Saturday, January 31, 1998

Longtime organist retires

By LORETTA FULTON / Abilene Reporter-News

Thurman Morrison feels certain that in time he will be able to attend church just like any other member. That time can't come soon enough.

Morrison retired in December as organist at Brook Hollow Christian Church, a position he had held since January 1949, even before the church took its current name and built at the corner of South 23rd and Willis.

Since his retirement, Morrison has been sitting in the pews and trying to get used to the transition.

"Needless to say, it's kind of difficult to just sit in a pew," he said.

Morrison, 80, will be treated to a reception and tribute at 11 a.m. Sunday at the church. Master of ceremonies will be Lawson Hager, former choir director at Brook Hollow and a music professor at Hardin-Simmons University, where Morrison also taught until his retirement in 1981.

Brook Hollow minister, the Rev. Steven Williams, is careful not to use the word "replace" when talking about a successor for Morrison.

"You don't replace someone with Thurman's talent and experience," he said. "He is quite an accomplished musician, and we are going to miss his talents very much."

The church is being served by an interim organist for the present.

The master of ceremonies for Sunday's tribute, Hager, was one of Morrison's students at Hardin-Simmons during the '60s.

"We've just been good friends a long, long time," Hager said.

Morrison believes this will be his final retirement, and he plans to spend his future days reading, doing some traveling, and perhaps playing on some of the instruments in his home, including a harpsichord he built, a grand piano, an 1840 "square" piano and a pump organ.

Since 1949, Morrison has been a fixture at Brook Hollow and its predecessor.

"Except for vacations and so forth I've played all the services," he said, plus funerals and weddings.

A highlight of his career came in 1976 when Morrison put together worship services using music of American composers from colonial days to the present in honor of the country's bicentennial.

Before taking the job at Brook Hollow, Morrison served as organist at St. Paul United Methodist Church and First Christian Church. He also worked at a church in Sweetwater while teaching ground school at Avenger Field during World War II. Also during the war, he played for services at Great Lakes Naval Base.

Although Morrison has been the church organist all these years, he said he really is a pianist and learned the organ because that's what the church needed.

"I more or less learned it by myself," he said.

Being a gifted teacher should have made the job easier. Morrison was named a student assistant piano instructor at HSU in 1935, two years before receiving his bachelor of music degree there. He later earned a master of music degree from the University of Texas and was awarded an honorary doctorate at HSU in 1976.

His many honors included the Orpheus Award in 1973, the annual award of Theta Lambda Chapter of Phi Mu Alpha Sinforia. The award is given to a person who has contributed significantly to the field of American music.

In 1937 Morrison joined the HSU faculty full-time and taught there continuously until his retirement except for military service and graduate study. He attended the American Conservatory for post graduate study in 1938 and 1940 and earned his master's degree in 1947.

Morrison also is recognized as an authority on the history of American music and has written extensively in that field. He also is quite a collector.

When Morrison retired from HSU as professor of music history and piano and charman of the music history and literature department, the School of Music Foundation purchased his 1,000-piece collection of psalmnody and hymnody dating from the 17th century to the present.

He also was one of the organizers of the Abilene Philharmonic and served as its pianist. Morrison's late wife, Lucialis Jones Morrison, also was an accomplished musician. She played violin and taught in the public schools and later had her own studio.

Morrison is slowly adjusting to a life of retirement after so many active years in teaching and as the church organist. He knows that eventually it will seem right.

"It'll take a little while getting used to, I guess," he said.