March 22, 2019 (Friday)
The photograph below shows our sons, David and Dan, at Jewett, Texas with a piano that had been loaded onto the pickup, as we prepared to deliver the piano to our home in Dallas in the early 1960s. Wanda’s parents lived in the house pictured and had been the guardians of the piano for many years. It was the piano she played as she learned to use her ability as a musician in her life’s work.
I was asked, “What is your favorite possession?” I have several favorite things, and this piano is one of them. It still stands in our home today, the first thing you see as you enter the front door. As the saying goes, it’s an oldie, but a goodie.
Wanda knew how to enhance congregational singing by playing in a way that made us want to follow the music leader as we sang the old hymns every Sunday. Most of the time, however, the church had regular pianists and organists who played every Sunday. Wanda filled in occasionally as pianist, but her principal job was leading the choir. She did that at First Baptist Church, Rockport, for 25 years.
Almost everyone sooner or later would sit down at this old piano at our house and play it for a while. We all enjoyed it.