World-renowned organist earns spot on Princeton’s Walk of Stars

They called him flamboyant and Virgil Fox was the last one to argue. The Princeton native would be first to say he was a born showman.

Fox is long gone but the virtuoso and recording artist was memorialized Friday when his commemorative star was unveiled just a few yards from the Apollo Theater in Princeton, where the former child prodigy had cut his teeth.

“This guy was an international rock star in the organ world, and he came from very small beginnings,” Bureau County History Center Executive Director Lex Poppens said. “How many people knew that I couldn’t say.”

They certainly know it now. Hundreds of people gathered Thursday in downtown Princeton for the Homestead Festival and the Walk of Stars presentation. Poppens was pleased with the crowd size – “I think it was an extraordinary turnout” – and with the interest in Fox’s remarkable life.

Jim Dunn, president of the Bureau County History Center Board, who read Fox’s biography during the ceremony, summed up Fox best in his own words in a quote as reported by Time Magazine: “I am as controversial as Hell, and they say I’m a showman, and I’m proud to be one.”

Virgil Keel Fox was born May 3, 1912, in Princeton and his father, Miles, owned the Apollo Theater, which was fitted with an organ. Virgil’s talent for music was revealed at a young age and he practiced for hours at the keys inside the theater.

After graduating from Princeton High School in 1930 and after military service, he gradually made his name in the music world, with live performances and recordings on RCA Victor and Capitol.

Fox died of cancer in 1980 in Florida, where he had made his home, but he did make a triumphal return to Princeton High School in 1970 to perform to a packed house. Fox is laid to rest in Pioneer Cemetery in Dover, Illinois.

Dunn concluded the ceremony with a recording of the Princeton High School Loyalty Song, which was composed by a very young Virgil Fox.