Paul Fabian Villepigue Jr. was born July 12, 1919, in Ottawa, Kansas, the first child of Martha and Paul F. Villepigue. The following year, the family settled in Martha’s hometown of Chanute, Kansas, where a daughter, Celeste, was born in 1922. Big brother and little sister, dubbed “Pig” and “Piglet,” grew up amid the extended family of Danish-born grandparents and many uncles, aunts, and cousins. In her memoir, one cousin, a year older than Paul Jr., reminisces:

Martha and Paul were very proud of Little Paul, who was very musical. The two Pauls wrote a light and funny song about Columbus.

Two of the lines were:

       “Columbus was the big boyfriend of fair queen Isabella.

        In olden days it was the thing to have at least one fella.”

Little Paul sang and played the ukulele.

At age 10, he took up the clarinet, and at age 13, he wrote his first arrangement. In 1937, Chanute High School graduated its senior class to the accompaniment

of a variety revue, whose printed program states: “All musical numbers were especially arranged by Paul Villepigue, Jr.” Among the nine musical offerings were solos on trumpet (“Always”) and violin (“Rendezvous with a Dream”), vocal numbers (“The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi,” “Never in a Million Years”), and

a featured selection (“The Love Bug Will Bite You”) from the Swingmasters and Their Pappy.