Jon Gailmor: Grabbing Vitals, Honoring Heroes

My reason for being is music,
And to reach a few hearts if I can …

For 6 decades, Jon Gailmor has created music.

Along the way, he has reached countless hearts.

After graduating from Staples High School he wrote, sang and toured writing, with 1966 classmate Rob Carlson. The duo’s album, “Peaceable Kingdom,” was beautiful — yet poorly promoted by Polydor.

Disenchanted with the music business, Gailmor left Westport for Vermont. He crafted a life there as a singer/songwriter, radio show host, children and adults’ workshop leader. He represented his beloved state at the Kennedy Center’s 25th Anniversary Celebration, wrote a campaign song for Burlington mayoral candidate Bernie Sanders, and was named an official Vermont treasure.

Last year, he was diagnosed with leukemia. Gailmor — who just a few weeks earlier had been the subject of an AP story as moderator of Elmore’s town meeting, the epitome of that fading New England tradition — left the land he’d known for 60 years, to be treated in New Orleans and live a few minutes away from his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren.

Jon Gailmor in Vermont. (Photo courtesy of Associated Press)

Shortness of breath struck quickly last spring. Gailmor’s doctors at the University of Vermont Medical Center were excellent.

But his son Aaron urged him — and Gailmor’s daughter Maya, who worked at Stowe and lived with him — to head south.

The decision was gut-wrenching — but the right one. Gailmor sold his house in Elmore, packed up his and Maya’s lives in a U-Haul, and in October drove to his new Louisiana home.

New Orleans was not unfamiliar. Before marrying his wife Cathy, who died in 2022 of ALS, he had a girlfriend of 7 years whose family lived there.

Aaron loved New Orleans too. It was where he followed his wife, and established Brass Roots, a very successful healthy snack food company that made it to “Shark Tank.”

“This is an amazing city,” Gailmor says. “Perfect strangers say ‘Hi, sweetie, how’s it goin’?”

Jon Gailmor

The diversity excites him — particularly after Vermont. “My heart will always be there. But it is not a very diverse place,” Gailmor says with characteristic understatement.

“And I don’t miss the weather.”

Gailmor — whose optimism makes Ted Lasso look like a sociopath — has made the most of his move.

He continues to make magical music. He’s reaching more than a few hearts — including strangers who quickly become friends in his new home town.

Jon Gailmor: Still singing.

Gailmor’s new (and excellent) hospital is Ochsner Medical Center. He loves its motto: “Long Live You.”

When a nurse said “Okay Jon, I’m gonna grab your vitals,” a creative lightbulb went off over his head.

“Any normal person would know she meant pulse, blood pressure, etc.,” Gailmor says.

His mind works differently. As a songwriter, he knew he had to work “grab them vitals” into a tune.

He sure did:

The oncology head loved it. So did the marketing department. They used Gailmor (though not that song) in a commercial that aired locally during the Super Bowl.

Which, of course, was played right there in The Big Easy.

But that wasn’t all.

Inspired by a sign in a CVS that said “Heroes Work Here,” he expanded the idea to incorporate all the doctors, nurses and staff at Ochsner.

Among the lines:

I’ll give you the finger when you check my O2
You heal all my boo-boo’s when I’m all black and blue
You mop, give me meds and deliver the stew
So good to know heroes work here

Comic book heroes indeed have their place
On the screen and in dreams they’re so brave
But none can compare to the humans who dare
To work hard here with real lives to save.

You work through wee hours from darkness to dawn
I see your eyes shining, even with the mask on
Making magic from messes when hope seems all gone
So glad that you heroes work here.

Gailmor’s artist friend Bonnie Acker created a collage around the theme. Everyone at Ochsner loved — and appreciated — the message.

Heroes work at Ochsner Medical Center.

So did many others — postal workers, trash collectors, school crossing guards – whom Gailmor has hailed.

“The world would be a better place if we acknowledge people like this,” Gailmor says simply.

Gailmor’s recent bone marrow biopsy was clean. He’s waiting for the results of another. If that news is positive, he’ll be in remission.

Whatever happens, he says, “I’m here with my family. My medical care is wonderful. To have found my passion so long ago, and be able to pursue it all my life … I’m a very lucky guy.”

Almost as lucky as all those people in Connecticut, Vermont, New Orleans — and everywhere else — whose hearts have been reached by Jon Gailmor’s music.

(“06880” regularly features Staples alumni, doing interesting and important things. This blog is “where Westport meets the world.” If you enjoy our coverage, please click here to support it. Thank you!)