File:Betty Richardson plays her home piano. Photo By Wyatt Massey.jpg

Summary

Local organist retires after decades of service. By Wyatt Massey for the Frederick News-Post, January 5, 2019

Betty Richardson was 7 years old when she found her life’s calling. She sat in church, watching her Sunday school teachers play the piano and organ.

“That’s all I wanted to do. I wanted to be like them,” Richardson said.

The music lessons began soon after and, 74 years later, Richardson continues her love of music. She has spent years of her life at Methodist churches throughout the state, creating music programs and leading congregations from her piano or organ bench.

Richardson’s first job in music was at Woodberry Methodist Church in the Baltimore neighborhood where she grew up. She accompanied the junior choir, played the organ on Sunday evening and played piano for the Wednesday night prayer meetings.

She got a job at Glen Mar United Methodist Church in Ellicott City in 1957 after a two-week substitution role became a decade-long job. Positions just seemed to open up and fall into her lap, Richardson said.

“That’s sort of how each experience happened with a new church,” she said.

Playing they hymn “There’s Within My Heart a Melody” remains one of Richardson’s favorites, she said.

“It’s one of the first songs I felt I could get away from the music and ad lib a bit,” Richardson said.

Richardson has always had the ability to sight-read music, playing it without first having to practice. Her husband of 59 years, Norman, said Richardson could hear the music by just looking at it. She would often look at the day’s piece while they were driving to church on Sunday morning, he said.

“She would be humming to herself,” Norman said. “She had that ability to do that.”

Richardson’s ability to sight read music led to more and more opportunities throughout her music career.

Richardson has played for funerals at a local Catholic church. She directed the adult choir and several youth choirs at Pasadena United Methodist Church from 1968 to 1981. Then, she began playing at Sandy Hook United Methodist.

“I feel that I’ve done a good deed along my way with each church I’ve been involved in — I’ve been part of getting each church a better organ,” Richardson said.

She ended her latest stop in December, retiring from New Hope United Methodist Church in Brunswick after 29 years.

A decade earlier, arthritis began to set in on Richardson’s body. She could feel it in her shoulders, she said, but she put off surgery to continue playing.

“I didn’t want to be stopped by something. I wanted to stop when I wanted,” she said.

Richardson said her age was one of the reasons she stepped away. She continues to play occasionally at Sandy Hook and Taney Village Apartments.