Longtime organist, Virginia Burkhart, still has ear for music
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After a century of life, Virginia Burk-hart still loves the sound of an organ.
Longtime organist of Aspinwall United Presbyterian Church and a member of the American Organ Guild, she celebrated her 100th birthday Aug. 20 with nearly 50 relatives and friends at the Erie Bayfront Sheraton Hotel.
Guests came from all over the U.S. and Canada.
At the party, a nephew, Bruce Burkhart of Willington, Conn., sang a song he composed as a tribute to his aunt. Jay Goettler of Butler also sang to her.
She was born on Aug. 17, 1911, in Sharpsburg to Charles Augusta Braun and Mary Alice Moyle Braun.
She graduated from Sharpsburg High School in 1928 and from Adrian College in Michigan in 1932 with majors in organ, piano and voice.
At Adrian, she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority.
In 1932, she started teaching second-graders at Kerr School in O'Hara . During the summers, she took education classes at Slippery Rock University and Penn State University.
In the 1930s, she started playing the organ at Aspinwall UPC and continued for 60 years, retiring only because of health issues in 1994.
She was also an active member of the church and its Women's Missionary Guild.
On April 9, 1937, she married Frank Henderson Burkhart and they had three children: Kay Browne of Thurmont, Md., and Donald and David, both of Erie.
At that time, a female teacher was not allowed to be married, so she resigned. In the mid 1950s, Mrs. Burkhart returned to teaching at Boyd School in the Fox Chapel School District.
She taught third grade until her retirement in 1973 after 26 years.
Following the death of husband in 1994, she moved into Seneca Village in Penn Hills where she lived until 2009.
At Seneca Village, at dinner time, she played the piano to entertain the residents. In 2009, she moved to the Sarah Reed Retirement Center in Erie.
She has eight grandchildren and many great-grandchildren.
For most of life, Mrs. Burkhart spent part of each summer at her cottage at Canadohta Lake, about 20 miles northeast of Meadville.
Her father had her brother, Frank, build the cottage in the very early 1930s while Virginia was in college.
She remembers helping them build it. Today, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are still enjoying the cottage.
First Published October 25, 2011 12:00 am
