Mr. Joseph Turner, became director of the Warblers Club in 1950. Mr. Turner was 1934 graduate of Woodlawn High School and a Warbler under the tenure of the founder of the Warblers Club, Mr. John Light.
Mr. Turner attended Auburn University until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. He immediately enlisted in the Army Air Corps and served honorably during World War II, eventually attaining a commission as an officer. After the war, he returned to college at The University of Alabama and completed his degree.
Mr. Turner was an accomplished musician and a prolific composer/arranger. Most of the music performed today by the Warblers Club was composed or arranged by Mr. Turner.
Mr. Turner served as director of the Warblers Club until his retirement in 1976. During his tenure as director the Warblers Club grew in size and renown and became an "institution" at Woodlawn High School, in the Birmingham area, the state of Alabama and across the Southeast.
Mr. Turner, affectionately known as "Uncle Joe" by Warblers, was instrumental in the reformation of the Warblers in 1988 and remained active in Warbler affairs until his death on August 2, 2001. He directed a group of Warblers in song only five days before his death, at his 84th birthday party, on July 28, 2001. Only two days before his death, the Warblers performed one of his latest arrangements for the first time in a public performance.
The Warblers Club preformed a special memorial concert honoring "Uncle Joe" in November of 2001. An audio/video DVD of this concert is now available. Click here for ordering information.