Pianist, 98, puts pep in the Pep Tones

Doris Doak barely glanced at the sheet music propped on the piano in front of her, her fingers instinctively finding the keys for old-time favorites like "The Dark Town Strutters Ball" and "Sugar Foot Stomp."

Out on the dance floor — which is really the basketball court of the Bitter Lake Community Center in North Seattle — couples in their 70s, 80s and 90s shuffled, glided and twirled as Doak and the three other members of her band struck up waltzes, polkas, fox trots and the Varsovienne, Doak's favorite.

Every Thursday for more than 20 years, the Pep Tones — with Doak at the keyboard — have provided the tunes for weekly dances here.

Doak celebrated her 98th birthday on Monday, so at this week's dance, her many fans celebrated with cake decorated with a music scale and pink and yellow flowers. It was a small gesture to a woman who, for two hours every week, transports her fellow seniors back to the dance halls of their youth.

For Harold Sandberg, the Thursday dances are the highlight of his week — and he's been making the drive from Kirkland for the past 12 years to attend them.

"The only time I ever see her is when she's playing the piano. She's a real nice gal," Sandberg, 92, said of Doak. "I'll keep going here as long as I can. They're a nice bunch of people here and we have a good time."

Though her hearing is failing and her memory sometimes slips, Doak is as upbeat as the ditties she plays.

Born Feb. 25, 1910, in Montana and raised in Northern California, Doak moved to Seattle with her husband and children in 1940. After she got divorced in 1947, Doak — now a great-great-great-grandmother — moved with her four children into a house off Aurora Avenue North, where she still lives.

She worked at the old Rhodes Department Store at Second Avenue and Union Street in downtown Seattle, where she'd tickle the ivories when she wasn't waiting on customers. Doak later sold sheet music, first at Capitol Music Company (now Capitol Music Center) and then at the Sherman Clay piano store downtown, retiring when she was 75.

By her estimate, Doak owns thousands of pieces of sheet music, some as old as she is.

"At the time, I collected a lot of music I liked," Doak said. "I went to dances myself, and I'd get books of music and sheet music, and I always hoped I'd be able to use them — and I did."

In 1982, Doak began playing with a small orchestra at the West Seattle Senior Center, where she met Pep Tones trombone player Ralph Worden, now 91. Clare Gerring, the band's 95-year-old drummer and sax player, and bass player Henry Reed — who at 72 is "the kid of the band" — round out the Pep Tones.

They've been playing together so long that they no longer practice. Doak writes out weekly set lists in her small, tidy handwriting and calls out song names to her bandmates, who seamlessly transition from one tune to the next.

These days, the dances at the Bitter Lake center draw only 40 or 50 people, roughly half the number that used to come. Many of the old-timers have passed away, while health problems and rising gas prices have kept others home.

"Somebody's got a knee out of joint or their memory is shot or they have a bad hip," Doak said with a grin and a shrug. "One fella dances around with a cane. He doesn't have a partner so he just wobbles around the floor."

While those who show up may not move quite as fast as they once did, Doak said, musicians and dancers alike enjoy playing and hearing the music they all grew up with.

"I liked the piano when I was just a little kid," she said. "I'm just glad I can still play."

Sara Jean Green: 206-515-5654 or sgreen@seattletimes.com