Funeral will be rocker Terry Gale's last gig

Some might say it's a funeral. Terry Gale's family says it's his final curtain call.

The Milwaukee native who may have been the city's first rock 'n' roller to land a Las Vegas gig - at the Nevada Club in the early 1960s - is returning home to a golden casket and an event where "everybody's going to get up and say something really funny," said Lolita Turk, his sister.

In the end, the family will play a recording of Gale singing a song he wrote called "Grin and Bear It."

Gale, 68, died June 22 in Las Vegas of complications related to pneumonia.

Born Terry Galecki in 1942, his parents owned the Galecki Music and Dance Studio on Oklahoma Ave., and he adopted the family stage name of Gale.

Increasingly eccentric as he aged, Gale wore a belt buckle that said "Terry" and a necklace that held what he said was a piece of the planet Venus. Relatives found "a pile of jewelry" and more than 100 watches in his Las Vegas apartment, said Todd Hahn, his nephew.

Gale was always combing his hair, told people he was 35, mowed the lawn at 2 a.m., and called friends in the wee hours to have conversations that lasted for hours.

"He knew he was different, but he was super kind and gentle," Hahn said.

Gale once found a man trying to break into his car in a parking lot late at night and offered him his keys, which made the would-be thief flee. A friend offered a young Gale $5 once to use a swear word and he wouldn't do it.

But Gale could perform.

"He would come over for Christmas and everybody kind of looked at him weird. Then he would grab a guitar and start playing 'Johnny B. Goode,' " Hahn said.

As a young boy, Gale would pick up instruments around his parents' studio and instinctively start playing them, Turk said. Even at night, the Galecki kids would be surrounded by music, sometimes having to cover their heads with pillows to drown out the sound of a trombone student's lesson with their father, she said.

A dynamic stage personality and good all-around player, Gale released "Grin and Bear It" and three other singles, said Gary Myers, who played with him at Monreal's on National Ave. in the early 1960s, when clubs like Galaxie, Korn Krib and Papa Joe's hired bands to play six or seven nights a week.

Musicians whom Gale played with included Lou Rawls, O.C. Smith and Don Ho, said Myers, who wrote two books about the hundreds of recorded bands in Wisconsin during the 1950s and 1960s.

New Viper Classified: T & D Roller Rockers - Viper Alley - Dodge ...

Description: T&D ultra lightweight billet aluminum roller rockers. They are 1.75 in and 1.70 ex. Oiler holes from the cups to the rolller and 12 point aluminum nuts for the adjusters. They are practically new and were only dyno'd for thirty minutes. I do not have stands for them. They are the expensive ones with the anti mohawk styling for strength while keeping them lite. If no one here takes them I'll put them up on ebay. I may also have two sets of pistons to sell. Thanks, John Description: T&D ultra lightweight billet aluminum roller rockers. They are 1.75 in and 1.70 ex. Oiler holes from the cups to the rolller and 12 point aluminum nuts for the adjusters. They are practically new and were only dyno'd for thirty minutes. I do not have stands for them. They are the expensive ones with the anti mohawk styling for strength while keeping them lite. If no one here takes them I'll put them up on ebay. I may also have two sets of pistons to sell.

The Mopar Six-Pack Engine Handbook

How to Rebuild and Modify Chrysler 426 Hemi Engines, New Technology for 1964 to 1971 Classic Hemis and Today's Modern Crate Engines

101 Harley-Davidson Evolution Performance Projects

101 Harley-Davidson Performance Projects, For Evolution Big Twins and Sportsters

How to Build Classic Hot Rod V-8 Engines