Trio shares music, fountain of youth

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

Back in 1998, when their mother was in failing health, Jane Wilkins and JoAnn Jaerger loaded up their instruments and went to the nursing home to play for her. Trying to be considerate of the other residents, the sisters closed the door to their mother's room, then unpacked the accordion and the electric Hawaiian steel guitar. After they had played several of mama's favorite tunes and visited awhile, they opened the door to leave. They were surprised by a packed hallway, lined with other residents who had gravitated to the music.

"We were amazed," said Wilkins, who lives in LaPorte. "That's when we decided to play in nursing homes and other senior residences, to share the gift of music with them." Soon after, the sisters and their cousin, keyboard player Mary Donnel, started making regular visits to senior residences.

The three, who call themselves the Rhythmettes, have actually played together for more than 50 years, so this was just a new leg of their musical journey. They play for fun, not a fee, and their music is much in demand. In 2004, they performed 45 times, sometimes playing three or four times in a one-week span.

Most of their gigs are at senior residences, but the Rhythmettes also perform at school reunions, senior centers and church functions. This past June they cut their first CD, which includes 36 of their favorite songs. "All three of us believe that we have been blessed with our music, and we want to share it," Wilkins said. However, she added with a grin, people have to be their age or older to appreciate the songs they play. That means 60-plus. Of their repertoire of more than 100 songs, the dependable favorites are "The Tennessee Waltz," "You Are My Sunshine" and "Amazing Grace."

The trio, who grew up in the Timnath area, got their start as teenagers in 1952, when they won the Kiwanis Club's "Stars of Tomorrow" contest. Their prize was $25, and they felt pretty rich. Bolstered by this success, they got together regularly to practice and played at family reunions, schools and churches.

Donnel had been taking piano lessons since she was small, Wilkins took accordion lessons for about a year, and Jaerger signed up for a few guitar lessons, then decided to play in her own style without the hassle of reading notes. Even today, the group plays most of its songs by ear.

The congenial combo split up when Jaerger married and moved to Kansas. Although she lived there for 43 years, she and her husband returned home a couple times a year, and the musical trio took up where they left off. "Mama loved to hear us play," Wilkins remembers, "and she always insisted that JoAnn bring her guitar."

The trio survived despite the distance. Then in 1998, they experienced something like a Fleetwood Mac reunion when the Jaergers retired and moved back to Colorado. There hasn't been a dull moment since, and the three credit their husbands with a lot of patience, because they're gone quite a bit.

Performing for elderly people has benefits on both sides. The old-time tunes are a big hit with residents, and the trio also gets a kickback. "The nursing home experiences have had immense emotional rewards for us," Wilkins said. The rewards include seeing a person with Alzheimer's disease, who may not have responded to anything for years, show some reaction to their music, or having residents clap their hands, tap their toes and smile at some favorite song.

The musical outlet is also keeping them young. Playing music "has held off arthritis and broadens our brain power," Wilkins said. Besides that, she added, the activity itself leaves a joyful feeling in their souls. "When you're positive and upbeat, it keeps you healthier."

A longtime friend and former LaPorte resident, Jean Jacobs, received the Rhythmettes' new CD last summer. Her response, which she wrote in a letter to Wilkins, sums up the power of old-fashioned tunes in new-fangled times: "What memories it brings back - of high school days, old boyfriends, our little village church, the war years and the one my husband used to sing to me often, 'Have I Told You Lately That I Love You.'"

According to Wilkins, good memories are always at the ready with the Rhythmettes. "If you ask us to come, be sure you want us," she said, "because we never say no."