| DOTTIE WADDELL PAPERS (RG5200), 1964-2006 |
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH |
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Scope and Content Note |
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Subject Files |
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Writings |
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Audio and Video Recordings |
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Dottie Waddell is a multi-talented singer, song writer, poet, playwright and social activist. She was born in Los Angeles, but grew up in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. She and her sister Sheri performed as an a cappella duo at churches, charity benefits, and other venues in and around White Bear Lake. They later joined Ron Neilson to form a group called the Keynotes and performed in local coffee houses in Minneapolis.
At one of these coffee houses they met Curt Boettcher and the four formed a folk/rock group named the GoldeBriars in 1963. The group continued to perform in Minneapolis coffee houses until signed to a recording contract by Epic Records in the fall of 1963. The group's first album was released in early 1964, at about the same time as the "British invasion" of the Beatles. Though the album enjoyed critical acclaim, neither it nor a subsequently released album enjoyed commercial success. A third album was recorded but never released. The GoldeBriars, in a number of incarnations, continued to tour and perform until finally disbanding in June 1965. Waddell wrote about her experiences with the GoldeBriars in The GoldeBriars: Starving, Laughing, Crying, a typescript copy of which is in the collection.
Waddell was in California at the time of the band's demise and remained there until returning to Minnesota in 1974. She and her husband moved to Lakeland in 1977. She continued to write, and a number of her poems appeared in local newspapers. She also worked as a music teacher in local schools and has produced a number of educational albums and cassettes featuring the voices of local children singing songs that Waddell wrote. In Lakeland Waddell also returned to a project she had begun many years before. She completed a musical for children of all ages entitled The Land of Myrtle the Gloom and had the pleasure of seeing it presented on stage by the Pied Piper Players of Lakeland in 1989.
As of this writing, Waddell continues to live, write, and teach in Lakeland. In 2002, SunDazed Records issued a compact disk of previously unreleased songs that Waddell had recorded as solo artist in the late 1960's. A visit to her web site http://www.kidbiz.com will provide an overview of her current activities.
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