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"Mother has come with her beautiful song"
A Memorial Tribute to Sister Mildred Barker
Sister Ruth Mildred Barker (1897-1990)
at Sabbathday Lake, Maine
© photo by Gail M. Hallt permission]
I had the great pleasure and honor of knowing Sister Mildred Barker for over 15 years.
We both shared a deep love of Shaker music, and she was always happy
to sing for me.I believe she was the greatest Shaker singer of our time.
She also wrote meaningful poems. I have set two of her poems to music as hymns:
"A New Year's Prayer" (Search Thou My heart)
"A Prayer" (With the dawn of each new morning)
Both hymns are available on "Celestial Praises" and "My Shaker Home" CDs.
This was Sister Mildred's favorite Shaker song:
'Motrher Has Come With Her Beautiful Song"- composed by Sister Paulina Springer.
She had a special fondness for Maine Shaker music and such Shaker authors as: Eldress Mary Ann Gillespie ("Redeeming Love") and Elder Otis Sawyer ("Lead Me On To Greater Victory").
I interviewed Sister Mildred in 1980. A portion of that interview is on this DVD-ROM:
Another interview with Sister Mildred was made by disc jockey and record producer, Bill Randle and included on this 2 CD set which I edited:
Sister Mildred was born in Providence, Rhode Island on February 3,1897. She entered the Shaker life on July 7, 1903 (known as her "Shaker birthday"). She became a covenant member in 1918. She lived first at the Shaker community in Alfred, Maine, and moved to Sabbathday Lake, Maine after Alfred closed in 1931.Her interest in Shaker music continued as she taught other Believers the songs and hymns she had learned as a young girl at Alfred.
She had an incredible memory for remembering Shaker tunes from her youth.
© photo by Gail M. Hall, 1974I arranged for Sister Mildred to meet the distinguished composer Aaron Copland on November 9, 1974. It was the first and only time they met --
see Aaron Copland Meets The Shakers.In 1983, Sister Mildred received a Heritage Fellowship Award from the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, DC.
I knew she had been ill so I wasn't entirely surprised when Sister Mildred passed on. She died on January 25, 1990. At her funeral service, I remember the complete loss felt by so many of her friends and especially her Family of Believers at Sabbathday Lake, Maine.
For that sad ocassion, I composed a memorial hymn based on one of Sister Mildred's most moving poems titled "A Prayer" which ends with this verse:
I am so small alone, and weak,
Defeat I often see;
But by the strengeth of Thy right hand
A conqueror I'll be.For me, she was definitely "a conqueror" for her humility and love of singing.
I feel extremely blest to have known her.
--Roger Lee Hall, January 25, 2000 (10th anniversary of Sister Mildred's passing)
Updated November 9, 2024 (50th anniversary of Sister Mildred meeting Aaron Copland)
More information:
Sister Mildred Barker may be heard singing and speaking
along with other Shakers on these CDs:
A conversation with Sister Mildred Barker is included on this DVD-ROM:
Sister Mildred lived at the Shaker community in Alfred, Maine, where Elder Joseph Brackett had earlier written the best known Shaker song, "Simple Gifts." She mentioned Elder Joseph and his song in an article in The Shaker Quarterly, published at Sabbathday Lake, Maine in 1967. That same year she was captured in this candid moment in this picture from a national magazine:
Sister Mildred Barker
(courtesy, John Loengard, LIFE Magazine, 1967)
This CD includes an excerpt of the Sister Mildred interview in 1980 -- here
Two of Sister Mildred's beautiful poems
("A Prayer" and "Search Thou My Heart")
were set to music by Roger Lee Hall
and are included on this CD --
For any messages -- click here
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