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YANKTON, S.D. — The river troubadours Bobby Joe Holman and Bobby Sundby are returning to Yankton next week to premiere a song dedicated to Richard Heimes, the first young man from the Yankton area to lose his life in Vietnam.
Heimes was born in Hartington in 1946, one of 11 siblings. His family was farming near Utica in the 1960s when he went to war, serving with the 4th Infantry Division. He died when his tank was hit by a Viet Cong rocket on Jan 30, 1968. He was buried with military honors at St. Agnes of Sigel Cemetery, north of Yankton.
Decades later, Margaret Hunhoff, a Utica farmwife and nurse, wrote a poem about the young man’s sacrifice. “He had found the world a bitter-sweet place and he chose to make it sweeter,” she penned. The poem was published in her collection, Seventh Son, in 2001.
Holman and Sundby, musicians from Rapid City, S.D., happened upon the poem while playing at Muddy Mo’s Coffee Shop last August. They asked the Hunhoff and Heimes families if they could adapt the poem to music.
The musicians, who are called The Bobby’s in the Black Hills, are returning to Yankton for a series of performances. The song, called Richard’s Return, will be part of their playlist. Their schedule includes these dates: * Thursday, Oct. 23, The Copper Room, 5-7 p.m. * Friday, Oct. 24, Muddy Mo’s, 2-3 p.m. * Friday, Oct. 24, The Boat House, 7-9 p.m.
The duo is also developing music dedicated to the great rivers of America. Holman, a renowned harmonica player and blues singer, was born in Texas and played music on Bourbon Street early in his music career.
“I love our rivers, and I especially enjoy the great Missouri River that runs through Yankton,” he said. “I can’t help but sing Across the Wide Missouri when I am in this part of the country. We took a boat ride up and down the river in August and I was so inspired to do our river songs.”
Many of Richard Heimes’ family still live in northeast Nebraska and southeast South Dakota.
Some of them plan to take the musicians to Sigel Cemetery to visit Richard’s grave.
Holman, a Vietnam veteran, calls it an honor to remember Richard Heimes. “We are just so touched to have this opportunity to tell the story of this brave young soldier in song,” he said.
