Zita's inspiration - Her Mother Mrs Mildred Perera

Note by Acting Blog administrator

We are all proud of the achievements of our Batchmates not only in the field of Medicine but in so many other areas as well. We are indeed a special batch. We have all been influenced and inspired by our parents and it is a great pleasure to publish this article by Zita about her Mum. I would welcome others to contribute on how they have been inspired by their parents.

by Zita Perera Subasinghe

Zita says, "This story is about my amazing mother who had total faith in herself and pursued her dreams with undiminished intensity in the face of adversity. She set an example which I tried to emulate. I am ever so grateful to her and I hope that other Batch mates will come out with their own stories of parental inspiration.

Hank Snow and a fan from Ceylon         01 07 2020

   Hank Snow flanked by two of his fans Mrs Mildred Perera, and Zita (L)

The year was 1970 when I was building up my young career and, on the way, to starting a family in the country of my dreams when I invited my mother to spend time with us and have a holiday in England. She deserved it after having raised a large family, the last decade of which she was without the help of her husband who predeceased her. For a busy mother, she always had many hobbies and lately a home business operation that helped provide the finances. She was a qualified dressmaker, accomplished baker, decorator of cakes and teacher of these skills. She also learned the arts of batik and tie and dye fabric design, flower making to name a few, in her quest to acquire new skills and gain knowledge.

If you think her repertoire left no time for any other pastime, you’d better think again! For a lady whose husband was a multi-instrumentalist musician, she pursued her love for music.

Her love of music

This did not stop at just listening to music but actually promoting her musical idols Hank Snow, Jim Reeves and Ricky Nelson in her country and being the Vice President of the Fan Club there (Country and Western music fan club).

She was also a member of the Hank Snow Fan Club which was run by a group of friends and (in which Zita was the secretary!). Mummy had her own collection of music on spool tapes which she played on her prized procession of a tape recorder from England, which was a rare item for a housewife to have. On the top lid of the machine was a photo of her musical favourite singer, Hank Snow, the Singing Ranger of the Grand Ole Opry from Nashville, Tennessee. She would correspond with her musical idols and the chief one was Hank Snow. I too belonged to that Fan Club because of my mother’s interest in it.

Mildred Perera’s old-style tape deck with Hank Snow picture with Zita near it.

During her holiday in England around the latter half of 1970 she heard that Hank was on tour and was to perform at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London and she was determined to attend the live performance. After having taken her for the show, which I too enjoyed as a younger fan of the mother’s favourite star, I was taken aback when she suggested that we go back stage during the Interval of 15 minutes, so that she could meet the Singing Ranger! She had her way and before I knew what was happening we were facing the legendary singer in the dressing room, like two teenaged girls! Our enthusiasm was not to be disappointed when the true gentlemen from Canadian descent greeted us with a great smile and inquired about what was happening in Ceylon where his fan club had many ardent followers.

For many years prior to that Clarence Eugene ‘Hank’ Snow would send a personal Christmas Message which he voiced for his annual Christmas program that was broadcast on Radio Ceylon for over two decades running and without a break. Coming back to the concert at the Palace Theatre, Hank had us take an applause during the second half of the show and he sang one of mummy’s favourites specially dedicating to Mrs Mildred Perera of Colombo, Ceylon. After the show, he offered us a photo opportunity at a reception given in his honour on the next Sunday for which he even sent us transport.  The photo which you see at the top of this article, and which I preserved, shows the singer flanked by the two beaming fans. What’s more, sensing the need to go out of the way to please the faithful fan cum promoter from the island nation, Hank promptly removed his tie and presented it to Mummy, with the tie knot intact, which she preserved and passed on to one of her sons.

A son named after Hank Snow

Talking about her sons and my many brothers, Mummy named the youngest after the great singer, picking one of his forenames, Eugene.  She also started a pre-teen music band with her three youngest children, which was the youngest band ever in the island. The drummer coincidentally had the other name (Clarence) coming from the famous country singer. Only the Snow was missing in more than one sense of the word!

The Junior Rhythmiers

This band, Junior Rhythmiers (see photo), became an instant hit and popular, island-wide due to their tender ages, not to mention the natural talent they showed. Incidentally, the three brothers aged 7 to 12 years started picking the strings of my own (Zita’s) box guitar when I was away at medical college, much to my frustration of having to use the instrument with a few strings out of tune or one snapped, with no one taking responsibility for having used it behind my back. The cat was out of the bag when I saw their growing ability in playing guitar.  By this time, I was away in England.  They had a weekly radio program on national radio for many years and a fan club based in Jaffna, which was a musically inclined town even in the 1960s. They were the “juniors” of the Rhythmiers which in fact, was the band formed by one of my younger brothers Lakshman, who was older than them.

Well the Junior Rhythmiers group was well on their way, playing at concerts, weddings up and down Ceylon in the early ‘70s, even up to Jaffna.

This is a photo of them taken in the Fort, Colombo when they were on their way to perform at a concert. They played at Galle Face Hotel to welcome the New Year a couple of times. Their vocalist was Mariazelle Goonetillake who continues her career to this day. Mariazelle always gives mummy the credit for having ‘discovered’ her!

One of the photos of the events they played at survived (shown below), shows them playing at a children’s party.

What happened to the Junior Rhythmiers? Unfortunately, my mum died of Multiple Myelomatosis in 1974 while visiting me for the second time in the UK. It is an event I do not even want to think of.

The country’s interest in Country music continued but the events which I talk about above gave a boost to the popularity of Country and Western music in the then Ceylon.

As for Hank Snow, he slowed down as he reached his old age but continued to play at the Grand Ole Opry from time to time. I heard about his death in 1999.

To us all who loved and knew him, it was the closure of a Grand Chapter.

With the loss of mummy and her children getting on with work and studies, music began to take a back seat. But the memories are forever alive in our minds and we look back with happiness but a tinge of sadness that mummy left all this so early at the age of 55 years.

Written by Zita Perera Subasinghe

With help and some details and photos supplied by Neil Perera, who is one of my brothers and the eldest of the Junior Rhythmiers.

Hank Snow on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/MUjOHf1WqM8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StcCH-QQyDU