Mother and her Violin

This essay was written to appear in the Florence Symphony Orchestra's program for their October 2006 concert, the first concert of the 2006-2007 season and the first concert after Mother's death. FSO dedicated the concert to Mother, seated my sisters and me in our time-honored seats, and read most of this essay to the audience. Again, you will see some information that repeats from the two earlier essays. But, these words show in detail Mother's commitment. For years before her death, Mother was the sole surviving and longest serving member of FSO. She played with them for fifty-one years; her last concert was played at age 90. My two sisters offered their memories to assist me in writing the following:



Eleanor Page Anderson
Her Violin and Her Commitment

“I keep playing because the next concert will be the best.”

In 1918 when she was seven, our mother, Eleanor Page, asked her parents for a violin. Her mother, assuming the request was a childish whim, gave her a little tin fiddle for Christmas. She was crushed and persisted until her daddy brought a real violin home in his Buick and arranged for her to have lessons with a young man who provided music for the then-silent movies. Mother learned by playing along with him behind the curtains at the downtown theater. Then when violinist Lola Dickman moved to Florence, Mother began more serious study. Picture this: With her violin and books, Mother skated from her home on West Pine Street to school at the building that is now Poynor. After school she tucked the violin and books under her arms again and skated to the Dickman home near the train station.

Mother’s dedication to study and play her violin continued through her school years and at Furman University where she earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in education. After graduating and teaching school a few years in the Greenville area, she returned to Florence to accept a position at McKenzie Elementary School (and later at Royall). One night shortly after our move to Florence in the summer of 1949, a stranger came by our house and sat on the front porch talking with Mother for quite some time. We later learned that that he was one of the organizers of what would become the Florence Symphony Orchestra and had come to persuade Mother to join. She agreed. With a full-time teaching job and caring for her mother and three girls, attending practice couldn’t have been easy for a single mother - but she loved music and made the orchestra a priority. We remember trying to sleep during evenings of string practice in our living room and watching her bundle up to rehearse in a chilly building at the airport. We also recall the pride we felt when we attended the orchestra’s first concert and the many more that followed.

Before that first performance, Mother coached us in proper concert behavior - especially when to applaud and not. On the big night, we dressed in our Sunday best and arrived at McClenaghan High School with the orchestra members. Mother seated us on the front row, just left of the conductor - and directly in front of the violin section. She told us (we were then about seven, nine, and eleven) we would have a good view from there. For years that was our place and now we realize that Mother had a “good view“, too.

In her retirement years, Mother resumed her violin study, spending many hours traveling to Hartsville and Columbia for lessons and many more hours practicing. She was determined to improve her skills and to play her fiddle with the orchestra as long as she could - and that she did.

We are thankful for the orchestra’s contribution to Mother’s life and ours. Through her fifty-one years with the Florence Symphony Orchestra, she made friends, made music, and set an example for the rest of us.

If Mother could be here tonight she would be pleased - and even more embarrassed - that this concert is dedicated to her memory. She would not be too shy to boast, however, about the orchestra’s dedication to excellence and her status as a charter member. And we believe she would be proud that the Florence Symphony Orchestra continues to flourish so many years after that meeting on our front porch.