Tuesday, October 3, 2017

In Memory of Mary Martineau Cooper

A while ago my former piano teacher, Mary Cooper passed away. She touched many lives and is missed.

I took piano lessons, along with a couple of my brothers, for a short while when I was maybe around 8. I didn't like it. Hated to practice. Eventually our teacher moved away so that was the end of that. When I was in 5th grade I was interested in learning piano again. Our school was also starting a band and I desperately wanted to join that, too. I remember my parents debating about whether I should do band OR piano. My mom won and I was allowed to do both.

I wanted to play the trombone but was told my arms were too short (of course they were! I think the band teacher just didn't want to teach any instruments other than flute, clarinet, sax, and trumpet.) So the clarinet was chosen (I think partially because my dad was a fan of Kenny G.) And about the same time, I began taking piano lessons from Sister Mary Cooper, who we went to church with.

I didn't keep up with the clarinet past 8th grade, but use my musical (and specifically piano) talents often. I am eternally grateful to my parents for encouraging and facilitating my musical education!


Sister Cooper was a joy to learn from! I will always remember her pink rose decor covering every inch of her sitting room. I loved arriving early or being picked up late because then I could sit on her couch and eat candy from her crystal candy dish while listening to her work with the next student.

In that room, near the couch, she had a comfortable chair. Sometimes she would put down her red pen, step away from her seat beside the piano bench, sit in that chair, close her eyes, and just listen. She wanted to hear her own private concert on a piece or two, through the ears of an audience member instead of a teacher.

When we began learning a song, she would write the date on the top of the page. When we passed it off, we would get to put a sticker on the corner of the page. It was so exciting to see what new, cute little stickers she had bought.

She had a drawer full of prizes. If we practiced at least 120 minutes per week, for 2 weeks, we could pick something out. They were always fun things from the Dollar store. Candy, cups with twisty straws, seasonal figurines, stationary sets, etc.

I remember when I first started lessons, she told my parents that her goal wasn't to teach her students to be piano robots who were programmed to play all the classics with perfection. We learned fun pieces, folksongs, and yes classics too. It was also important to her that we learn the hymns. This was perfect for me because I learned that I would much rather accompany singers (solo, small group, choir, or congregation) than be a soloist.

Even though we went over many of the hymns, for some reason I remember learning High on the Mountain Top with her. She also was passionate about teaching me Master, the Tempest is Raging. She loved that song! The movement and drama in it spoke to her soul! And now it is one of my favorite hymns to play on piano (if the singer/s are willing to sing with plenty of dynamics!)  She was our Ward organist and she would sometimes talk about loving to have the congregation sing the really upbeat, rousing songs. She wanted people to feel like marching in the aisles!

She was so patient with me! There were a couple times when she had given me a piece to learn and I was able to do them with adequate technical accuracy. But I just didn't "feel" the piece and so could not play with the emotion that she wanted. Week after week I disappointed her with my lack of progress. Finally she admitted that I just didn't like the song and therefore it just wasn't going to get any better. Then she crossed it off the list and we never revisited it again.

As I neared my Junior year of high school, Mary began saying that I had outgrown her. I never became the next Mozart or anything, but she expressed that she didn't have much more new things she could teach me.  I can't remember now the name of the piece or the composer, but she had given me one classical piece to learn that had a couple long and very fast runs. It was an extremely  difficult section! She was so pleased when her daughter was in town so that she could teach me the best way to learn and practice it.

In my Junior year, I decided to stop lessons. I was working a part time job, was Laurel President, and had several honors classes. I was so busy but it was still very hard to decide to give up my weekly chat with Sister Cooper. After I graduated high school, she convinced me to take some organ lessons from her. We would meet at the church early in the morning and she even arranged for me to have my own code to the building and key to the organ so I could get in and practice whenever I wanted. I'm so glad she insisted on that! I'm not a very good organ player, but I at least have basic knowledge and am able to accompany the singing in Sacrament Meeting twice a month. I'm grateful to her for that!


Sister Cooper was a wonderful woman outside of lessons, too. Actually, sometimes it seemed like half of my lesson time was taken up in her recounting her life story. 😉

She had a beautiful flower garden and I felt privileged to be trusted to water for her when she went out of town.

She spent many hours making beautiful handmade cards. She sent some of these as birthday cards to everyone at church.

She was so proud of her family and talked of them often. She loved her Sunday dinners with her grandchildren, served on beautiful dishes. She also had an exchange student son (from Scandinavia??) that she also talked about constantly and with such love.

Education was very important to her. At a time when it was uncommon for women to pursue higher education, she persevered and earned her Masters Degree. She was so proud of that accomplishment! She also taught music at her children's elementary school when they were young. She was always telling me how important it was to prioritize my college education, even after marriage and children came along.

As evidenced by her college education, she was a sharp woman! And as she got older, she often expressed fear that she would be passed over for callings and service opportunities in the church because people would assume she was old and incapable. She would say that her body may be slowing down but, "My mind still works!!"


Mary Cooper, you are missed! I cherish my memories of my time spent at the piano bench with you. As I teach my own children and nieces and nephews piano, I find myself thinking more and more about you and the way you taught. I'm sure right now you are playing the organ in Heaven getting all the angels in the Heavenly choir to sing Master the Tempest is Raging with gusto! Or perhaps they're singing How Firm a Foundation and you're trying not to giggle at the memory of the line in the pre-1985 hymnal that made it sound like you were singing, "Yoo-hoo unto Jesus."

The world is a brighter place because you were in it. ❤❤❤

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