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Harry Howard to be honored Sunday
Sikeston native Harry Howard will be honored with a reception celebrating his 65th year of musical ministry following the 9 a.m. traditional service Sunday, Oct. 2 at First United Methodist Church in Sikeston.
“It’s such an honor, and I’m so excited they are taking the time to celebrate my musical ministry,” said Howard, who turns 77 on Oct. 9. “I appreciate the Sikeston community so much.”
Howard, who has master’s degree in pipe organ and choral directing, said he started taking piano lessons when he was 9 years old.
Howard said it was his sister, Aileen Howard, the first black teacher at Lincoln School in Sikeston, who was instrumental with him learning to play the piano. She arranged for Howard to receive lessons from
Emma Scott, who was also a teacher at Lincoln School.
“Rev. Ensor gave me my first piano,” Howard said.
When he was 12 years old, Howard started playing the piano and directing music at his church, Smith Chapel in Sikeston.
Howard received a scholarship to Lincoln University in Jefferson City, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in piano and music education. While the university provided some of the scholarship, so did residents of the Sikeston community, he said.
Howard went on to teach music throughout Missouri. In 1982, he received a master’s degree in pipe organ and choral directing from the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado.
“It’s been a lot of studying and hard work to get a master’s in pipe organ,” he said.
Then in 1999, after years of being away from Sikeston, Howard said Harry Sharpe, who was pastor of Smith Chapel at the time, encouraged Howard to return to Sikeston because the Chapel needed another musician. So, Howard returned.
He also recalled as a child hearing the pipe organ played in the early days of the 1950s and 1960s old at the old First Methodist Church in Sikeston.
“I remember Mrs. Welsh, one of the founders of (Crews-Welsh Funeral Home which later became) Ponder Funeral Home, and hearing her play the pipe organ, and I kept thinking: 'I want to learn how to play,’” Howard recalled.
With the help of the Sikeston community, Howard’s dream was realized.
Today, Howard said, he’s come full circle. He serves as the organist at the same church, where he’s been for close to 20 years since he retired back to Sikeston.
“It’s an honor to me just to be celebrated for the dedication and accomplishments I’ve made in musical ministry,” Howard said. “Hopefully, I’ve touched the lives of others and have shared the love of music and what the ministry has meant for me.”