Pastime: Mary Lou Martin to be inducted into Arkansas Choral Hall of Fame

NORTH LITTLE ROCK – The Arkansas Choral Directors Association (ArkCDA) Hall of Fame induction will be Wednesday, July 13, at the Wyndham Riverfront Hotel in North Little Rock.

The late Mary Lou Martin, former ArkCDA member, will be one of nine inductees in the Hall of Fame, according to Terri Whitworth of the ArkCDA.

Mrs. Martin, along with her late husband, Curry W. Martin, led the music programs at Warren Junior and High School for more than 30 years.

Mary Lou Martin died April 23, 2012 in Warren.

There will be light refreshments available around 2 PM in the Silver City Ballroom with the induction event beginning at 2:15 PM. The short Hall of Fame induction honors will be done in less than half an hour and is part of the overall ArkCDA meeting at the Wyndham.

The Martin’s children, Marty Martin of Hamburg, Shelly Martin of Hot Springs and Lucinda Martin Hemmick of New York, have all been invited to the ceremony.

The others being inducted into the Hall of Fame, along with Mary Lou Martin, are:

• Robert Brack who taught at Little Rock Central High School.
• Dan Davis who taught at Bald Knob, Jacksonville and Pulaski County Special School System.
• Jim Foxx who taught at Stuttgart and El Dorado.
• Gary Morris who taught at Forrest City, Jonesboro and later at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville.
• Geneva Powers who taught at Central Junior High and later at Springdale High School.
• Alfred Skoong who taught at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro.
• Tim Street who taught at Harrison.
• Mary Frances Thompson who taught at Little Rock Central and Hall High Schools in Little Rock.

A photo of Mary Lou from a Warren High Yearbook, the Pine Cone, accompanies her on a promotional flyer for the event.

Shelly Martin, who was assisted by her older brother Marty Martin gathered most of the information about the teaching efforts of her mother. An older Editor’s Notebook column from the late Robert L. (Bob) Newton and some life experiences with the Martin’s from John Burch and Maylon Rice were added to the Hall of Fame entry.

Among the items submitted for the nomination ceremony were

Martin’s ability to have her choirs reach for consistent top ratings for girl’s chorus, mixed choir (with Curry Martin), girls ensemble, and madrigal in local, regional and state competition for more than 30 years.

Her strict requirement for length of choir robes in performance shoes.

The ability to teach required individual parts passed off for contest music.

The Mixed chorus was named Best in Class for AA for many years and a choir to be watched at all the state competitions. Often when a large choir performs, the other choirs exit the performance hall to get ready for their performance and adjourn having already performed, but when the WHS Choir was to perform, other choirs actually came back in the performance hall, filling seats to hear the WHS choirs.

In addition to regional and state choral competitions, the Martins taught girls parts and accompanied mixed choir in performances of Haydn masses, The Creation by Haydn, The Seven Last Words of Christ, The Messiah and Elijah oratorios by Handel.

One year, The Creation sang in combination with Charles and Ann Rye, from Crossett.

And there were also the Martin rules in choral classes.

-Absolutely no chewing gum on stage (or in class).

Arranged (pirated) new pop songs for girl’s ensemble—one example: “When You Walk Through A Storm,” “California Dreaming,”  “Would Like to Fly (in your Beautiful Balloon),” and countless others for pop concerts.

-Mary Lou Martin played the pipe organ for Warren United Methodist Church for 50 years and also taught private piano lessons in the home.

She also accompanied literally hundreds of Grade I instrumental solos at Region and State Solo-Ensemble festivals with the WHS band.

In later years, Mary Lou taught “Beginner Flute” for Curry Martin.

She is famous in Warren for her hot dog chili sauce, her spaghetti and meatball dinner, fried fish dinners, and loads of desserts—especially chocolate chip cookies. There is a famous “Twenty-four dozen recipe” on request from Marty Martin.

She also took in sewing, making prom dresses, wedding dresses, fitting majorette costumes, cheerleading costumes and hemming band uniforms for the rag-tag bunch of band kids through the years.

And she thoroughly enjoyed correcting Curry in rehearsal “Curry!! That entrance was two measures early!!”

Mary Lou retired from WHS early to help care for Curry’s mother who moved into the tiny white house on Cherry Street, across from the band room for many years on the old WHS campus.

Mary Lou Poteete Martin was a native of Perryville, she played the piano and also basketball, where she was a tall force to be reckoned with in the Perry County All-County Tournament.

She often told a story of what was a sprained wrist her senior year and the yelling match in the Poteet family kitchen between her piano teacher and her basketball coach over whether she would play a recital or in the county tournament final basketball game.

Her stern mother ended the shouting match. Mary Lou would do both as the final verdict.

And she did.

She attended and graduated from Arkansas State Teachers College (now called UCA) in Conway, where she met her future husband. They played together in a college dance band, the “Top Hatters.”

Often the “Top Hatters,” played some area gigs in Perry, Faulkner or Conway counties on Saturday nights. The piano was always placed near the door in case a fight broke out or the police raided some county honky-tonk.

The Martin’s came to Warren as singles – but quickly married during the Christmas break – also breaking a long-time policy that the man and wife teaching teams could not teach in the Warren School District, much less the same building. But they did.

In her nearly three-decade teaching career, Mrs. Martin led the Warren choirs to numerous awards and honors. Her legendary attention to detail in directing the madrigal, girl’s ensemble and mixed chorus will always be fondly remembered. A member of the Arkansas Choral Directors’ Association, Mrs. Martin was famous for her ability to play an accompaniment perfectly at first sight, a talent that was used for hundreds of Warren band and choir students at regional and state competitions.

In her spare time, Mrs. Martin also coached the majorettes, designing and perfecting their routines. She also helped put out the fire batons and jump rope at Homecoming halftimes.

Mary Lou Martin’s cooking talents were also legendary. Her chili dogs, from the football concession, sold so well that at one point “Thousands and Thousands Sold” went up on a sign at the stand. Mrs. Martin’s trademark dill pickles were also very popular across the state and throughout the Warren community. Mary Lou taught private piano lessons for many years, and she was in demand for her sewing, monogramming, and alterations work.

Mrs. Martin filled her retirement years with quilting, watching grandchildren grow up, and tending her garlic and dill plants. She raised green plants in her sunroom. She took a yearly trip with her “Florida Girls.” She continued leading the church choir from the organ bench until she retired from that job.