Polka band leader dies

Band leader Math Sladky personified the happiness of polka music: He literally was the laugh in "Laughing Polka."

"He could laugh to make everybody else laugh," said his wife, Dorothy "Dottie" Sladky. "Laughing Polka" was his greatest hit because of that, she said.

He devoted 57 years to singing and playing Czech music.

Mathias "Math" J. Sladky, 78, died Tuesday at his home in Valparaiso, Neb. He had pancreatic cancer, his wife said.

He began the Math Sladky Polka Band in 1952, performing live on Sundays at a Lincoln radio station. The band's popularity was such that one year it played 311 dance gigs.

"He always talked that he couldn't believe he did that many jobs in one year," Dottie Sladky said.

His gigs were atop working 20 years full time for the Army National Guard, then 27 years full time as an aircraft mechanic for the Nebraska State Patrol.

Math Sladky and his band made 21 recordings and produced two music videos. In 2005, he was inducted into the Chicago International Polka Music Hall of Fame.

"That was a very, very big honor. You don't get voted in. They pick you because you are a very good polka band," Dottie Sladky said.

Math Sladky's last drumming and singing performance was May 1 at the David City (Neb.) Senior Center, she said.

On May 16, about three weeks before he died, he sang for a wedding dance in Valparaiso, she said. He asked a friend to play the drums, but Math sat and sang for three hours.

"He was that determined to keep up that polka heritage," she said.

"He spoke Czech fluently, and he sang all his songs in Czech" except the few that are usually sung in English, she said, such as "The Beer Barrel Polka."

Other survivors include son Robert A Sladky of Waverly, Neb.; daughter Edna Mae Fencl of Bruno, Neb.; eight grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.

Services will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church in Wahoo, Neb.

• Contact the writer: 444-1165, sue.truax@owh.com