Legendary Polka Artist Wally Pikal Passes Away

Wally Pikal, who had entertained many generations of polka music lovers, passed away Thursday at the Meeker Memorial Hospital in Litchfield. He was 90.

He was a member of the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame and got his start with the Jerry Dostal Band in 1944 when he was a senior in high school. According to the Hutchinson Leader, he went to the MacPhail School of Music after graduation and in 1945 met a lady that would become his future wife, Alice, at the Pla-Mor Ballroom in Glencoe. They married three years later.

On Easter Sunday 1950, Wally started his own band - Wally Pikal and the Dill Pickles. He did carpentry work to help with income. And he started a music store in 1964.

He is best known for playing multiple trumpets while jumping on a pogo stick. Doing that got him on the Tonight Show and the Mike Douglas Show. Pikal said that night along with playing three trumpets with the guy who wrote "Beer Barrel Polka" in Czechoslovakia in 1971 and launching his Pikal Patch radio show on KDUZ in Hutchinson in 1965 were among his favorite memories.

A memorial service will be held later in the spring.

KDHL will pay tribute to Wally with special sets of his songs throughout the weekend during the Old Tyme music hours.