Sanders honored for career shaped by music

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Editor’s Note: This is the seventh of eight stories appearing daily in the News Journal on the members of the 2017 Class of the Outstanding Women of Clinton County.

Of this nominee to the 2017 class of the Outstanding Women of Clinton County, it is said that she “has brightened people’s cultural lives through the years. Her legacy is in the untold number of children and adults she has taught to read and with whom she has shared her love of music.”

In 1951, Beverly B. Sanders graduated from Central High School of Lima, Ohio, where she distinguished herself by playing flute in the marching band, pep band, and orchestra; singing in the choir and vocal ensemble; and earning a National Thespian pin for the plays and musicals in which she appeared.

She subsequently earned degrees in Education from Ohio State University (B.S., 1955), the University of Colorado in Boulder (M.A., 1961), and Wright State University (Kindergarten Certification, 1987).

At OSU, she sang in the Women’s Glee Club and Ensemble, University Chorus, and Symphonic Choir (with which she toured Europe), while also playing flute in the Concert and Pep Bands.

Sanders’ long and dedicated career began when she returned to Lima to teach first and second grade, all the while involving herself in numerous musical groups, both church and community. She was on the Board of Directors of the Lima Symphony Orchestra and a member of the American Association of University Women.

Upon marrying and moving to Wilmington in 1962, she taught first grade at Wilmington’s Holmes Elementary School for several years, before starting her family.

Through the 1970s and ’80s, all four Clinton County school districts benefited from Sanders’ service as a substitute teacher, both short- and long-term.

In 1980, she began teaching music part-time at Martinsville Elementary, and in 1986, at Sabina Elementary, where she also taught Reading and Math, and later Kindergarten. She went on to teach Music and Reading Readiness at New Vienna Elementary School, and served as Co-President and long-time committee member of the East Clinton Teachers’ Association.

She retired from teaching in 2001 — earning the East Clinton Outstanding Educator Award for that year — but continues to tutor adult readers at the Wilmington Public Library.

In her 15 years at Sabina and New Vienna, Sanders’ music students gave many programs. Indeed, music has always been a tremendous part of her life.

Soon after moving to Wilmington, she joined the Wilmington College Community Orchestra, and through the years has played under seven different conductors in the Community Band. Having been active in the Ohio and National Federation of Music Clubs, she has served as President of the Wilmington Music Club, and still chairs its Scholarship Committee.

She has also sung and acted in a number of the College / Community Summer Theatre productions, with a leading role as Miss Hannigan in Annie.

Since her retirement, she has been a member of the Clintonaires, a local women’s choral group.

Long active in the Wilmington United Methodist Church, Sanders has been a director of its Chancel Choir, in which she still participates, as well as in the bell choir. She has been President of the Methodist Women’s Society of Christian Service, attending that organization’s National Conference in Texas, and is currently active in the Wilmington Area Emmaus Community.

She has also presided over the Wilmington Garden Club, Conversation Club, and Warren Woods Lake Association, while for many years collecting donations for the American Heart Association.

Her many other activities include Wilmington Public Library Writer’s Group, Clinton County Retired Teachers, Wilmington Lions Club Auxiliary, Clinton County Scholarship Committee of the OSU Alumni Club, and the Scandinavian Readers of Cincinnati.

Tickets for the March 4 Outstanding Women of Clinton County luncheon at 11:30 a.m. at the Roberts Centre are $25 (cash or check accepted). Reservations can be made at the Wilmington News Journal, 761 S. Nelson Ave., Wilmington, OH 45177. The News Journal’s office hours are 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday. If you have any questions, please call 937-382-2574. Reservations will be accepted through March 1.

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