Sing a song in the key of T: Tony Cappa retires after 37 years leading the Oasis Senior Center ukulele club

Around the midpoint between his return from World War II and this week, Tony Cappa learned how to play ukulele.

He loved the compact, distinctly Polynesian instrument that is more dulcet than its cousins, the guitar and mandolin, and loved the people he met at the Oasis Senior Center in Corona del Mar, many of whom played alongside him in the center’s ukulele club. The people loved him back.

In 1982, Cappa took over leadership of the club. On Monday, at age 97, he stepped down as dozens of friends sent him off with a party that was part luau and part old-fashioned variety show. Life in the key of T.

“My uke has blessed me,” Cappa said, holding his instrument aloft. Then he led the crowd in “Sing,” a children’s song rearranged by pop acts since the 1970s:

Sing, sing a song.

Make it simple, to last your whole life long.

Don’t worry that it’s not good enough,

For anyone else to hear.

He punctuated the tune with a whooping “yeehaw!”

Tony Cappa listens as friend Tom Noble plays ukulele Monday at the Oasis Senior Center.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

Cappa was born in Inglewood in 1922. He started a family and at the height of World War II volunteered for the Marine Corps. He fought in the Battle of Iwo Jima, one of the fiercest sieges in the Pacific theater.

His marriage did not survive his absence for the war, so upon his return, Cappa took his two young sons to live with his sister Elsie and her two children. The family still owns the home.

Cappa had a career in beer sales and distribution in the Los Angeles area. In 1979, he moved to Orange County and found Oasis.

He had played piano, violin and harmonica since childhood. The ukulele was new.

Cappa attributes his longevity to the goat milk he was raised drinking. Elsie, who is 99, credits the cabbage she frequently prepared as a teenager. Their mother died when they were children, and cabbage was one of the few things then-13-year-old Elsie could cook for her family.

“I think it was the music,” said Justine Amadeus, Cappa’s niece and Elsie’s daughter.

Amadeus recalled her uncle holding her as a toddler on his knee in a bunkbed-filled room that all four cousins shared, playing harmonica for them in pre-television days.

Tony Cappa, left, sings a song with Tim Ogawa during Cappa’s retirement party Monday. Ogawa is succeeding Cappa as head of the Oasis ukulele club.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

For his party Monday, Cappa’s friends played and sang songs meant to go with the ukulele’s mellifluous tones. Women wore plumerias in their hair. Men wore brightly patterned Hawaiian shirts.

They swayed to “Lovely Hula Hands,” “To You Sweetheart, Aloha” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” Some huddled around sheet music propped on wooden holders. Others followed along on tablet computers.

Tom Noble sang “Old Bones,” a ditty that George Burns made famous in his 80s:

But I love life, I’d like to do it again,

Though I might not be much more than I’ve ever been.

Just to have the chance to turn back the hands

And let my life begin.

Noble chose to sing and strum because he didn’t want to cry while giving a speech.

Tony Cappa played piano, violin and harmonica from childhood. He took up ukulele later in life.

(Scott Smeltzer / Staff Photographer)

Noble is an 18-year regular at Oasis, coming from Huntington Beach after hearing about Cappa’s program from people at Island Bazaar, a specialty ukulele shop in Huntington that is also known as Ukulele Paradise.

“I’ve never seen a people person as much as him,” Noble said.

Cappa initiated the tradition of group ukulele performances at the Corona del Mar Christmas Walk, said Tim Ogawa, his successor as club president.

“Under his leadership, the club became the premier ukulele club in California,” Ogawa said.

Cappa sat at the head table Monday as pals noted how the luncheon was like a cheerful wake but with the guest alive and present.

“That’s the way to have a celebration of life,” friend Jim Beloff said. “Be vertical.”

“I’m still alive,” Cappa said good-naturedly. “I hope to stay alive at least a little bit longer.”

Cappa said his singing voice is fading and arthritis is catching up to his fingers.

But he will continue to visit Oasis, driving up from his San Clemente home to drop in on the ukulele club. He will be the sergeant at arms.

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