Virginia French Mackie died in her sleep at home in Santa Fe, New Mexico on June 20. Born August 15, 1900, in Lancaster, Missouri, she moved in early childhood with her family to Hutchinson, Kansas.
Music was a vital part of her life from the age of three, when she began piano lessons with her mother. She began playing the organ for church before her feet could reach the pedals. By the time she graduated from high school, she had composed the Hutchinson school song, still performed to this day.
At 17 she entered Wellesley College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa during her junior year, and, as a senior, won the Billings Prize for excellence in music. Conducting the orchestra was one of her many musical contributions to the school. Socially conscious, she remembered marching five miles in high heels, as a supporter of the Constitutional amendment giving women the right to vote! Following her graduation from Wellesley in 1921, Virginia entered Columbia University, where she was awarded the MM degree as one of only two women in her class.
She began her career as a junior college teacher in Kansas City, where she met David C. Mackie, a banker whom she married in 1928. The couple moved to New Haven, Connecticut, where David enrolled in the Yale School of Architecture, while Virginia commuted to Northampton to teach music at Smith College.
Summers were spent in England and France. Virginia studied with Tobias Matthay in London, and with Nadia Boulanger at Fontainebleau, where Mrs. Mackie was awarded one of only two diplomas given to women at the École de Musique.
In 1934 the Mackies returned to Kansas City. David began his architectural practice and Virginia joined the faculty of the University of Missouri at Kansas City, where she taught as a distinguished professor for 25 years. During that time she maintained an affiliation with the Yale School of Music, teaching there in 18 summer sessions.
In 1963 the Mackies moved to Tucson, Arizona, and Virginia was invited to join the faculty of the University of Arizona, where she taught for 12 years. Arizona awarded her an honorary degree in recognition of her contributions to the musical life of the community.
After David's death in 1975, Mrs. Mackie moved to New Mexico, where she was named a Living Treasure of Santa Fe in 1994. She was invited back to Kansas City to present a series of lectures and performances of works by Franz Joseph Haydn, one of her favorite composers, and to receive an honorary doctor of music degree from the University of Missouri, Kansas City in 1989, joining Count Basie as only the second musician to be so recognized by the school. Virginia Mackie continued to teach harpsichord and piano in Santa Fe well past her 100th birthday in 2000.
--Larry Palmer (Based on an obituary [22 June 2005] in The Santa Fe New Mexican)
Theatre organist Billy Nalle of Fort Myers, Florida, died on June 7. Born in Fort Myers April 24, 1921, he was a piano prodigy at age three, when he started picking out melodies, and began playing in public at age four. He graduated from Fort Myers High School in 1939, receiving the American Legion Honor Award. From 1933–39 he was pianist of the Al Linquist Jazz Orchestra of Fort Myers and perfomed solo organ work on station WINK. During these years Billy studied under Eddie Ford, organist at the Tampa Theatre, and became Eddie's assistant. Later, he performed a stint at the Florida Theatre, Jacksonville.
He studied piano and organ at the Juilliard School of Music; principal teachers were the organ and piano virtuoso Gaston Dethier and Teddy Wilson, pianist of the Benny Goodman Orchestra. During this same time, Billy had organ engagements at the Manhattan Beacon Theatre, Brooklyn Paramount, and the Waldorf-Astoria ballroom.
Nalle served in the U.S. Navy 1943–46 and during his last year of service was assigned to the U.S.N. Entertainment Unit, where he, Lawrence Welk, vocalist Bobby Beers, and noted choreographer Bob Fosse toured the Pacific Ocean military bases. During 1947 and 1948, he did postgraduate studies at The Juilliard School, and then began a 26-year career in New York City providing music for more than 200 television shows on CBS, NBC and ABC. Billy appeared on over 5,000 telecasts, an unparalleled record for an organ soloist. As well as solo appearances on major television programs such as "Kraft Theatre" and the "Downbeat Show," Billy had the distinction of appearing as an organ soloist on the "Ed Sullivan Show" the same evening that Elvis Presley appeared for the first time. Throughout his theatre organ performing career, he was featured in concerts at countless public venues throughout the country and for several national conventions of the American Theatre Organ Society.
