Column: Karen Troutman has been a legend of an organist at Westminster Presbyterian Church

When it comes to the organ at Westminster Presbyterian Church, Karen Troutman has played almost every hymn. 

She has heard just about every preacher’s sermon, and every preacher’s prayer. 

“It was fulfilling,” says Troutman, 83, who was the organist at the church for 53 years. “I always looked forward to it.”

Her organ has been the queue for all to rise, because the bride-to-be is about to walk down the center aisle. She has played for the farewells of beloved church members who have gone to their eternal rest. She has been at the organ just about every Sunday. 

“It just kind of crept up on me somehow,” Troutman said about her half-century as the church organist. 

Ask any church member, and they’ll tell you Karen Troutman is something of a legend at the brick church along Village Drive, and before when the church was located along Owen Drive, where a fast-food restaurant now serves hamburgers and fries. 

“Robert Freeman was the preacher,” Troutman said. “Duncan Stanton was my daddy’s first cousin. Duncan and Rev. Freeman said they needed a substitute in 1969.”

The congregation liked Karen Troutman, and Karen Troutman and her husband, Jerry, liked Westminster Presbyterian Church. They became members, and Karen Troutman became the full-time organist in 1971. 

“The people are so loving,” she said. “It’s the most loving congregation. To me, the church is not the building, it’s the people.”

A love for the church and the hymns

Karen Troutman grew up in West End, the community just beyond Pinehurst in Moore County. She grew up in West End Presbyterian Church. All of her siblings, she said, had a passion for musical instruments, and her passion was the piano. 

“I had private piano lessons from a lady who came to our school,” she said, recalling it was somewhere around the time she was in the fifth grade. “In high school, I started playing the organ.” 

There’s a difference between playing an organ and playing a piano, she said, and the organ is more complex.

“It’s technique,” Troutman said, “On the organ, you don’t lift your hands off the keys. You can’t take your hands off the organ and still have the sound of the keys.”

And the organ foot-pedals are a part of the sound that emanates from the organ pipes. 

“It was a lot of on-the-job training,” she said. 

Jerry Troutman has heard just about every hymn his wife has played at the church. 

“She loved it,” he said. “It’s always been what she’s ever wanted to do.”

The sound of an organ resonates with a rich and powerful sound, particularly with hymns such as “Amazing Grace,” “Great is Thy Faithfulness,” “How Great Thou Art,” “O Holy Night,” and the “Bridal Chorus,” aka “Here Comes the Bride.”

Whatever the occasion, Karen Troutman has been seated at the church organ by the right of the pulpit. 

“One day, when we were in the old building,” she said, recalling a Sunday, “we had a wedding, a funeral and a baptism.” She didn’t play for the baptism, but for all of the hymns for the worship service.

‘Beloved by the congregation’

Troutman’s favorite hymn to play?

“My favorite hymn is ‘The Church Is One Foundation,’” she said. “It says it all.”

And her years at Westminster say it all, too.

“Karen is a faithful member of the congregation and loves her church family,” said the Rev. Ben West, former pastor at the church. “As organist, Karen has always worked to support the congregation in singing the great hymns of the faith.”

Mary Beth Winter is the church music director. 

“In my many years of working with her as music director,” Winter said, “she has been most kind, generous and beloved by the entire congregation.” 

Doyle Wood joined the church in 1995, bringing his guitar and voice to the congregation. 

“Karen Troutman has been a wonderful part of our experience there,” said Wood, who was inducted into the Community Concerts Performing Arts Hall of Fame in 2016. “In all my musical involvement with the church, she has always been very supportive and made us so welcome.

Mike Daniels (his accompanist) and I would play songs that we had known for years by ear, using just the lyrics. We both had a gospel background and a musical family. Karen would play the organ reading each note and still played the pedals. Different styles and approaches to music seemed to be welcomed by our church family. We worked together many years … Christmas Eve services, funerals for our church family members. Karen and her husband, Jerry, have always been faithful members of our congregation and great friends.”

Epilogue

Karen Troutman retired as the church organist in August. 

Sunday, she’ll find herself seated with the congregation along with her husband, and when the Rev. Matthew Copple delivers the benediction, a reception is scheduled in the fellowship hall, where the congregation will recognize the woman seated at the organ for more than five decades. 

“It probably will be a little emotional,” she said. 

Son Heath Troutman and his family plan to be there. Older son Richard Troutman and his family will make the trip from Huntsville, Alamaba, for her special day.

“I’m a quilter,” she said. “A lot of my quilter friends will be there.”

Once brides and grooms of wedding days past, too, and church members who for so many Sundays have sung the lyrics of the hymns. 

“I wish a happy retirement for Karen,” Doyle Wood said. “She will be missed.”

Missed at the organ on Sunday, mind you, but just at the organ. 

“Even in my resignation letter, I said Jerry and I would continue to be there as church members,”
Karen Troutman said. “I knew in my heart it is where God wanted me to be.”

Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.

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