For over 60 years and at thousands of funerals, Flolane Glover Walker played the organ for grieving loved ones saying goodbye to family and friends.
She played her first funeral at Williams and Lord Funeral Home when she was in the 11th grade.
“It was a little old spinet organ. I don’t even know if it had foot pedals,” Walker said. “I went over and played for that and played for a few more funerals while I was still in school.”
After her first funeral, W.D. Lord Sr. of Williams and Lord Funeral Home would pick her up from school to play for funerals when she was needed.
Lord knew Walker’s family well and had heard her practicing at the funeral home when he decided to ask her to fill in for the home’s organist, said Bill Lord Jr., manager of Williams and Lord Funeral Home.
Walker said she wasn’t nervous to play for her first funeral, and she didn’t really know what stage fright was at the time.
Originally from Star City, Arkansas, she moved to Greenwood around the third grade. She began taking piano during that time and later taught herself to play the organ.
Music ran in her family.
“My father played the fiddle, and my mother, by ear, played the piano,” Walker said.
As a child, she enjoyed playing duets with friend Patricia Tillman, two pianos at the same time.
“We played a lot together, and if we got tired of playing, I’d play and she’d sing,” Walker said.
She began her Greenwood education at W.C. Williams Elementary and graduated from Greenwood High School in 1952. After graduation, she worked for the Greenwood High School office as a secretary and assistant to the principal for a few years before she began playing at churches and funeral homes full time.
She began playing for Wilson and Knight Funeral Home, and at that time she was playing for both funeral homes and Calvary Baptist Church.
“There weren’t many around that would go and play, especially at a funeral,” Walker said. “I was just about the only one that would play at the Wilson and Knight Funeral Home and the Williams and Lord Funeral Home.”
She played for three generations at Wilson and Knight: Hollis Knight in the 1960s, Al Austin in the ’80s and current owner Bert Austin around 2008.
When Bert Austin was a child, he often stayed with his grandparents, who had an apartment above the funeral home. He said some of his earliest memories are feeling the organ warm up in the apartment as Walker would begin to play.
Playing for funerals was never too difficult for Walker unless she knew the deceased very well, she said.
“I guess your mind is more on what you are doing instead of thinking that way,” she said.
She continued to play for the funeral homes until her retirement in 2014 and played for several churches over the years.
After playing for Calvary Baptist, she moved to North Greenwood Baptist, where she played for almost 20 years for Sunday morning and evening worship as well as choir practice. Then she went to First United Methodist Church for another 20 years, playing for Sunday morning and evening services, prayer meetings and choir practice.
She also played for 10 years at Shiloh Seventh Day Adventist Church and Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church.
Walker’s daughter, Amanda Browning, attended services or funerals with her mother when she was a child. Sometimes she would sit in a cubby hole where the organ was at one of the funeral homes, she said.
“It was just something that she did,” Browning said. “It was almost an everyday occurrence between those places and the churches. It was just part of life.”
Bill Lord Jr. said Walker was a very accomplished musician who was dedicated and could play anything. He said she would be given one or two days’ notice of a funeral and was always able to learn the music the family brought.
Walker has around 10 books in her home of pieces of music she has saved over the years to use for reference or playing.
Austin said she had the ability and experience to know dozens of songs off the top of her head and was able to select music for all denominations.
“It has been such a gift to be able to listen to her play,” Austin said. “She is truly a treasure and a treasure of Greenwood and the Christians that have enjoyed her playing for years.”
•Contact Lauren Randall at 581-7239 or lrandall@gwcommonwealth.com.
