She’s paid her dues with heartache, loss and pain, but she’s back in the saddle again.
“Dee” DeJulio calls herself a “country-folk- Western balladeer,” and she looks the part. On stage, she wears Western boots or moccasins, custom-made trail shirts with wooden buttons that she made herself, a hand-tooled leather belt with a custom-made brass trophy buckle that she’s had since 1954, and a Western-style jacket that she also made herself. But she doesn’t ride a horse anymore. She rides a wheelchair.
After a long strain of illnesses, DeJulio picked up her old 12-string Martin last year and began retraining her fingers and strengthening her voice with the goal of getting back in front of an audience. Despite her disability, she is getting out and around her community to perform, resuming a lifelong passion for sharing her music.
Born F. Jarrett Bennett in 1936 in Pennsylvania, Dee moved around a lot as a child, settling in Haddonfield, New Jersey, for her teen years. Her parents exposed her to classical music and she developed an appreciation for it. At 14 she began taking piano lessons and sang in her church and school choirs. At 16, she found an old used guitar and taught herself how to play. Although her parents were not supportive of the new instrument, Dee would play every chance she got.
After hearing country western music, a new and different style from the symphonies of her youth, Dee was hooked. It was her new passion and would be an integral part of her life. She names Johnny Cash, Hank Williams and the Sons of Pioneers as some of her biggest influences. Her love for the West, which would later become cemented while living there, stems from “the history, spirit and music all tied together,” she says. She performed in public for the first time in her high school’s talent show, and soon she was playing her songs at roadhouses. Dee went off to college the next fall to study social work. She went for three years, struggling to make it a fit, sometimes playing her music in the common area of her dormitory.
While in school, Dee met an older man, Driego Rensen, who had a horse ranch near Moorestown, New Jersey. The two developed a strong bond. “Driego sometimes was a guest artist at Symphony Hall in Philadelphia, performing flamenco on his custom-made Martin 12-string guitar,” she remembers. “He also was a guest artist with José Greco’s flamenco troupe in the spring of 1955. Greco wanted him to tour with them. Driego was not interested.”
Dee and Driego occasionally performed as a country duo during those years. “He was about 6′4″ in boots, and I’m about 5′7″. What a pair we made! His spirit is still with me.”
In 1957, Rensen died of complications resulting from diabetes and other health problems. Dee, devastated, left college for good. She loaded up her car and headed west, working and playing music to support herself. “My nomadic life was my release from it all,” she says.
Eventually, Dee settled outside of Tucson, Arizona, in a small mountain town called Yarnell. “The altitude of 4,800 feet was great, with good clean air,” she says. While in Arizona, she began substitute teaching at local schools, rode and trained horses, and supported herself with odd jobs and music gigs. Soon, she was married and in 1964, gave birth to her first son Bart. But a painful divorce followed two years later, and she and Bart moved back to New Jersey.
Dee remarried and gave birth to her second son Ken in 1968. The family settled in a house on a hill outside Dover “for the long haul.” Putting her music aside in order to help support her family, Dee went into business for herself, doing freelance journalism and selling signs for advertisements.
After cancer took her second husband in 1984, Dee was left a widowed, single mother of two teenage boys. While continuing with her business, Dee went back to school and got a degree in social work. At the beginning of the decade, Dee had resumed taking her guitar in front of audiences at fairs, festivals, schools and community centers. But her musical career was about to be rudely interrupted again.
Shortly after graduating in 1988, Dee and her son Ken were driving when a young man darted his car out of a side street, striking Dee’s car. Ken was unhurt, but Dee was left with her hands crushed. She also sustained injuries to her back, right arm and head. The impact on her hands would leave her unable to play her music for many years.
As Dee recovered from her injuries she resumed working and, once again, was able to support her family. This course of action left her ignoring most of the treatment she should have received. For many years following the accident she was in and out of hospitals to treat ailments ranging from pneumonia to thyroid stroke. In 2003, she fell into a coma.
Leaving the hospital for good in December 2003, Dee has been slowly recuperating. Now a wheelchair user, she fell into a deep depression during her recovery. Unable to walk, unable to reach out to her community, unable to play her music, she was devastated.
Despite her growing sadness, she began practicing her singing and mentally practicing her fingering. This reintroduction to her talent was therapeutic and raised her spirits more and more each day. Right before Christmas 2003, she was playing her guitar again. Despite the fact that she was rusty, she felt wonderful. “It felt good to be back,” exclaimed Dee. “My music is an extension of me, an outlet for my feelings, and it really helped with what I was going through.”
After reintroducing herself to music, she was determined to perform again. She had a friend refurbish her old 12-string that she had inherited from Driego and began practicing old songs and learning new ones. Her son Ken, a Special Olympics athlete, was to compete in two weightlifting competitions, and Dee decided she would “debut” for friends at the competitions. “It was invigorating getting back in front of people. I loved sharing my music with the kids.”
Currently, Dee is working on a project in her community called “Get to Know Your Neighbor,” whose objective is to bring the community together. She is planning to perform at their town hall in concerts to promote the program this fall and next spring. “I think it’s important to realize your limitations, but to not let them control you,” Dee says about performing again. “You should focus on what you can do.” In the meantime, she is playing at senior centers and public libraries, getting stronger with each performance.
Dee also joined another community recently: United Spinal Association. She was inducted as a member in early 2004. “It’s a great organization,” she says. “I really enjoy reading their publications and they’ve helped me so much. I’m so happy I joined.”
In the future Dee says she’d like to record an album titled “Western Woman,” become a Goodwill ambassador through her music and play at Carnegie Hall. For now though, she’s focused on doing what good she can in her community. When asked what she would say to someone else struggling with a disability, she responded, “Take your time and don’t give up!”
Mary Kate Carew is a former Assistant Public Affairs Officer.
