Director of the Philippine Constabulary Band
Walter Howard Loving was the younger brother of Julia Farley Loving, the African American woman who helped to raise two generations of Dinsmore children. Almost single-handedly, he opened the door for black musicians to rise through the ranks in the military and become chief musicians. Interested in music from an early age, it has been said, but not proven, that Julia Dinsmore paid for Walter’s education at the New England Conservatory of Music, with the cornet as his specialty. He first joined the military in 1893 and remained a military man, off and on, until the late 1930s. During the Philippine War, he looked to the Flandrau family (with their connection to Teddy Roosevelt) to help him get a commission. These efforts were unsuccessful; in the end it was another Dinsmore connection that helped—Patty Flandrau Selmes had attended Miss Nourse’s school in Cincinnati with several of the Herron girls, one of whom, Nellie, went on to marry William Howard Taft. When Taft moved to the Philippines as governor, Loving was appointed to the Philippine Constabulary Band and eventually retired with the rank of colonel. They toured the United States and were a star attraction at several world’s fairs. Loving was killed in the Philippines by the Japanese in 1945.