Bayard "Buzz"  A. Vandegrift III, 80, of Oswego, passed away on August 8, 2026.

Born in Wilmington, Delaware, he was the son of the late Bayard A. Vandegrift Jr. and Ruth L. (Bishop) Vandegrift.

Buzz worked for Westmoreland Coal Company in West Virginia and later worked as a computer technician at Kodak in Rochester.  He was a proud Veteran, having served in the US Air Force from 1965-1969 in Europe as a radar technician.  Buzz loved jazz music, enjoyed the Syracuse Musical Festivals, and played the saxophone for the Valients.  Their band did block parties in Oswego for two years and was honored with induction into the Music Hall of Fame.  He also delivered courier for OTB and enjoyed swimming and playing games on his computer.

He is survived by his son Bayard IV, a niece, Darlene of Florida, and his brother Thomas and sister-in-law Faith Vandegrift.

Family and friends are invited to call on Thursday, August 13, 2026, 4-6 pm at Nelson Funeral Home, 11 W. Albany Street.  A funeral service will be held on Friday, August 14, at 11 am at Nelson Funeral Home, and burial will follow in Riverside Cemetery.

Arrangements are under the caring guidance of Nelson Funeral Home.

The Valiants--Bayard A. "Buzz" Vandegrift III, Oswego Music Hall of Fame

Greetings to all citizens, all my fans, and current and recent inductees.

All good biographies include a place of birth and date.  It was February 2,  1946, in Wilmington, Delaware.  I started school in Oswego, NY, my brother had just taken up playing the trumpet, and my parents asked me what I was interested in.  I told them the clarinet, which is the instrument that most saxophone players begin with.  I attended a sock hop in my first year in high school.  At the sock hop, there was a group playing.  A man by the name of Sunny Castiglia was playing the sax,  which I found very interesting.  Years later, I met up with him and thanked him for being such an inspiration to me, which is true, by the way.   The first tenor sax I played was rented.  Later on after, I met  Jimmy Losurdo, Jack Connelly, and Danny Kraft, with whom I became a fellow band member with.  The band was called The Valiants.  Little did I  know then that was the start of a lucrative career for me.

I left Oswego after high school and enrolled in Delhi Institute of  Technology, near Oneonta, NY.  That did not stop me.  Just as in high school, I performed at many college smokers (frat parties).  I did not graduate from Delhi, but then entered the Air Force.  Here is where it gets interesting.  I carried my saxophone with me.  It became a permanent piece of luggage.  I entered an electronics school in Denver,  Colorado.  While there, I heard about a favorite group of mine that was going to perform at a Natural Amphitheater in Red Rock, Colorado.  I am pretty sure that everyone will know the name of the group: Earth, Wind and Fire.  The lead man in the group was Maurice White.  I had the opportunity to meet him backstage and asked if I could sit in on the show, and the answer was yes.

At the end of my schooling in Denver, I was deployed to Germany for what I  learned would be the next four years.  All I could think of was what an opportunity.  Just after I arrived, I met four musicians that were starting up a group.  We called that group The Illusions.  I was the only horn player.  I decided to purchase the kind of sax (The  Selmer).  I guess you would call it the Porsche of saxophones.   I  acquired the horn from one of the four people I had just met who was an employee of a music store.  We soon became very popular through word of mouth.  Our first gig was at the Heidelberg University in Bavaria,  Germany, otherwise known as The Black Forest.  From there, we obtained a gig playing every weekend at a town on the Mosel River.  At this point,  we started to be known internationally.  I remember performing on the beach in Barcelona, Spain.  The stage that was set up was absolutely beautiful.  There must have been hundreds of people there.  The next gig was in Metz, France, right outside of Paris.  All of these gigs had to be oriented around the weekends of the Mosel.  One morning I found a note on my bunk that the base commander wanted to see me.  All I could think was, what have I done wrong?  This guy was a full bird colonel.   When I got to his office, he said to me, I hear that you perform in a group; is that right?  I said, " Yes, sir, it is".  He told me, do not give it up.  You are forming good relationships with the German people.  I  would like to hear that you are continuing to perform.  The base commander arranged a base-wide party with not only the base I was on,  but members of three other bases in that area.

In  August of 1969, I returned to the States.  Before leaving Germany, the lead guitar player of our group asked me to come down to the Carolinas, where he was from, and we would try to start up another group.  This is exactly what I did.   When I got to the Carolinas, I met up with him.   He had made arrangements to go to East Tennessee State University in  Johnson City, Tennessee.  So, I enrolled in the school as well.  There were many student musicians there.  Along with three other students there, we started a group called the Illusions.  We began to acquire many gigs, most of which were for the school.    We performed at a sports arena in Atlanta, Georgia.

January  18, 1996, my life and career in the music industry changed drastically.   I could no longer perform due to a stroke leaving me unable to use my entire left side.  The stage has become a thing of the past for me.  It saddens me that I am unable to perform with everyone tonight (October  21, 2018 Induction ceremony), but I am honored to have been chosen to be an inductee into the Oswego Music Hall of Fame and share my career  adventures with all of my fans and fellow musicians.