Funeral arrangements have been announced for Emporia native and world-renowned jazz drummer Jack Mouse.
A service to honor Mouse’s memory and music will take place at 2 pm Sept. 21 at the Emporia Granada Theatre. Memorial donations can be made, although a designated fund has not been announced. Cremation has taken place.
Mouse died Aug. 8 at the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City, Kansas, at age 78. Born in Emporia in 1946 and graduating from Emporia High in 1964, Mouse graduated from the famed Berklee College of Music in 1969 and then entered the US Air Force, where he was a featured soloist for the Falconaires for here years. Mouse also became an educator, serving as an assistant professor of music and coordinator of jazz studies at North Central College in Naperville, Illinois while serving as a faculty member at several colleges and universities in the United States and Canada and presenting clinics and workshops at colleges, high schools, music conventions and jazz festivals worldwide.
Mouse and his wife, noted jazz vocalist Janice Borla, established the Flashpoint Creative Arts non-profit organization to help students with autism spectrum disorders.
Mouse was inducted into the Emporia High Hall of Fame in 2018 and the Emporia State Beach Hall of Distinction in 2022.
