CYNTHIA ANN LANCASTER COOPER was born October 7, 1924 in College Station, Texas. She was the second of five eventual siblings and the only girl. Her father, Robert Roy Lancaster of Nevada Missouri, worked for the local U.S. Government agricultural “Extension Service”, associated with Texas A&M University, keeping up with the latest in farming science and teaching that information to local farmers. Her mother, Helen Erma Douglass of Fort Collins, Colorado, was also initially with the Extension Service and later homemaker and music teacher in piano.

Mother Erma and her sister Wilhelmina “Aunt Mina” played piano and organ in the First Baptist Church in Fort Collins so Cynthia had strong musical influences from the beginning. Erma’s family also had a little piece of property in the mountains west of Fort Collins with a small old miner’s cabin on it. Erma would take Cynthia and brothers to spend summers in the cabin – with no indoor water or plumbing! And the ‘refrigerator’ was the remaining snow outside the kitchen window! Eventually the church got a new organ and gave the old foot pump organ to the Douglass sisters and they managed to haul it up into the old cabin where Cynthia and brothers spent many cool summer mountain evenings happily pounding and pumping away songs on the poor old thing – ALL getting their initial music ‘educations’. (And today that same organ sits in our living room!) Yes her brothers were also musical with different instruments and for a while they had their own little family orchestra under the direction of mother Erma.

After piano and organ, Cynthia took up the violin, but after seeing a demonstration harp performance that came through College Station in the 1930s, her musical fate was sealed and she changed to harp. Her mother would regularly drive her 90 miles to Houston on all dirt roads for lessons with Houston harp teacher and promoter Mildred Milligan. Cynthia attended A&M Consolidated High School and she and another Milligan student Lois Breaker were the first women to play with the Texas Aggie Band, though it was actually the ‘Aggie Orchestra’, a sitting orchestral instruments subset of the Aggie Band – they didn’t actually ‘march’ their harps on the field!

After high school Cynthia attended ‘TSCW’ Texas State College For Women in Denton (now ‘TWU’ Texas Woman’s University) and finally The University Of Texas at Austin where in 1946 she received a degree in music and harp under Dorothy Dragalla. In 1947 she married Rex Lon Cooper on the evening of August 30 under a full August moon and under the trees on the side of Cynthia’s family home in College Station. Cynthia and Rex moved to Houston for Rex’s work and after raising five children she returned to the harp and spent the remainder of her life devoted to her music, church, family and friends. A granddaughter Sonja Marie Loy has also taken up the grand instrument.

Cynthia was a long time member of Berachah Church under Pastor ‘Colonel’ R.B Thieme, Jr. and then West Houston Bible Church under Pastor Robert Dean – and spent the years of her childrens’ youth teaching home Bible clubs for youth and children (and ‘wrestling’ with the related story board flannelgraphs!). In the last year of her life she began to decline but very happily attained her 90th birthday October 7 at the home of her third son Bruce in northwest Houston with friends, family and grandchildren in attendance.

In the early morning hours of Saturday November 8th, aged 90 years and 32 days, after a long and loving life, she was quietly called to her eternal rest by her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ in the home that she and husband Rex first provided for their family in 1960.

Karen McGarrett
1978-2024

KAREN MCGARRETT was an extremely gifted harpist with a love for music that she generously shared with students as a private instructor and clinician. She was also the music instructor at Cushing Elementary School in Garrison, TX. Karen began her harp studies with Julia Sanders and Mary Radspinner in Spring, TX.  She continued on with Therese Honey.  Always happy and smiling, she was a tremendous asset during the initial years of Melody’s Traditional Music in Houston. She became an excellent teacher, nurturing students of all ages and levels.  Karen served as editor-in-chief of The Folk Harp Journal from 2007 - 2010. Karen moved from Houston to Nacogdoches where she and her husband Walt became active members of Calvary Baptist Church.  They taught Sunday School there and Karen served as the Communications Director.   Karen kept 2 harps at the church and played with the worship team. Karen loved  animals and welcomed many stray cats into her home.  She and Walt raised and trained Chesapeake Bay retrievers.  They enjoyed traveling, camping and outdoor activities. Her wonderful and beautiful spirit, magnificent smile, positive attitude, and everything else about her will be sweetly remembered in the hearts of all those who knew her. The music in her will live on through all whose lives she touched.

LOUISE L. TROTTER, 96 of Houston, Texas passed away October 17, 2019 with her loving family by her side. She was born in Port Arthur, Texas on September 4, 1923 to the late Oren and Grace Lantz. Her dad was known as “Pop” Lantz and was the band director at Thomas Jefferson High School for 40 years. Louise, lovingly called “Weezie”, graduated from the same school in 1941 and attended Texas State College for Women (TSCW) in Denton where she studied music. Louise married George P. Trotter in 1942 and they enjoyed a few short months together before he deployed to the Army in World War II. When the war was over, he went to work for Gulf Oil Co. for 40 years as they lived happily in Port Arthur, Puerto Rico, Baytown and Houston until George’s death in 1979. They raised three children, Gary, Caryl and Tracy and have 7 grandchildren: Jessica, Ryan, Ariane, Katie, Stephanie, Carly and Joshua, and 5 great-grandchildren whom she adored.

Her father couldn’t afford to buy her a new harp at age 12, so he visited a harp factory and figured out how to BUILD one for her! She learned the art of performing and entertaining at a very early age and her career really took off after her children were grown and she landed a professional gig playing nightly at The Brownstone Restaurant and the Adam’s Mark Hotel. Throughout her vocation, she performed with the Baytown Symphony orchestra, 100’s of church events, weddings and programs, but was perhaps most well-known for her concerts at annual pop and folk harp workshops across the globe. She went on to become an internationally renowned professional harpist for over 70 years. Friends and colleagues from around the country reminisce about her famous performances highlighting her country and western arrangements of Steele Guitar Rag, Don’t It Make Your Brown Eyes Blue and Chattanooga Choo Choo. They loved her amusing Willie Nelson impersonation while her family especially enjoyed her versions of Harvest Moon, Summertime and various boogie-woogie compositions. She was honored to be on the cover of the National Harp Society magazine just a few years before her passing and still has many friends in the harp community that stay in touch. After producing 14 cd’s and selling 100’s of harp arrangements online, she finally retired at age 95 but continued playing the piano for the other residents at her home until a week before her death.