Autumn Rose

Grade 3
for concert band
by Julie Giroux

Composed for Dr. Daniel P. Bolin in memory of his mother, Genell Bolin

     Like everyone's mom, my mom was the world's greatest. She was born in 1919 and lived to be 95, dying on September 11, 2014.

     She was born in the little town of Richardsville, KY. She was raised on a farm along with her brother and three sisters. My grandfather was the foreman for a very large farm that employed some 20 farmhands. By the age of ten mom was cooking meals for this group of hungry workers, a talent she had all her life.

   Holiday dinners were always a feast at our house and we hosted all of the family that lived in Indianapolis. She would make enough for an army including every pie imaginable (her peach cobbler was to die for).

     Mom was proud of the fact that she completed grade 10. In 1935, this would have been an unusual feat for a female in a rural farm town. Education was always important to her and she saw to it that this was instilled in her two boys. My brother became an engineer (rocket scientist for NASA), and I earned my doctorate and spent time as a high school band director, school administrator and chair of the School of Music at Butler University.

     She was always involved in seeing to it that we had what we needed and did what it took to allow us to participate in school activities. She was involved in PTA and with the All-City Orchestra Parents Organization. She volunteered for the Heart Fund and was even invited to the Governor's Home to be honored for her work.

    She moved to Indianapolis and worked in a dry cleaning plant. Her marriage to my father took her to New York City during World War II. That had to be a big change for a farm girl from a town of 100.

    Her work included being a tax appraiser, working as a grocery clerk and she spent her last years running a bakery store where she got to know everything about all of her customers. She would talk to them at length and find out about them while she told them about her boys and her family.

     Yes, she was quite a lady. Many miss her. I still think of her every day.

Dr. Daniel P Bolin

MP 99147
Duration: 5:25
Score & Parts: $95.00
Score only: $18.00