Biographical Note
Louis Martin Kruger was born in Hanover, Germany, on September 9, 1861, and emigrated to the United States in 1863. He enlisted as an apprentice musician in the United States Marine Band on August 11, 1874 and served until 1878. After a short break, he served three enlistments with the Marine Band as a bass trombonist: 1880-1885, 1891-1895, and 1989-1917. By the time of his retirement in 1917 he had reached the rank of pricipal musician. His brother Charles enlisted as an apprentice in 1880 and remained with the band until 1893 when he left to join the Sousa Band, then rejoined in the Marine Band in 1899 until his death in 1902. When not on duty and after his military service, Louis Kruger was an avid bicyclist, performed on viola, and led dance bands and theater orchestras in Washington, D.C., during the 1870s to the 1900s. He and his wife Lena M. Kruger (1863-1939) lived on Sixth Street, Southeast. He died in Washington, D.C., on February 21, 1934, and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.