Interfaith song group lifts hearts with timeless tunes
JERRY AULDS

Country, Rock, Alternative or MOR, the hot tunes aired on America's radio stations bump and grind, shift, mutate and change quicker than the fortunes of a gonzo commodities trader. Number One in the morning, dead and gone by twilight.

But come four o'clock each Monday afternoon, sweet harmony reasserts itself and returns for a memorable music encore at Garden Villa Nursing Home in El Campo.

While not writ in stone, the Garden Villa Hit Parade song list, as sung by the residents and the volunteer Methodist Singers has over the years, by and large resisted trendy musical incursions.

When college teacher, author and historian Joe Tom Davis began as a volunteer back in 1974, the residents sang from a list of 87 songs. Now they have 88.

"My father, Herbert C. Davis, successfully lobbied for 'Beautiful Texas,'" recalled Davis.

His father was both a volunteer and later, a resident.

Bound up in that description rests a capsule definition for Everytown America.

We elect and hire people to levy taxes, train armies and make sure our lights come on when the switch is thrown.

But the big jobs, the jobs of the heart? Those we leave in the committed hands of volunteers.

The Methodist Singers are all of one heart, but they are not all Methodist. Joe Tom and my bride Dayle Bebee Aulds are Baptist. Dr. Walter Presley and his wife Roberta, the group's talented play-by-ear pianist, are Presbyterian. Andrew and Thelma Dittert do have a Wesley connection.

But whatever the denominational flavor, the Methodist Singers and the residents blend tight and right on "Kumbaya My Lord," "You Are My Sunshine" and "Brighten The Corner Where You Are."

I lack even one clue as to what is Numero Uno on the pop music charts, but for my money, nothing tops Roberta, Joe Tom and Mrs. Josie Neeley, the longest serving Methodist Singer, when they rev up Garden Villa with a foot-stomping, take-me-home, supper's-coming rendition of "When The Saints Go Marching In."

Nobody except me had to look at the songbook.

But even as the Methodist Singers filed out, the music did not die.

Mrs. Floyd Henderson slid behind the piano and from memory and by ear began to play.

"I love playing for them," she said. "It makes my heart feel good."

This classic Jerry Aulds column first appeared in the El Campo Leader- News on October 24, 1998.