Virginia Paine didn’t realize how exceptional she would become when she started taking piano lessons at the age of 10. In fact, she doesn’t realize it even now.
Paine, who will turn 90 on Sunday, is still making music. As organist for the Admire United Methodist Church, she will play as usual for morning services and return in the afternoon for a public celebration in her honor.
She said she never dreamed she’d still be making music at this point in her life. Friends and family, though, rely on her to be there — at the church for services, funerals, weddings and more. Through the years, in one way or another, she has had a role in the life events of most people in north Lyon County and some beyond.
Grace Lowder, 99, in funeral pre-arrangements had requested Paine play at her service. Last month, she did.
“She played at Allen for Mrs. Lowder’s service in that terrible snowstorm,” daughter-in-law Marilyn Kirk remarked.
It would take more than snow and ice to keep Virginia Paine from taking care of her musical responsibilities.
Paine played for both the 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. Christmas Eve services at Admire, and between service times held a family holiday gathering at her home.
“We had 20-some people there for Christmas Eve,” she said, mentioning her own children and spouses, seven grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. “My daughter and daughters-in-law did most of the work.”
Paine’s day ended around midnight.
Paine had studied piano about two years the first time around, then picked it up again as a high-school student when she took lessons at a college across the street from the school. Since then, she hasn’t stopped playing.
“I love music and I like the classics,” Paine said. “I kept up with it all these years. That’s why I’m still doing it at 90. As far as I know I’m going to be playing next Sunday.”
Paine began playing part-time for Sunday school as a 13-year-old in her hometown, Springfield, Mo.
“The first piece I ever learned to play for church was in the key of C,” she said, chuckling at herself for playing in a key with no sharps or flats to worry about. The song was “Bringing in the Sheaves.”
Now, the key of a song doesn’t matter. She plays whatever the minister wants for the congregational songs and chooses the preludes and postludes from favorites in her own repertoire.
“It certainly is a blessing to be able to do it. It really is,” said Paine, whose husband died in July 1989. “For me, it passes time, because I’m alone.”
Paine’s first husband, Vernon Kirk, died before their 11th anniversary and left her with three young children — Joe, who was almost 9; Carol, 6; and Phil, 4.
She moved the family from Garnett to Emporia to be near her late husband’s parents, Alfred and Zilla Kirk, who lived near Admire. She and the children attended the Admire church with her in-laws and there she stayed after marrying Vernon Paine in 1954 and moving to Admire. At the time, she played piano for the church.
“I didn’t start playing the organ until we got an organ up here at our church, and that was 1967,” she said. “If I had to choose between the two, I’d choose the piano, but I do love the organ. It does so much for you.”
She taught herself the fingering techniques to make the switch from piano to organ, and learned to use the foot pedals as well. With an ear and a talent for music, she remembers melodies she hears and turns them into full arrangements without benefit of sheet music. Other hymns and songs are embellished in her own style.
“I just do my thing,” she said. “I don’t exactly keep to all the notes that are written. I add to it, or take away from it.”
However she does it, she plans to continue. Arthritis bothers her hands and fingers, so she warms them up by squeezing a rubber ball before going to church to play; other exercises help keep her carpal-tunnel syndrome at bay. The extra trouble is worth the effort because it keeps Paine doing what she loves to do.
“It’s just a deep feeling that I have about music,” she said; “that it’s probably something that is a gift that has been given to me.”