The Mount Ayr Record-News
Mount Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa
Thursday, April 26, 2012

Ask most people what it takes to become good at any particular skill and they would probably say that it takes a mixture of talent, hard work and passion.

While this is indeed true, there is one important factor missing from that list, one that Jane THOMAS, an organist at Mount Ayr's First Christian Church, doesn't intend to forget. Though she has loved and practiced the organ since the age of 12, she doesn't claim the credit for her talent.

"The concert being held at the church this weekend is called 'To God Be the Glory' not 'To Me Be the Glory,'" she said. "There's a quote by Johannes Sebastian Bach that says 'I play the notes as they are written but it is God that makes the music,' and it's true for me too."

It was difficult for THOMAS to pinpoint when exactly God first called her to music, but she thought her interest might have been sparked by one of her aunts who played the piano by ear. THOMAS recalled going to her aunt's house as a toddler and loving the music that her aunt played. When she would return home afterwards, she would attempt to imitate what she had seen and heard on her family's piano, but at the time it amounted to little more than banging on the keyboard. THOMAS' first real piano teacher was also her kindergarten teacher, Pauline McCORMICK. That was where THOMAS began to formally begin to develop her God-given gift under McCORMICK'S tutelage at the age of five.

It was later, at the age of 12, that THOMAS first tried her hand at the organ. Naturally, her first exposure to the organ would have been at church, listening to spiritual music.

She also recalls watching the Lawrence Welk show with her family and being fascinated by the organist.

"I always thought it would be neat to be an organist on the Lawrence Welk Show," she says.

Of course, growing up on a farm and without any extraordinary financial means, THOMAS' access to an organ was limited at first. Her family had to bring her to the church if she wanted to practice. This became an inconvenience as her love for the organ continued to grow, so her father scraped together all his extra cash and purchased her her own organ, a Hammond Spinet.

THOMAS has fond memories of her father coming home from a hard day's work on the farm and sitting down to relax as he requested her to grace him with some organ music. He himself was blessed with a beautiful tenor voice and if he was familiar with the song she was playing, he would sing along in tenor harmony.

THOMAS continued to take organ lessons all throughout high school. After graduating, she set the instrument aside and received training to be a surgical technician at Mercy Hospital in Des Moines. She enjoyed the work, assisting in several different kinds of surgeries, but quit after a year when she got married in 1964 to Robert THOMAS. The two of them then moved to Mount Ayr and had two children Angela and Sean. During this time, she formed a small three-person band which toured the area, giving performances at a variety of events. Though she continued with the band for many years, she was the only constant member. She had a few drummers over the years, as well as a variety of horn players, and even an electric guitarist at one point.

One member of her band from its early days, Dr. Bruce RICKER, who performed with her before he finished high school, will be making an appearance at Sunday's concert on the drums to perform with her again.

The band mostly stayed in the area, their most frequent venue being the VFW building in Creston. They played a lot of big band tunes, along with some of the popular music of the day. THOMAS and her band continued to perform for about 20 years.

Throughout her musical career, THOMAS has had a number of exciting and memorable opportunities that arose for her. She has had a chance to play on a number of very large organs, some with three or four manuals (keyboards).

"The more manuals it has, the more buttons there are to push, and things to play with. So that was alot of fun," she says.

The Mount Ayr Record-News captured another of her memorable opportunities on film. A showroom in Des Moines featured an exhibit of a special make and model of Steinway grand piano emblazoned with the signatures of famous pianists who also play Steinways. THOMAS was able to make an appointment to play the piano at the showroom.

Another of her very fond memories associated with her favorite instrument happened just recently, during the restoration of the organ that inspired Sunday's concert.

"It was one of the highlights of my life, the days I spent [at First Christian Church] watching Tom BRITANYAK repair it," THOMAS says. "It was just so much fun to be up here when he was doing all this. He was a very knowledgeable technician, and just a great person besides."

THOMAS is looking forward to sharing with others the gift that God gave her at Sunday's concert, but said that the process of selecting which pieces to perform was rather difficult. She loves too many pieces and genres of music to be able to name a favorite piece.

"It was quite a trial [to choose which pieces would be played at the concert]," she admitted. "I got down to about 50 to 60 choices and trying to narrow it down for a program lasting an hour . . . I ended up playing eenie meenie miney moe for some of them."

Other choices were influenced by what she had seen some organists on the internet playing. After noticing that there are very few gospel-style organ pieces, she decided to blend some of the ones she was able to find into a gospel medley.

THOMAS recalls seeing a video of the Mormon Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah, which owns one of the largest organs in the world. The head organist played "Swing Low Sweet Chariot" as well as a number of Christmas songs with a gospel beat and it got THOMAS excited to try something similar.

"I'd like people to come and enjoy the music and forget everything else while they're doing that,"THOMAS said of the concert in closing. "I want them to leave having felt the presence of God in their lives. I hope that they'll find solace in it."

On Sunday, April 29 at 2:30 p.m., the First Christian Church will be holding an organ performance to celebrate the recent restoration of their organ.

The music will be provided by Mount Ayr's very on organists, Jane THOMAS, with the occasional help of her son and daughter-in-law Sean and Jennifer THOMAS providing vocals, Ginny EIGHMY on the piano, and Dr. Bruce RICKER on the drums.

The pieces to be featured will include "I Do Believe," "How Great Thou Art," "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name," "I'll Walk With God," "The Lord's Prayer," "The Sound Pallette," "Ode to Joy/Victory in Jesus," "Medley of Spirituals," "We Shall Behold Him," "Gospel Medley," "Worthy Is the Lamb," "Where No One Stands Alone," "Gentle Shepherd," "I Walked Today Where Jesus Walked," "To God Be the Glory #72" and "The Lost Cord."

Photograph courtesy of Mount Ayr Record News

Transcription by Sharon R. Becker, April of 2012