By the time she was 35, however, the bubbly blonde from Bakersfield no
longer was providing the sparkle in Lawrence Welk's champagne music. In
fact, she had fallen so far she was lucky to get a job working a piano bar
in Las Vegas saloons.
Never-never land had become will-it-never end? Castle was drowning in a
miserable mixture of mismanaged marriages, personal tragedies and a career
suffering from neglect.
"I had a couple of small kids, was going through a divorce and
trying to launch a solo career. As a result, my career went to hell in a
hand basket."
The bookings grew farther apart, she recalls, and by 1974 she had gone
through another marriage, lost a child to cerebral palsy and had consumed
enough booze and food to her weight balloon to 300 pounds.
"I was a mess and I hated myself ...," Castle recalled.
Those darkest hours are behind her. In 1986, she shed her third
husband, excess poundage and a "poor little me" attitude and
began reshaping her ragtime piano routine to include song and comedy.
And it is in that context the 47-year-old entertainer will be
performing Sunday at 2:30 p.m. in the San Diego Civic Theatre in a benefit
for KPBS public broadcasting. She is a featured artist in a troupe of
former Welk stars, including accordionist Myron Floren, tenor Joe Feeney,
country vocalist Ralna English, trombonist Barney Liddell and jazz
clarinetist Henry Cuesta.
Castle was hired (on her 20th birthday) by Welk to replace pianist Big
Tiny Little during a live telecast.
"I told Lawrence I had 300 numbers in my library, but I really had
only three, so I had to work like crazy to expand my repertoire,"
laughed Castle, who had studied to become a classical pianist.
"I'd never seen so many notes in my life and I really didn't care
to learn it, but Dad kept after me until it made sense," she said.
"In time, I grew to love ragtime and bboogie, too, maybe because
boogie give me a chance to show off my strong left hand."
Her need to be independent, she admits, led her to leave Welk, although
in retrospect, she is not sure it was the right move.
"I'd been with him for nearly 10 years and I was becoming
frustrated and stale. I needed to break out of the mold, and I knew that
once Lawrence typecast you, that was it," she said.
"After all those years (with him), I realized for the first time
he actually liked me as a person as well as a performer," she said.
"I know I could handle it.... I spent all those years in front of
a camera with Lawrence. And I'm such a ham, I think I'd relate well to the
guy sitting in his easy chair putting down a beer.
"And God knows, I have a sense of humor. Hey, without my sense of
humor I couldn't have made it through life, certainly not the past 15
years. When you're flat broke, are getting kicked around by a husband and
look like the Goodyear blimp, it's pretty tough to find something to laugh
about. "But when you're a tough Irishman, you'll find something. And
I did." 
As
befits her name, Jo Ann Castle was living in a fairy land by age 20, the
budding ragtime piano star of a TV variety show of already legendary
proportions.
"Success
had come so easily, I couldn't cope with anything less," said Castsle,
alluding to personal problems that beset her almost from the day she left
Welk in 1970.
Ironically,
Castle's recent resurgence is tied directly to her Welk heritage, because
her appearances generally are with other Welk television-family alumni.
"Most
of us remain pretty close to each other and to Lawrence, too," said
Castle of the one-time Welk associates. "But you might expect that,
since Lawrence generally picked only those for his show who not only
projected wholesome images, but also who were genuinely caring people.
"I guess I might have been the only free spirit he ever employed, but
then again I never got in any trouble...."
Her
father, she said, introduced her to ragtime when he purchased sheet music
for Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" and told her he wanted to
hear her play it.
Castle
said parting with Welk was amicable, if emotional -- the bandleader wept
when she gave him notice.
With
her personal and professional life in order, Castle is negotiating for a
television variety show.
Cam
Miller is a free-lance jazz
writer.