We had the most marvelous music instructor for many years at my St. Mary’s School in Orange, Texas. Our choral group got a Superior rating at Jones Hall in Houston. We were 500 students 1-8, going up against schools with thousands of students.

Mrs White taught thousands of students over a very long career to love music. I remember so many of the songs and will catch myself humming or singing them and then realize what song it is and where i got it.

When Poppies Close Their Crimson Eyes is so beautiful and melancholy, the piano notes in the introduction so crisp, then rolls into such a sublime melody.

I learned Mrs White had passed several years ago. I thought of the musical appreciation that she gave to so many of us, who embraced it as part of a life long musical love. I think that what she did and all the she accomplished is what so many education majors wanted to do with their lives, but are deprived of the chance to do so in this crazy, mixed-up world we live in.