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Music has been a lifelong companion for Wilburn Gardens resident Bertha Piercey Date published: 6/5/2005 By LAURA MOYER That's the music she plays each morning in the dining room of Wilburn Gardens, an assisted-living community in Spotsylvania County. Other residents are still finishing their breakfasts as Mrs. Piercey takes out her fiddle, worn with use and patinated with rosin. Her friend Ed Turney reads from a list of songs taped to the back of the instrument, and Mrs. Piercey starts to play. "Flop-Eared Mule." "Soldier's Joy." "Irish Washerwoman." "Devil's Dream." Fingers fly across the strings. The bow dances and glides. The tunes are sprightly and inviting, and when the familiar notes of "Amazing Grace" ring from the fiddle, people at several tables hum or sing along. Music makes Bertha Piercey a minor celebrity at Wilburn Gardens, someone who can always be counted on for a bit of liveliness. But even if no one else were listening, Bertha Piercey would make music for the love of it. In the Peters household of Pawnee Rock, Kan., music was a given. Henry K. Peters, a minister, needed it to bring people to church. He, his wife and their six children, including 6-year-old Bertha, formed a family band. But Peters came to believe church services needed a more reverent sound than could be had from a clarinet, a cornet, a French horn, a tuba and three trumpet. So at 12, Bertha Peters got her first violin, and the family band became an orchestra. The Peters children were good students in addition to being dedicated musicians. But family finances clearly wouldn't cover six college tuitions. Bertha, who wanted to be a teacher, knew she'd have to earn money and save it. As a high school student she played in her eldest brother's dance band, performing popular songs of the time such as "Darktown Strutters Ball" and "Five Foot Two." The family moved, and moved again, settling at last in Chicago. There, with several junior college credits already, Bertha enrolled in Northwestern University. She lived at home and took the El to school, an exhausting commute that made her feel tired and out of place among her well-to-do classmates. And tuition was higher than she'd expected
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