Meredith Willson - Personal Life

Personal Life

Willson was married three times. After divorcing first wife Elizabeth, he married Ralina "Rini" Zarova on March 13, 1948. Following her December 6, 1966 death, he married Rosemary Sullivan in February 1968. He lived for years in the Mandeville Canyon section of Brentwood, California, and was fondly remembered by friends and neighbors as a warm and gregarious host who loved nothing more than to play the piano and sing at parties. He often gave out autographed copies of his record album, Meredith Willson Sings Songs from The Music Man. In 1982, both he and Rosemary appeared in the audience of The Lawrence Welk Show.

Willson returned several times to his home town for the North Iowa Band Festival, an annual event celebrating music with a special emphasis on marching bands. Mason City was the site of the 1962 premiere of the motion picture The Music Man, which was timed to coincide with the festival. Willson, like his character Harold Hill, led the "Big Parade" through the town, and the event included special appearances by stars of the film Shirley Jones and Robert Preston. The Master of Ceremonies was W. Earl Hall, editor of the Mason City Globe-Gazette, state wide radio personality and friend of many decades. Willson was a member of the National Honorary Band Fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi.

From about 1948 to the end of his life he was an active member, a deacon, of Westwood Hills Congregational Church in Los Angeles. He donated a stained glass window, known as "The Music Man Window", above the pew where he would sit, which represented various musical instruments. He drove a Rolls Royce to church. He composed hymns for the church, including: "Anthem of the Atomic Age" in 1953. He and the pastor, who was also from Northeastern Iowa, were very close friends.

Willson died of heart failure in 1984 at the age of 82. He is buried at the Elmwood Saint Joseph Cemetery in Mason City, Iowa.