Ouachita Professor Emerita Virginia Queen remembered for life of music and service
March 31, 2017 - OBU News Bureau
Miss Virginia Queen, Professor Emerita of Music at Ouachita Baptist University, died
Wednesday, March 29, at age 96.
Miss Queen, who graduated from Ouachita in 1944 with Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor
of Music degrees, also earned a Master of Music degree from the American Conservatory
of Music in Chicago. She taught at Prescott High School and the Tennessee College
for Women before joining the Ouachita music faculty in 1946. She retired in 1986 after
40 years of service at Ouachita. In recent years, she resided at Parkway Village in
Little Rock.
The Virginia Queen Piano Competition, which is named in her honor, will hold its 40th annual competition May 5 on the Ouachita campus. Miss Queen established the competition
to encourage piano students to excel in their area of study.
“Virginia Queen had a long and successful career teaching piano at Ouachita,” said
Dr. Gary Gerber, dean of Ouachita’s School of Fine Arts. “Her love and devotion to
her students, the faculty and the school made her a hallmark of Ouachita. The naming
of the annual Virginia Queen Piano Competition is representative of the admiration
Ouachita had for her and her teaching.”
Dr. Charles Wright, Professor Emeritus of Music and retired dean of the School of
Fine Arts, noted that “it has been my honor and blessing to know Virginia Queen for
62 years. She will be missed by all of us who had the privilege to know her and to
serve with her.
“I first met Miss Queen when I was a freshman at Ouachita Baptist College in 1955,”
Dr. Wright recalled. “From that time forward she has been my friend, my music professor
and my colleague for 32 years. She was an outstanding teacher who loved Ouachita and
gave many years of her life in exemplary service to her students and to the university.”
A memorial service will be held Thursday, April 6, at 10 a.m., at Parkway Village
Chapel with Dr. Rex Horne, former president of Ouachita, officiating. Memorial gifts
may be given to the Queen Piano Award Endowment Fund at Ouachita Baptist University
at www.obu.edu/give.
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