Page 36 - Amarillo Senior Link Magazine Summer 2020- Online Magazine
P. 36
A Lady of
THE ARTS
Carolyn Warrick
by Ted and Jody Boudreaux Wilson
When Carolyn Warrick enters dropped on Hiroshima”.
a room, so does joy. Carolyn She graduated high
exudes dignity and grace with an school May 25, 1950, and
atmosphere of humor wherever we circumstances brought
encounter her. As one of the several her back to Plainview
gifted musicians at First United July 16, 1950.
Methodist Church in Plainview, one
surmises that the joy of the Lord is Those “circumstances”
her strength. were in the form of
a young man, John won’t be found in books. There was
Although her life began in DeLeon, Warrick, whom Carolyn met no piano teacher when they moved
Texas, Carolyn’s parents, Paul when she was 13. They became to Hope, but she practiced on her
and Naomi Holdridge, moved the acquainted in the church youth own, since the church and piano
family to Plainview in 1939, where group and corresponded those were just around the corner from
he pastored the First Assembly intervening years until John the parsonage. There she developed
of God Church for several years attended her graduation and her own “licks” reading books,
until they moved to El Paso and proposed. Their marriage lasted just befriending a concert pianist, and
eventually to Hope, Arkansas in a few months shy of 60 years when diligently practicing (as many as
1945 “on the day the bomb was John died in 2010. That marriage ten hours a day). She entertained
produced two children, the idea of becoming a concert
Randy and Ginger, and a pianist, but we now know the
legacy of 15 grandchildren “circumstance” that altered that
and 20 great grandchildren dream. At age 13, Carolyn became
for Carolyn to enjoy. proficient enough to take over the
piano playing duties at the church.
She began her music career, And she has continued to carry out
taking lessons form Mrs. those duties for three quarters of a
Blackburn in her early century, both piano and organ.
days in Plainview. She also
remembers another teacher After marriage, Carolyn and
in El Paso, Mrs. Heblen, who John were members of Southside
taught her some “good licks” Assembly of God until they were led
and tricks on the piano that to help start Trinity Fellowship in
36 Amarillo Senior Link
