Gladys Cox, the organist at Unity ARP Church, seems to have perfect timing, in music and in life.
Before she was 6 years old, her grandfather taught her to “beat the time” to the family's favorite hymns in the “Bible Songs” book.
The only occasion her timing seemed a little off was in 1972 when she was surprised by a third pregnancy. Her two sons, David and Phil, were 11 and 10.
When a lady in the church asked her if she had planned the pregnancy, she said, “No, but the Lord did.”
And it indeed appears a bigger plan was in place for Cox and her third or “bonus child,” as she calls her. More on that later. Or in Cox's own words, “There's a story to that.”
But first, a little history lesson is needed.
Before Gladys started to school and before the family had a piano at home, her grandfather stopped by after church and taught her about music, timing and theory.
During the week Gladys propped the worn, beloved “Bible Songs” book in the window, opened to a hymn and tapped her fingers on the window sill, pretending it was a piano.
When she was 10 years old, the family bought a piano and Gladys began taking formal lessons. Two years later, she became the church pianist at 12, the same age her mother had begun. Together, mother and daughter provided the music for the church for the next four years.
In 1951 the church replaced the simple reed organ with a fancy new electronic one, with two keyboards and lots of pedals. Virginia Huey was not interested in learning the complex instrument, so she ended her 30-year tenure as organist, and Gladys eagerly took over at age 16.
She kept the seat behind the new organ for the next 65 years. During that time, she saw a few preachers come and go, got married, had three children and said final earthly goodbyes to many family and friends.
She played the organ at many of those goodbyes as well as at weddings. To be exact, 208 funerals and 74 weddings. She keeps precise records.
The congregation watched little Gladys grow up, marry a Baptist man, James Eldridge Cox, whom she quickly converted to Presbyterianism. They had two boys – David in 1961 and Phil a year later. In her spare time, she searched genealogical records and wrote family histories. She taught children piano lessons in her home and at Buford High School.
The bonus child
Now back to the bonus child. In 1972, when David and Phil were 11 and 10, their mother surprised them with a little sister, Jennifer.It wasn't long before Cox noticed that her little girl had a talent for the piano.
Jennifer watched with envy as the parade of aspiring young pianists spent time with her mother for their hour-long lessons. At age 7, Jennifer approached her mother and asked for formal lessons and no favoritism. She even paid.
Every week her father would give her $2, which she would give to her mother. Not until years later did she know that her mother gave the money back to her dad each week to start the cycle over.
Jennifer, like her mother and grandmother, played by ear. She walked in to her lessons each week with the name of a song and told her “teacher”: “My mother wants me to learn this song, and I need you to play it for me first.”
After Cox played it once, Jennifer played it back perfectly.
Jennifer grew as a musician and when she was 12, she became the pianist for the church. And once again, Unity had a mother and daughter providing music. That lasted for 32 years until poor health prompted Cox to retire.
Unity ARP honored her Sept. 18 for 65 years of service to the congregation.
Lasting memories
One of her fondest memories was in 1975 at the church's centennial celebration. Cox and her mother played music while 3-year-old Jennifer played nearby.
Two of her most difficult times as organist came years later. First, on Easter Sunday in 1990, the first communion after her husband's death. The men of the church were passing out communion while Cox sat alone at the organ. Her husband would have been the one serving the sacrament to her.
“It was more than I could bear,” she recalls. “I was crying so hard, I could barely see the keys.”
Ten years later she was faced with another heart-wrenching situation. Unity was celebrating its 125th year on Dec. 31, 2000, and Cox was looking forward to playing the organ at the midnight celebration. A call from White Oak Manor at 8:30 that morning delivered the news that her mother had passed away.
Unity's pastor, Guy Smith, asked her who would be playing in her place that night.
“I just looked at him and said, 'Who do you think is going to play? Mother would be very unhappy if I didn't carry out my commitment to be there.' And I did play,” Cox said.
Smith, Unity's pastor for 28 years, from 1977-2004, said Cox brought faithfulness and dedication to the church.
“Whenever she was needed, she was there,” Smith said.
He said she helped him many times when he needed to recall a special song for a service.
