Leo Baxter

Who was Leo Baxter?

Leo Baxter was born in northern Clay County, Indiana, in 1893. He lost his parents when he a small child and he was raised by an aunt and uncle. His uncle died and he and his aunt moved to Terre Haute in 1901. His first musical lessons were from a coal miner, then he took lessons from a sister at St. Benedict’s Church. Later he received lessons from Hermann Liebing where he studied classical piano and pipe organ. This took place at Hermann Liebing's studio which was only a few blocks from Baxter’s home.

By the time he was a teenager, Baxter was playing piano at a restaurant at 106 S. Fourth St. He was also and selling pianos at a music store on Wabash Ave.He played piano at the Savoy and on river boats while still at high school.

After serving in the first world war, he formed a theater orchestra at the Varieties vaudeville house, later to be renamed the Liberty when silent cinema became the fashion. When his band finished performing at the theater each night, they would move to the Trianon Dance Hall or the Tokio Dance Hall and play well into the night.

Leo Baxter would later became WBOW's Program Director and would work this as a day job for 27 years.