Mrs. Schumpert was a modern marvel

For more than 70 years, Eunice Schumpert opened her Portales home and her generous heart to hundreds of local youth for weekly piano and voice lessons in a meticulous living room where music was the medium for a message that went well beyond sharps and flats.

Mrs. Schumpert (it was very hard to call her Eunice) died Saturday at the age of 95 after what must have been one of the longest music educator careers on record (in late 2015 she told me, almost apologetically, that she was down to “only” about a dozen students). She did it all with a style and grace that made her one of the most recognizable and beloved members of our community.

Elegant — my goodness, that woman was elegant. She was always dressed to the nines, not a hair out of place, stockings and pumps, a fur stole on a cool evening, a music-themed broach on her shoulder.

She was gracious and all of its synonyms: Courteous, polite, civil, well mannered, tactful, diplomatic, kind, benevolent, considerate, thoughtful, amiable, cordial, compassionate, tenderhearted, and hospitable.

She adored her students, and took such pride in their accomplishments. If one was performing somewhere in eastern New Mexico — whether it was an elementary school production, a high school play, a pageant, or a college choir concert — Eunice Schumpert was in the audience, usually front and center, beaming, and ready to lead the applause.

In turn, her students adored her.

“I spent so many hours in that living room sitting beside her on the piano bench,” Micah Thompson of Portales remembered. “She was so much more than a ‘piano teacher.’”

Thompson said she read comments from many of Schumpert’s former students this week, and “what really sticks out in my mind is that no one remembers how beautifully we learned to play the scales or how she taught each of us to sight read, or play the classics … what her students remember is the impact that she made on our lives that had nothing to do with music.”

What remains, Thompson said, “is how elegant and kind, and classy and loving she was to each and every one of us. Music was her ‘instrument’ to teach us the most important lessons we needed to learn to be better people.”

Thompson’s mother, Sharon Davis, agreed. “When my daughter didn't have time to practice and needed to quit, I still sent her because I thought 30 minutes sitting beside Eunice was well worth our time. She was a marvel.”

Davis said one day when she went to pick up her daughter from a piano lesson, she arrived to find Schumpert “distraught because one of her students had taken an ink pen and written all over her white leather ottoman.

“We discussed ways to clean it and I asked her what she was going to do about the student,” Davis recalled. “Eunice said, ‘I'm just going to love her as much as I can and hope I can make a difference in her attitude.’ I've never forgotten that.”

Another fine lesson, Mrs. Schumpert. Will you sit by me on the bench and help me as I try?

Betty Williamson lost a hero last week. You may reach her at: [email protected]