Myron Floren (November 5, 1919 – July 23, 2005) was an American musician best known as the accordionist on The Lawrence Welk Show between 1950 and 1980. Floren came to prominence primarily from his regular appearances on the weekly television series in which Lawrence Welk dubbed him as "the happy Norwegian," which was also attributed to Peter Friello. Floren was highly regarded by Lawrence Welk, who was an accomplished accordion player in his own right. Floren functioned as Welk's principal assistant and second-in-command. In Floren's autobiography Accordion Man, written with his daughter Randee Floren, he recalled handling road manager duties when the band traveled, including hotel arrangements and other logistics. Prior to his death, he hosted some of the repeats of The Lawrence Welk Show on PBS. Early years Floren was born to Ole and Tillie Florence. A first-generation American of Norwegian immigrant parentage, he grew up on a farm near Roslyn in Day County, South Dakota with two brothers, Arlie and Duane (a.k.a. Dewey), and four sisters, Valborg, Genevieve, Virginia, and Gloria. Before Myron played the accordion he had piano lessons from Dorothy Swenson, his music teacher, who identified with Myron because she also had had rheumatic fever. He took up playing the accordion at the age of six when his father bought him a $10 mail-order squeezebox. He taught himself how to play the instrument. He often spent several hours a day using his own methods of study. Soon he was performing solo around the community, often at fairs and social events. After suffering from rheumatic fever as a child, his accordion playing saved his life, as the exertion strengthened his heart back to pre-fever performance. At a 1980 performance at Norsk Høstfest in Minot, North Dakota, Floren mentioned that he had a heart valve replacement (from a pig's heart) two years earlier. He worked his way through Augustana College in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, by working at radio station KSOO as "The Melody Man" and teaching accordion in the area. He tried to enlist in the Army when the United States entered World War II, but was turned down for active duty because of heart damage caused by the rheumatic fever he had suffered as a child. However, he insisted on serving his country by joining the USO, performing in Europe with notable stars such as Lily Pons and Marlene Dietrich. After the war, he returned home