world of azimuths, angles and equa-tions.
Others are musicians, comfortable in
the harmony of composing, arranging and
performing music. One might think those
two disciplines would be mutually exclu-sive
— at opposite ends of a spectrum. One
is artistic, dynamic and free-spirited while
the other is empirical, geometric and con-ventional
— two quite different mindsets.
Wayne Lanier was an exception — a sharp
mathematician and a musical virtuoso.
Born in Wilmington on May 2, 1940,
his early introduction to music began in
grade school with a clarinet and piano at
his family home in Chestnut Heights, three
houses from the venerable Chestnut Street
School. For Wayne and his older brother
Toney, it was a happy home filled with flow-ers
and vegetables from the garden of their
devoted mom, Elma Toney Lanier. The
boy’s father, Dayton Jay Lanier, was a career
civil engineer with the Wilmington Corps
of Engineers.
Dad Lanier understood the value and dis-cipline
of music lessons and so his boys, like
it or not, had a routine each weekday morn-ing
before school of 30 minutes practice on
the piano and then another 30 minutes on
their band instruments. From those early les-sons,
Wayne would go on to play in both the
New Hanover High Marching Band and the
Dance Band, the NC State Marching Band,
the famous Jetty Jumpers and the popular
beach music band The Tassels. By college age,
he was adept at playing all woodwind instru-ments
and professional on the tenor sax.
Music came easy to the young man as
did his classes. He breezed through his
assignments and, while other students
spent hours studying or practicing, he had
ample free time to collect rare coins and
Clockwise from top left: Baby
Wayne Lanier spent a lot of time
in the water and later worked as a
lifeguard in Wrightsville Beach for
two summers. Lanier competed
in Little League baseball as a
child. Lanier played tenor sax and
sang with The Tassels Combo in
Raleigh, seen in 1966. He started
his musical training at a young
age and joined the Chestnut
Street School Band.
T