Inducted 2019

Sara and John McKay (pronounced Mick-Kye) are two talented musicians who live in St Peter, Minnesota. Based in Nova Scotia, Canada in the 1950s, SARA and her four sisters performed together as The Five Singing Hayden Sisters. The quintet sang with their father’s piano accompaniment on American CBS television show I’ve Got a Secret on New Year’s Day in 1958. Sara studied with Dutch baritone Bernard Diamant and received degrees in Vocal Performance from McGill University and Ecole Vincent d’Indy School of Music, both in Montreal, Canada. She recorded for CBC Radio in Canada as soloist with instrumental ensemble The Montreal Consort of Viols, and made her debut with The Montreal Elgar Choir and Symphony as contralto soloist in the Mozart Requiem in 1962. In 1964 she married pianist John McKaye and they moved to Belgium, where they spent the next five years concertizing. After three years back in Halifax, Nova Scotia where Sara was a soloist at St. Matthes United Church, she became soloist for a year at Asbury Methodist Church in Rochester, New York, where John completed his Doctorate at The Eastman School of Music. In 1976 John accepted a teaching position at Gustavus Adolphus College and moved to St Peter, both Sara and John becoming naturalized American citizens. Sara gave many vocal recitals accompanied by her husband, climaxed by nine performances performed throughout Minnesota of Dominic Argento’s Pulitzer Prize-winning song-cycle From the Diary of Virginia Woolfe. Sara performed as a vocal soloist and is teacher & conductor of The St Peter Choral Society, which she co-founded in 1979. In 1983 while raising three children, Sara completed her teaching license at Gustavus Adolphus College. She was the vocal music teacher for The Arlington-Green Isle Public Schools and Sibley East High School in Arlington, Minnesota. With several decades of professional experience to his name, Dr. JOHN McKay has enjoyed a successful career as a concert pianist and a Professor in Higher Education. He dedicated the majority of his work to holding the title of Professor of Music at Gustavus Adophus College from 1976 to 2004. Prior to that from 1969 to 1972 he taught in Canada as Assistant Professor and teacher of piano. John is a native of Montreal, Canada and earned his Bachelors in Music from McGill University. He completed Graduate Degrees at The Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. Further study took place in Vienna, Austria and Cologne, Germany. During his seven years abroad, John gave concerts in London, Vienna, Brussels, Berlin, Munich, and Cologne. In 1972, while teaching at The University of Toronto, John presented The Complete Works for Solo Piano by Johannes Brahms in a series of four recitals at Toronto’s Town Hall. As a result of a sabbatical leave granted him in 1985-86, he performed The Complete Sonatas for Piano by Beethoven in series of eight concerts, which were later broadcast on KGAC 90.5FM radio from Gustavus Adolphus College and at KMSU Radio from Mankato State University. John McKay has appeared on many Minnesota Public Radio programs and given recitals throughout the region and as guest soloist with The Mankato Symphony. Outside of his primary endeavors, Dr. McKay and Dr. Harry Dunscombe founded The Minnesota Valley Sommarfest, a summer chamber music festival from 1990-2006 on the Gustavis Adolphus College campus.

Inducted 1997

The Govenaires Drum & Bugle Corps was first organized as the St. Peter Legion Corps in 1927 in St. Peter, Minnesota. The Corps went inactive in 1938 due to WWII, and in 1950 Cliff and Katie Hermel purchased the equipment and created two Junior Corps. The Junior Corps folded in 1975, but The Govenaires continued on and were chosen to represent Minnesota at the National American Legion Convention in Seattle in 1976, in Denver in 1977, and in New Orleans in 1985. Today the Corps marches in many civic parades and competitions throughout the Midwest and performs many acts of goodwill in the St. Peter and Mankato area.

Govenaires’ website