Winter wonders song6/4/2023 ![]() ![]() Mable Broad died at age 77, on May 29, 1958. Dick's sister Marjorie was 11 at the time. A news brief in The Citizen, published in Honesdale, dated May 29, 1912, tells of a recital given by 19 pupils of Miss Mabel Broad.A newspaper report about the Good Friday service in April 1902 (Dick was a baby at the time), listed both Mabel Smith and John Smith as having solo parts in the musical program. Dick and his family attended Grace Episcopal Church where she was organist for decades Dick's father was part of the church leadership.Mable Broad's name is still remembered in association with Dick Smith.Many people still remember her and had her as a tutor.Īlthough the research hasn't yet proven she was his tutor, there are many reasons to think she was: Miss Broad graduated from Honesdale High School in 1899 and led a long career as a music tutor and as lead organist at Grace Episcopal Church. ![]() That tutor may very well have been Miss Mabel Broad, of Honesdale.Ī detailed story about her life was subject of an installment in this local history series, on February 11, 2020. His obituary stated that he had a private music tutor in Honesdale, but didn't give a name. How I now wish I had asked more questions about her family, although she would often share things. I think of those days every time I walk by her house today. I visited with Marjorie many, many times, chatting at her kitchen table near her cast iron coal-burning stove. She kept a copy of a Winter Wonderland song sheet on the piano. There was an upright piano in their home, which no doubt Dick would work the keys probably many times. She even worked in a local piano store for a while. Marjorie played the piano, and took music lessons as a child in Honesdale (more, later). She had lived in the Smith homestead at 922 Church Street almost her entire life. Marjorie was 95 when she died, on April 6, 1996. She was one of my mother's best friends, and lived only two doors apart on Church Street, overlooking Central Park. A news item was found listing him as singing a solo at Grace Episcopal Church in 1902 (he was a vestryman there), Dick's older siblings were Marion (born in 1889), Warren (1894) and Marjorie (1900). His father was partner in a cut glass firm in Honesdale. and Eliza (Bruning) Smith, born September 29, 1901. Dick Smith was the youngest of four children of John H. His own family certainly had an influence. His musical abilities no doubt were natural born talent, but were nurtured through being taught. Smith (Dick Smith), in 1934, learned music, and would eventually write this famous song known the world over, its title becoming part of our everyday commentary on freshly fallen snow, and used in a blizzard of advertising slogans and jingles. One of the angles we can take on the account is how this lyricist, Richard B. So is the classic children's story “The Night Before Christmas.” Locally, we pause to re-tell this region's very own contribution to the Christmas Holiday tradition, the song Winter Wonderland, thought up by a bright, inspired young man, of Honesdale, Wayne County, Pa. HONESDALE -The Biblical accounts of Jesus' birth are read and re-read and heard again and again every Christmas. ![]()
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