Hammond B3 organist Roberta Lee Blankenship was born August 8th, 1940 in Baltimore Maryland. She studied piano beginning at age nine, and began playing organ at age thirteen at the Pentecostal Church of God in downtown Baltimore. She played in various churches in Baltimore and Washington, DC before marrying musician Rodd Keith Eskelin in 1958. Together they moved to Wichita, Kansas and performed as a keyboard duo for a live television show called “Music at Twilight”. Seeking work, they traveled to Los Angeles but Bobbie returned to Baltimore in 1961 where she performed as a solo organist and with a trio. Her group featured Tony Darr on trumpet and Nick Serio on drums and at other times ‘Skeeter’ Theodore Corona on clarinet and Jimmy Huggins on drums. She performed at numerous clubs including Smitty’s (Dundalk), Merritt House (Dundalk), Sierra Club (Glen Burnie), Old Court Inn (Reisterstown Road), Holiday Inn (Reisterstown Road), Westview Lounge (Route 40), The Howard Place (Route 40), Howard Johnson’s (Route 40). These engagements usually ran from two weeks to two months and in one case two years. Their repertoire consisted of standards from the great American songbook.
Bobbie Lee’s father, Theodore ‘Ted’ Blankenship, was an accomplished electric guitarist who played professionally in Baltimore clubs in the late ‘40s and the early ‘50s before devoting his talents to teaching in the Dundalk area.
Rodd Keith Eskelin remained in Los Angeles doing club work and arranging as well as recording in the “song-poem” industry (those send in your lyrics come ons seen in magazines). Many of his recordings have become collectors’ items and he has achieved something of a cult-hero status years after his tragic death in 1974.
Bobbie Lee’s son, jazz saxophonist Ellery Eskelin (see bio), was active on the Baltimore scene in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s before moving to New York City where he established himself as an internationally recognized touring and recording artist.
