A native of Grenada, Mississippi, Sandra got her start in piano by finding sounds on the Hobart M. Cable upright, which arrived by train from her Grandma Sanders in Ohio. Her Grandma Paschall was offered a college scholarship in music, but her father said that the scholarship should go to someone who would practice!  Nonetheless, in her years as wife and mother in Tennessee, family lore has it that people would ride as much as twenty miles in their buggies “to hear Miss Ida play the piano.” Music came to Sandra from both sides of her heritage, including both grandfathers, who played fiddle.

In first grade in Grenada her teacher, Eleanor Whyte, upon learning that piano lessons were in Sandra’s future, advised that lessons had best “start now, or she’s not going to want to learn to read music.”  Miss Whyte had it right -- Sandra didn’t want lessons, let alone to read music.  Her wise and dear parents simply rose above that, and her mother patiently eased her into reading music. Over time, the reading and the playing came together. Sandra later practice-taught under Miss Whyte.

Edith Rhyne, Sandra Jane’s first piano teacher, was succeeded by Margaret Oliver, Doris Burt, and Vivian Page, each change precipitated when the teacher moved from Grenada.  Sandra holds degrees in piano from Mississippi State College for Women (now MUW) with Dr. Sigfred Matson as her major professor and from The University of Michigan, where she studied piano with Benning Dexter and Gyôrgy Sandor and collaborative piano with Eugene Bossart.  

Mrs. Burt and Mrs. Page entered Sandra in the district Mississippi High School Activities Association’s annual district piano festivals at The University of Mississippi.  At the recital in her sophomore year at the festival, Mrs. Page wrote in a quiet note to Sandra’s mother, “Sandra is not playing with her usual aplomb.”  Sandra’s response to that back at home was, “What’s ‘aplomb’?”  Sandra rated Excellent Plus that year and learned the importance of aplomb in performance. 

Sandra first met MMTA when she played on a statewide student recital at the MMTA state conference at Belhaven in 1956.  As a junior piano major at MSCW, she performed in 1960 with the Jackson Symphony as the winner of their first collegiate competition in partnership with MMTA and received her first review.  

Upon completion of her Master of Music degree in piano from The University of Michigan in 1962, Sandra taught for two years at Michigan in the class piano department, teaching seven of the eight levels to university music majors in areas other than piano.  Other teaching experience included studio teaching in Kenosha, Wisconsin, studio teaching and one year on the music faculty at Millsaps College, and twenty-nine years as chair of music and teacher of piano and music theory to students in the Jackson Public Schools Academic and Performing Arts Complex, from which position she retired in 2012.  Sandra’s philosophy was to integrate making music and teaching music, each enriching the other.

A member of MMTA/MTNA since 1965, she consistently entered her students in their events.  She served as the first pre-college auditions chair for MMTA, as Southern Division chair for MTNA in both high school and collegiate auditions, and as national chair of the MTNA Collegiate Artist Competition.  She is a long-time member of Music Forum of Jackson, an MMTA/MTNA affiliate.  She was selected by MMTA in 2017 as an MTNA Foundation Fellow.

The core of Sandra’s adult life was with Frank, her late husband of sixty years, who taught in the Millsaps Music Department for thirty years.  As duo-pianists their performances included recitals on the Millsaps Arts & Lecture Series and performances with The Mississippi Symphony in duo concerti by Mozart, Poulenc, and Mendelssohn. In retirement years, through The Chaminade Music Club, they coordinated and presented monthly interactive programs at the memory care unit at St. Catherine’s Village and recitals at The Orchard Retirement Center.

Sandra practices the piano daily.  Her COVID project of twelve Mozart piano sonatas gave her lots of music to play recently while in rehab.  Knowing the value of music and of giving music, she rehearses regularly with vocal and instrumental ensemble partners toward making music with and for those who need music most.