In 1957, Billy's recording career began when RCA tapped him to record "Swingin' Pipe Organ," an LP commemorating the work of trombonist Tommy Dorsey. Nalle recorded this at the Times Square Paramount Wurlitzer with George Shearing's drummer, Ray Mosca, and it is still considered a landmark recording in theatre organ circles. Numerous commercial recordings followed on Wurlitzer organs installed at the Century II Center (Wichita), Brooklyn Paramount Theatre (aka: Long Island University), Senate Theatre (Detroit) and Auditorium Theatre (Rochester, New York). Currently, Wichita Theatre Organ is in the process of producing a series of recordings drawn from his many live concerts performed on the Wichita Wurlitzer, scheduled for release later this year.
Billy's concert career did not actually start until age 45, when he performed for a national convention of the American Guild of Organists at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta, Georgia in 1966. It was the first formal theatre organ concert in the group's history, and received a rave review in Audio magazine, the Atlanta Constitution and the New York Times. The latter newspaper featured his career in three major articles, and sometime later Billy's life was the object of a feature in the Wichitan magazine. A writer himself, Billy supplied reviews and articles to national publications, including a four-year news column in the AGO-RCCO publication, Music.
As a composer member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), Billy had numerous compositions to his credit. However, he may be best remembered by church musicians and theatre organists alike with his published arrangement of Jerome Kern's "All The Things You Are" in the form of a Bach trio sonata, entitled Alles was du bist. Billy once remarked that he did better financially on the rights gleaned from this arrangement than any other single thing he ever did.
In 1975, Billy accepted the position of Artist-in-Residence at the Century II Center in Wichita, Kansas, where the 4-manual, 36-rank Wurlitzer from the Times Square Paramount Theatre had been relocated. For eleven years, he played concerts in the Wichita Pops series, made numerous recordings and continued to concertize nationally. In 1993, the American Theatre Organ Society voted him into their Hall of Fame. In 1995, Nalle ended a full-time career and returned to Fort Myers, Florida, where he lived until his death.
He always prided himself on his ever-growing list of "firsts," including the first theatre organ concert to be performed at The Church of St. John The Divine, New York City. In a relatively brief period of twenty years, Billy performed twenty-five national and international music firsts on a theatre organ.
Billy was a man of strong convictions and deep religious faith. In the years just prior to leaving Wichita, he was active in the formation of St. Joseph of Glastonbury Anglican Catholic Church, the city's first Anglican place of worship. In his tiny efficiency apartment, he managed to find space for an altar and several religious icons. In fact, his living space was much like his playing: filled to the hilt with interesting "stuff" without feeling the least bit cluttered.
He was always full of stories about the great concerts he attended while living in New York and the personalities he encountered. One of his favorites was about his friendship with organist Virgil Fox, who lived only a short distance away from his apartment. Fox had been contracted by Wichita Theatre Organ to perform a concert at Centuy II (eventually released by RCA on LP as "The Entertainer") and sought Billy's advice on how to handle the Wurlitzer, just prior to Billy's move there. Fox wanted to stick to the classics, but Billy suggested that, as an encore piece, he should choose a simple, well-known melody and improvise on it. Fox out-and-out refused. "Why not?" said the ever-inquisitive Billy. Fox leaned over the dinner table, looked Billy straight in the eye and whispered, "I'll tell you why: too hard . . . that's why!"
To the end, Billy was a complete original, always encouraging young musicians to be themselves, and not to get caught up in what was stylistically popular at the moment. He was inexhaustible as a resource. Right to the end of his career, he was a developing musician, never casting anything completely in stone. Kind, thoughtful, sensitive, highly intelligent and a fine conversationalist--all will remember Billy as the consummate southern gentleman.
Paraphrasing his first Wichita LP seems to say it all: There (was) only one Billy Nalle.
--Scott Smith
Lansing, Michigan
The Rev. William F. Parker, of Atlantic City and Philadelphia, died on April 16. Born in Philadelphia and raised in Margate, he graduated from Temple University and the Temple University Theological Seminary, and earned his Master of Divinity degree from Princeton University. An ordained Presbyterian minister, he was pastor at Lower Bank Methodist Circuit, New Jersey, Mizpah Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, and Leeds Point Presbyterian Church. For 24 years he served as pastor at Olivet Presbyterian Church in Atlantic City. He was also an experienced organist, serving for a number of churches and synagogues in the Philadelphia area, and was organist for St. James Episcopal Church in Atlantic City and Old St. George's Methodist Church in Philadelphia.
William Parker is survived by his sister, Helen Holmes Parker. A memorial organ recital will take place on October 15 at First Presbyterian Church, Philadelphia, with Joseph Jackson as organist.
