Calamity's their name, but singing is their game

Back in 1991 some fine-tuned folks in Whitefish thought it would be fun to get a group together and sing carols on a horse-drawn wagon through town.

Bev Managhan was gathering the group together and told her friend, Katy Conn, about it.

“What’s this group called?” Conn asked.

“I don’t know yet,” Managhan said.

“You don’t know what you’re called? That’ll be a calamity,” Conn laughed.

The name stuck and the Calamity Singers was born. The singing engagements grew over the years since that first round of caroling in Whitefish.

Today the group, which features singers from across the valley, puts on show after show for a solid eight months, singing tunes to assisted living centers and other facilities for older folks throughout the valley. They average about 13 shows a month. Last week they sang for a solid 40 minutes at BeeHive Homes in Columbia Falls and then were off a few minutes later for a show at the Montana Veterans Home. They dressed in bright red Christmas colors and sang mostly Christmas carols — songs everyone would remember. The tunes brought a smile to many faces, including resident Grace Turner, who sang right along with them, at the tender age of 97.

“We like to share music with people at the nursing homes,” founding member Caroline Pfrimmer said. “It’s fulfilling.”

Over the years, they’ve sang to former members who’ve become infirm, she said, including founder Managhan.

“She always had a big smile when we sang to her,” Pfrimmer said.

In the past 24 years the group has had 47 members, all of them older folks themselves. Seven have died and 17 have dropped out due to illness, according to Pfrimmer and Kathy Murphy. Murphy plays the piano and is also a founding member.

Bob Thompson of Columbia Falls plays harmonica for the group and hands out beanie babies as gifts — they sing happy birthday to whoever in the audience is having a birthday that month.

“Kathy keeps everyone on key,” Pfrimmer noted. “She’ll even change the key from how the song is written to accommodate us,” Pfrimmer said.