Ruth Morrison stepped in to help out when a kirk organist took ill, but was to remain at the keyboard for the next 73 years.
She was asked to provide cover at Princes Street Church, Arbroath, when Miss Helen B. Mill, Hill House, Arbroath, was indisposed.
Miss Morrison was 16 when she began her temporary tenure in 1939.
However, Miss Mill’s health deteriorated and she died in 1943. Miss Morrison was then confirmed as full-time organist and choirmaster the following year. Miss Mill had been organist at the church since 1900.
Ruth Morrison continued in that role until the church was demolished in the 1960s, when she took up the position of organist at Arbroath West Church, retiring at the age of 86 in 2012.
Her departure concluded a 112-year period in which Miss Morrison and her musical mentor Miss Mill had served as church organists.
Early years
Ruth Morrison was born on March 12, 1924, to Archie and Helen Morrison. She had four sisters and three brothers.
Her father came from Larbert to Arbroath around 1900 to work at Keith and Blackman’s foundry at Gravesend where the Abbeygate centre and car park now stand.
The family lived in John Street and Ruth attended Ladyloan Primary School and then Arbroath High School.
Her brother Andrew received violin lessons from music teacher Miss Helen Mill, who lived at the entrance to Springfield Park.
Through her brother, Ruth got to know Miss Mill who was to become an encouraging influence in her early years.
Miss Mill then sponsored Andrew to live in London for three years and study at London College of Music.
Ruth also gained a diploma from London College of Music by sitting exams held in Dundee.
Teaching career
When she left the high school, Ruth went to work at Braemar knitwear in the town for a few years before adding teaching qualifications to her music diploma and taking a job as a music teacher at Arbroath Academy.
Her nephew Neil Morrison said: “My aunt went into teaching later in life, in her 30s. I think but she remained at Arbroath Academy for several decades. She never married and was heavy involved in the musical life of Arbroath throughout her own life.”
Between 1945 and 1972 her brother Andrew, who was a teacher in Dundee, was conductor of Arbroath Male Voice choir and Ruth was accompanist and the pair performed the same roles for Arbroath Ladies’ Choir.
Miss Morrison owned a house at the corner of Hayswell Road and Montrose Road, now the Abbey Guesthouse, and devoted much of her life looking after her three older sisters.
Her nephew said: “When I went to see the minister at Arbroath West Church I noticed there were stained glass windows which had been brought from Princes Street Church.
“They had been donated to the old church by Miss Mill, my aunt’s mentor.”
The family’s announcement can be read here.