“Nancy McCarter Day” was held at Holston Creek Baptist Church in Inman on March 22. McCarter retired after serving as church organist for 58 years.
Nancy McCarterShe played several hymns during the service, and her son Mike accompanied her with his guitar.
McCarter began playing the piano when she was 10 and took lessons for a short time. She never had a piano of her own, so for years she practiced in her grandfather’s coal room. She finally bought her own piano with money she earned working in the peach orchards. It cost $25, and her father helped her buy it. She still has the bench.
She began playing at Campobello First Baptist Church at 14, and moved her letter to Holston Creek in 1950 when she married Billy McCarter. She was elected organist but had never played the organ before. She learned to read music and play parts from the old Broadman Hymnal. She played out of the book for so long that she knew the page numbers by heart.
Her favorite hymn used to be “What a Friend We Have in Jesus,” but over the years she has grown fond of “Because He Lives.”
Although McCarter has played for more than 100 weddings (she has a photo album to prove it) and more than a thousand funerals, her favorite thing is to accompany singers because she can “put feeling and life” into the music. She said that if she didn’t recognize a requested piece, she asked God for help, and it never failed to turn out right.
McCarter’s husband is excited to be able to sit with his wife during the Sunday morning church service for the first time in many years.
“God gets the credit,” McCarter said. “If I can’t play for him, there’s no need to play.”