Mrs Willie Mae Mitchell
There were so many outstanding people in Forest that helped shaped many young lives but I'd like to pay special tribute to a lady that taught many of us phrases such as "Every Good Boy Does Fine" ; "Go Buy Dog Food Again" ; "All Cows Eat Grass" ; and "FACE". This of course would be piano teacher Extraordinaire, Mrs. Willie Mae Mitchell. As a true Golden Girl like recently deceased Betty White, Mrs. Mitchell lived to be just a few months short of her 100th birthday, passing away in January 2012. I was fortunate to listen to Mrs Mitchell play both the piano and organ at our Forest United Methodist Church every Sunday while we lived there. She loved her family, her church, and as much as anything, her students of the 88 ivory keys. Though I only played piano for 3 years under Mrs Mitchell, I'll always cherish those moments. One story that I do have to tell was at one of my recitals. Mrs. Mitchell had paired myself and Mark Gaddis to play a duet, the old favorite folk song, "We'll Go Fishing in a Crawdad Hole". Mark had the lower bass end of the piano accompanying me on the chorus part on the high end of the piano. Well, somewhere we got lost in the music between the two of us and what he was playing wasn't matching up with what I was playing. After sweating a bit and trying to figure how to gracefully exit the song, I whispered to Gaddis, "On the count of 3, play your final note". We hit that last note in unison, stood up to a round of applause and made our way off the stage. I'll never forget the look on Mrs. Mitchell's face as we walked past .... like, "What in the world was that?" But she never mentioned it to our relief and we never got to do a duet together again. Loved you Willie Mae and the joy of learning the basics of the piano! Rest in Peace.
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