IMTA celebrates the life of longtime member Margaret Strong who was awarded (posthumously) a 50-year membership at the Fall 2016 IMTA State Conference at Goshen College. This excerpt from a recent obituary in the Bloomington newspaper highlights Margaret’s wonderful life of service as a piano teacher.
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Margaret Ann (Schofield) Strong, 91
FEB. 23, 1925-OCT. 1, 2016
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. – Margaret Ann (Schofield) Strong, 91, a lifelong music teacher and promoter of civil and human rights, died October 1, 2016, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The cause was complications from pneumonia.
Born on February 23, 1925, in Lockhart, Texas to William M. Schofield and Ethel (Lawrence) Schofield, Margaret attended Baylor University, where she studied Music (clarinet).
During World War II, she left school to work at the San Marcos Army Air Force Base. After that service, she attended the University of Texas, where she earned her Bachelor of Music Education degree (1949) and met her future husband, Douglas Ray Strong.
Margaret and Douglas were married in 1949 and settled in Houston, TX, where Margaret performed and taught piano and where their two children, Narissa and Fred, were born. Margaret was one of only two piano teachers in Houston who taught both black and white students in the 1950s.
The family moved to Bloomington, Indiana, in 1959, when Douglas was hired to be the Head Piano Technician at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music. In Bloomington, Margaret built her private piano practice and became active in the Indiana State Music Teachers Association and Mu Phi Epsilon, the music sorority. Margaret and Douglas were active politically and in the Unitarian Universalist Church, where Margaret was the Religious Education Director for many years and one of the regular musicians who played for services.Continue reading→