[Derek Halsey]

Riverboat Legend and John Hartford Mentor –Dennis Trone – Dead at 77

By Derek Halsey


According to published reports in the Star Journal Register newspaper in Springfield, Illinois, (http://tinyurl.com/62yzh4) riverboat builder, owner, and pilot Dennis Trone died on Sunday, May 4th, 2008. Trone was a naval architect who built the famous Julia Belle Swain riverboat in 1971, as well as its sister ship, the Twilight. Both were based in Petersburg, Wisconsin on the Mississippi River, where Trone lived until his death. He was also an antique plane enthusiast, and he was piloting one of his planes when he died in a crash on Sunday.
The Julia Belle Swain riverboat was made famous by musician and riverboat pilot John Hartford, who died in 2001. It was under Trone’s tutelage that Hartford bettered his river skills as a pilot, which eventually led to Hartford acquiring his license. Hartford then wrote his now famous song about Trone’s boat called “Julia Belle Swain.”

From the song “Julia Belle Swain” written by John Hartford,

”This is a song about the Julia Belle Swain…
Oh, the Julia Belle Swain is a mighty fine boat
Got a mighty fine captain, too
Got a big red wheel that goes around and around
And a bunch of old hippies for a crew”

One of the first articles that I ever wrote in the music realm was about the all-too-brief times that I spent with John Hartford through the years (http://tinyurl.com/6ruxpg). After he died in 2001, and because of that article, I began to meet and get to know many of Hartford’s friends on the riverboat side of his life. One figure that loomed large in the Hartford riverboat lexicon was Dennis Trone, yet I never met him. However, one musician who did know Trone, and worked for him on his riverboats, was Art Thieme. Thieme wrote this on the day he learned that Trone had died on the www.mudcat.org website;

“Dennis Trone designed and built the steamboat Julia Belle Swain. As a mentor to John Hartford, he guided John through the process of securing his river pilot's license. There was no better pilot on the river than Denny. On a personal note, he hired me to sing and tell tall tales on both of his boats - the Str. Julia Belle Swain and the Twilight - for ten years on the Mississippi River and the Illinois River. For me, it was like a dream job, and it allowed us to get Chris through college without anyone owing anything.
“Friends, I'm just speechless. What a pleasure it was to know this man, and to watch him orchestrate the mesmerizing machinations of his life on the river! What a marvelous symphony he created for so very many of us. It was glorious to be able to watch him in all his outrageousness! I will most assuredly miss this man. Our heartfelt condolences to his wife, Libby, son Robert, and daughters Amanda and Lisa.” - Art Thieme

In an interview with Nano Riley in 1995, (archived at www.organicanews.com), John Hartford said, “In fact, my first choice of profession in life was not music—it was to be a steamboat pilot. There weren't many steamboats around, but I rode on a few. I wanted to go tow boating, but the music just took over. The music was there and I just couldn't help myself…..I remember I'd go out and work on the river in the summertime and I'd take a banjo with me and the music would distract me."
Still, Hartford managed to do both, combining his love of music and life behind a riverboat wheel until the day he died. He goes on to say this about Trone in the 1995 interview, “I have a first class, unlimited tonnage pilot's license, and I work summers for Captain Dennis Trone. When I'm not working shows, I go up there and work as a pilot and keep my hand in. I've done that since 1970. I play and pilot both.”

From the song “Julia Belle Swain” written by John Hartford,

“Now the Julia Belle Swain is a women's lib boat
First I ever knew
Got girls in the pilothouse and girls on deck
And a lady in the engine room
Now Donna's got her license
Cindy's learning to steer
Little Julie keeps Moon outta trouble by wandering off everywhere
By wandering off everywhere”

The “Cindy” mentioned above in Hartford’s song is Cindy Sinclair. Sinclair grew up in Petersburg and was a friend of Trone’s daughter, which led her to work on the Julia Belle Swain where she met Hartford. In an interview with Sinclair conducted after Hartford’s death as a part of Illinois Periodicals Online Project for the Northern Illinois University website (http://tinyurl.com/5zs7pt), she remembers her experiences this way;

“It was an all-volunteer crew. It took about ten days to make that trip down the Illinois to the Mississippi, down the Mississippi to the Ohio, down the Ohio to the Tennessee, and on to Chattanooga. It was just like going back in time. John loved those trips…. John took detailed notes when he was piloting the Julia Belle, writing down his observations about the river. In his last days I would sit with him for hours and read to him from his log books.”

Eventually, Trone sold both the Julia Belle Swain and the Twilight riverboats and turned his attention to his antique airplanes. Still, he will be remembered on America’s waterways for years to come, including for his storytelling. Says Art Thieme in the Standard Register-Journal article, “You just never knew what stories were going to come out. They were always fascinating….He was a doer and he made the whole operation work. He was the only one who was absolutely indispensable.”
There is no doubt that Dennis Trone and John Hartford shared many a story on those late nights and afternoons as they guided the Julia Belle Swain down the river on those long trips from Wisconsin to Tennessee. Hopefully some old time riverboat hands and captains will begin to share some of those stories as news of Trone’s death spreads.
I do know one thing, after meeting many in the riverboat community in recent years, Trone will be remember in some way on America’s riverways sometime soon. It could be a riverboat whistle blown at a certain time in a certain place, or a collection of pictures of him behind the wheel gathered together and shared.

From the song “Julia Belle Swain” written by John Hartford,

“Well I sure do love the Tennessee River
The Ohio and the Illinois
And I love the old Mississippi River
It's a good old place for a boy
Just to step on board the steamboat
Ride all the way to the sea
Where else but a muddy old river
Would a person want to be?”

--Derek Halsey
Gritz Magazine
Bluegrass Unlimited Magazine