Daryl Dragon, half of pop duo 'Captain and Tennille' and former Washoe Valley resident dies
Submitted by Jeff Munson on Wed, 01/02/2019 - 5:21pm
Daryl Dragon, who was half of the soft pop rock duo “The Captain and Tennille” along with then-wife Toni Tennille, producing hits such as "Muskrat Love" and "Love with Keep us Together" and at one time lived in Washoe Valley north of Carson City with Tennille, died in Arizona on Wednesday. He was 76.
Prior to teaming up with Tennille to form the duo, Dragon was a keyboardist for The Beach Boys. Reaching the height of their popularity in the 1970s and early 1980s, the couple married and had five albums certified gold or platinum, scoring numerous hits on the US singles charts and hosted their own television variety series on ABC in 1976–77, according to Wikipedia.
Dragon and Tennille spent most of the 1990s and early 2000s living in the Washoe Valley area, where they had lived for more than 15 years, and where Tennille served as Ambassador for the Arts for the state, according to Wikipedia.
Throughout the 1990s, they continued to perform various concert dates at venues around the world, frequently at Harrah's Lake Tahoe and Harrah's Reno, according to Wikipedia.
In the mid-2000s, they temporarily took year-round residence at their second home, located in the Palm Springs area of Southern California. In 2008 they sold their Washoe Valley home and built a house and settled down in Prescott, according to a Wikipedia entry.
In late 2009, Tennille announced Dragon had developed familial tremor. Subsequently, the tremor condition limited most of Dragon's public appearances. In September 2010, Tennille publicly clarified her husband's condition as "a neurological condition (later confirmed to be Essential tremor), which caused him to have tremors, according to a Wikipedia entry. Tennille indicated the condition was debilitating to Dragon's abilities as a musician.
Tennille filed for divorce from Dragon in the State of Arizona on Jan. 16, 2014, after 39 years of marriage.
Dragon and Tennille remained close friends until his death from complications of renal failure on Wednesday, Jan. 2 in Prescott, Arizona. Tennille was at his side when he passed.
Dragon was born August 27, 1942 into a musical family, and is the son of Eloise (Rawitzer) and conductor, composer, and arranger Carmen Dragon, and the elder brother of Dennis Dragon, a member of the 1960s pop combo The Dragons and the 1980s surf band the Surf Punks. His godfather was actor and comedian Danny Thomas, according to Wikipedia.
Dragon's familiar image and stage name came from his time as a keyboard player with The Beach Boys from 1967 to 1972. Beach Boys lead singer Mike Love gave him the nickname "Captain", and it stuck; Dragon began wearing a nautical captain's hat to go along with the name.
As Captain in Captain and Tennille, Dragon was frequently silent and a man of very few words, playing a foil to his outgoing wife, Tennille, according to Wikipedia.
