Friends thank Isabel Morton for 40 years as church organist

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If we want to talk about someone who is held in high esteem by a vast number of people, those who know Isabel Morton would have to place her name at or near the top of the list and on Friday, July 27, a crowd of them showed up at Roy and Cari Grierson’s home on Kincardine Road to tell her so. They not only wished her a happy 65th birthday, but thanked her for providing the United Church with music for over forty years.

Isabel (Hargrove) Morton has been church organist for the Upper Kent and Melville (Kincardine) United Churches during that time, and followed in the footsteps of her mother, the beloved Ethel Hargrove who was Melville United Church organist for decades. Isabel, who with her husband Winston Morton reared five children, worked outside the home but always found the time to sing at weddings, funerals, community gatherings, and of course church as choir director. She combines that volunteer position with singing with the choir and accompanying them on the keyboard and is also a member of the popular Scotch Colony singing group ‘Family and Friends’, the Southern Victoria Pipe Band, and she knows how to play half a dozen instruments including tinwhistle.

Her friend and fellow choir member Carmella Murch of Lower Kintore read her tribute: “Isabel, sometime in our lives we are blessed to know someone who makes the world a better place.

Both of our churches have had that blessing by you. You have touched so many people with your love, humour, patience and your wonderful talent of music. How lucky we are to have you in our lives! We thank you for all you have done in the past as well as the present.”

She went on to say that she and the congregation Kincardine-Upper Kent United Church hope Isabel will continue to play their music.

“Isabel, you are a very special person,” she concluded.

Rev. Helene Burns paid tribute to he talent and dedication to the local churches.

“Today we want to acknowledge the great gift of Isabel’s talent and dedication to the churches of Kincardine- Upper Kent. She has worked in many capacities through the years, but today we celebrate what her music has meant to us and to the church, and what it means to offer such a gift in worship.

“Isabel, you are descended from a long line of musicians who have been making sacred music to God for countless generations. Your faithfulness and dedication to God have held true, through times of trial and tribulation and the frailties of people, through times of great celebration, through joy and through sorrow. The congregation of Kincardine-Upper Kent wishes to honour you...May God bless you in all you do and continue to bless us with the joy of your presence and the wonderful gift of your music. Thank you, Isabel!” Roy and Cari Grierson, hosts for the afternoon feast honouring Isabel Morton, also had a word or two to say about their favourite musician and singer.

“Isabel, age is not measured by years. Nature does not equally distribute energy. Some people are born old and tired while others are going strong at 65. This truly is you. Age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it really doesn’t matter. That’s how we see you, Isabel,” Roy Grierson said. “Your talents, your amazing personality and your generosity have endeared you to our hearts. Those talents you readily share with others and your generosity knows no bounds. We cannot close without acknowledging your extensive musical contribution to this area - from vocals, to bagpipes, to piano, organ, guitar and tin whistle, you do it all. Just reflect on this gift for a moment with this poem.

“’Music is the medicine of the mind; Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence; Music is the universal language of mankind; Music is the art which is most nigh to tears and memory; In music the passions enjoy themselves!’ Let us toast to Isabel, the one whose music gives so much to so many!”