“I could call her on the phone and she would sing the song to me to be sure we were talking about the same song,” Smith said.
Current Pastor Charles Hammond has served since 2005. He expressed his gratitude for her commitment and open mind to the changing styles of music over the years.
“Her main concern is that the music worships the Lord and it is for his glory,” he said. “As long as that condition is met, she was fine.”
Both pastors said when they began their service at Unity that Cox gave them each a hymnal with check-marks beside the church's favorite songs.
Nimble fingers
Cox has beautiful, nimble fingers that gracefully and gently glide over the keys as her bare feet find the right pedal.
She relinquished the organ to her reluctant daughter, Jennifer Deason, this past May due to failing health. Deason had been filling in with the hope that she would return to the piano. Cox had hoped to return to the organ, but in March her cardiologist said her congestive heart failure would only worsen.
“Giving up the organ was the hardest thing I have ever had to do,” said Cox, who is now 81. “But seeing Jennifer play on Sundays makes it easier, and I know I did the right thing.”
Cox's health has improved, with no signs of heart failure. She credits a dedicated and devoted cardiologist and the prayers of loved ones.
Deason is now the official organist, and if she plays until 2021, the three women will have provided the organ music for Unity for 100 years.
“I'm sure I can do this for five years,” Deason said.
Cox has six grandchildren, none of whom seem very interested in the organ. There is still hope it will remain in the family. Her first great-grandchild is due to be be born before the end of the year.
Cox has resumed her role in the choir, and when the choir doesn't sing, she sits in the same front-row pew she once shared with her father 81 years ago to be near the organist. That seat now grants her closeness to her daughter.
9/30/16
 |
| This is Gladys with me just after she played the organ for me. |
Follow Reporter Mandy Catoe on Twitter @MandyCatoeTLN or contact her at (803) 283-1152
The Ripple Effect
Mandy Catoe’s Sept. 30 feature story “Gladys Cox steps aside after 65 years as organist at Unity ARP” was delightful.
Such a heartwarming story of a remarkable “musical and religiously faithful family” is so welcomed amid the often destructive and discouraging news we receive in today’s world.
May I attach some additional sweet memories to that story: When I was a little girl at Buford Elementary School, each time we were assembled into the school auditorium for some very special program, a high school girl was always seated at the piano.
She brought us into the auditorium and dismissed us with a joyful, spirited musical arrangement that I loved. I remember humming that happy tune in my mind throughout the remainder of such school days as I tried to hold on to its revelry.
When I asked my teacher the name of the girl at the piano, she told me it was Gladys Huey.
Only after I began taking lessons from the legendary Mrs. Sarah Walker –who enthusiastically taught piano to many Buford students – did I learn that the song I enjoyed so much was Verdi’s “Triumphal March” from the opera “Aida.”
I discovered that while rambling through “Young America’s Music,” a long-lasting set of books my parents brought for me soon after Santa delivered my first, much-requested piano. I was determined to learn to play that triumphal song myself.
I did accomplish that, after many blissful hours at my piano. Yet, I could not then – nor can I still – deliver it in the splendid, flawless manner produced by that young high school girl who performed it as we marched in and out of the school auditorium.
So in addition to the fine folks at Unity ARP Church and the many students whom Mrs. Cox has taught, there are others who have also been touched and inspired by – as Mandy described them – those “beautiful, nimble fingers gliding gracefully over the keys.”
When talented people generously share their gifts, they may never know to what extent they have enriched the lives of others. I would just like for Mrs. Gladys Huey Cox to know that she enriched mine.
She was the one who unknowingly brought me to my first piano bench as a child and, through her music, gave me the desire to stroke those wondrous keys. And what a joyful challenge it has added to my life!
It is rewarding to know that her daughter Jennifer will continue to share this family’s amazing musical talent for many years to come. And I am hopeful that Mandy Catoe will continue to give us more of her inspirational, well-crafted stories. Such talent as she displays in her writing is also worthy of praise.
Thanks to all who generously share their talents. It makes for a better world.
Dianne T. Evans is a Lancaster County resident and a retired psychology professor at the University of South Carolina Lancaster.
No comments:
Post a Comment