Elinore Farnum
Elinore Farnum, born in 1934, organist and music teacher, died October 30, 2024, in Schenectady, New York. She studied organ with Elmer Tidmarsh, Helen Henshaw, and Hugh Allen Wilson and piano with Jeanette Odasz. She attended workshops at St. Dunstan’s Theological Seminary and at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York.
Farnum was organist/choir director for First Presbyterian Church, Schenectady, for almost 60 years. She was also organist for Congregation Gates of Heaven and accompanist for Thursday Musical Club, Octavo Singers, and the Union College choir, all of Schenectady. Her annual concerts raised money to send hundreds of disadvantaged children to Christian Bible summer camps for nearly 60 years. Farnum toured England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales as accompanist for members of the Octavo Singers and presented organ performances in Ireland at Church of the Resurrection in Killarney, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin; in Scotland at St. James Church in Edinburgh; and in England at Durham Cathedral in Durham. She was a member of the New York State Music Teachers Association and was a Colleague of the American Guild of Organists.
Elinore Farnum was predeceased by her husband, Floyd Farnum, and brothers, Dana Smith and Gerald Smith. She is survived by her sons, Jon (wife Debra), David (wife Nancy), Tom (wife Anne), and Charles; 11 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.
A funeral service was held November 4 at First Presbyterian Church with burial at Vale Cemetery, Schenectady. Memorial gifts may be made to First Presbyterian Church Bible Camp Fund, 209 Union Street, Schenectady, New York 12304 (fpcschdy.org).
Gabriel Kney
Gabriel Kney, 94, died November 8, 2024, two weeks before his 95th birthday. Born November 21, 1929, he apprenticed as a pipe organ builder with Paul Sattel in his hometown of Speyer-am-Rhein, Germany, after which with little money and no command of the English language, he immigrated to Canada in 1951. After briefly working as a voicer for Keates Organ Company in Lucan, Ontario, Kney struck out on his own, first in partnership with John Bright in 1955, and then in his own business, Gabriel Kney & Co., in 1967, principally building mechanical-action instruments. Spanning a 40-year career, the company built 130 organs for churches, universities, concert halls, and private homes across Canada and the United States, including the organs at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, Ontario, and at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota.
Kney was also a black-and-white photographer, particularly in portraiture and nature. His great love of music, particularly the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, sustained him throughout his life.
Gabriel Kney is survived by his daughters, Katharine Timmins (Peter), Mary Chevreau (Neil Block), and Martha Collyer-Bowman (Kevin Bowman), six grandsons, and one great-grandson. He was predeceased by his first wife of 52 years, Jane Kney, and his second wife of 15 years, Mary Lou Nowicki, who died October 30, 2024 (see below). A funeral service will take place January 18, 2:00 p.m., at the Anglican Church of St. John the Evangelist, 280 St. James Street, London, Ontario. Memorial gifts may be made to St. John’s Saturday night and Tuesday lunch programs (stjohnslondon.ca).
For more information on Gabriel Kney, read the interview, “A Conversation with Gabriel Kney: The organbuilder turns 86,” by Andrew Keegan Mackriell, in the November 2015 issue, pages 20–23.
Mary Lou Nowicki
Mary Lou Nowicki, 91, died September 11, 2024, in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. She was born Mary Lou Robinson on August 12, 1933, in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, and graduated from Shawnee High School in 1951. She attended the University of Kansas, Lawrence, where she received a Bachelor of Music degree in organ, then earning a Master of Music degree in organ from the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, as a student of the Warren Hutton and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in organ performance from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, in 1976, having studied with Robert Glasgow.
Nowicki presented recitals and masterclasses throughout the United States, Europe, and Iceland, as well as a recital for Pope St. John Paul II. Along with her former teacher and mentor, Warren Hutton, she co-edited and transcribed for organ the complete Handel Messiah, published by G. Schirmer in 1962. Nowicki founded the organ department at Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, in 1964, where she taught until 1976. She then joined the faculty at University of Kansas from 1976 until 1979, and upon her return to Mount Pleasant, she continued to teach organ students privately.
For over 40 years, Nowicki served as organist and director of music at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Mount Pleasant, and previously was organist at First Presbyterian Church, Mount Pleasant, and Plymouth Congregational Church, Lawrence, Kansas. She was a professional chef and taught cooking classes for many years at her home in Mount Pleasant. She also worked in the medical practice office of her late husband, Dr. Hans Nowicki. On October 7, 2009, she married Gabriel Kney, Canadian organbuilder, who, along with Nowicki’s vision and support, built two instruments in Mount Pleasant: Central Michigan University organ studio (1972/2010), and St. John’s Episcopal Church (1973).
Mary Lou Nowicki was survived by her husband, Gabriel Kney, who died November 8, 2024 (see above). Others who survive are her children, Allegra Blake, Mount Pleasant, and Erik Robinson, DeWitt, Michigan, as well as grandchildren and a great-granddaughter. A funeral service was held at St. John’s Episcopal Church, Mount Pleasant, on October 5.
—Steven Egler
