A MEMORIAL SERVICE WAS HELD ON SAT. MARCH 28TH, 2009 AT BATTELL CHAPEL, Yale University, at 3:00pm. All were cordially invited. Over 800 in attendance! DVD available through the Yale Glee Club office.

Service details: Tom Murray, University Organist, started the prelude 20 minutes before the 3 p.m. service began. There were performances by The Yale Glee Club, The Yale Alumni Chorus, The Whiffenpoofs of 2009, The SLOT's, and The University Glee Club of New Haven. A magnificent, and humbling, tribute.

Contributions in memory of Fenno may be sent to the
North Congregational Church P.O. Box 307 New Hartford CT 06057.

Condolences may be sent directly to the family (Carol, Sarah, Lucy, Peggy, Terry) at pogilvy@comcast.net

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F F Heath Jr. 12-30-1926 to 12-05-2008



About the blog:
Please feel free to share your memories with us about Fenno/Dad. Send your stories/memories to pogilvy@comcast.net and we will gladly post your letter, unless you indicate otherwise.

Thank you. Your letters bring us joy.

Sincerely,

~Carol, Sarah, Lucy, Peggy, and Terry Heath


Thursday, December 4, 2008

So meaningful a moment tonight with my Dad......and all of you.

I am sitting by Dad's bedside, holding his hand.....in the dim light of the little Christmas tree in his room, looking at the little sparkling white lights strung on the tree outside his windows.
We are listening to the Yale Glee Club at the 135th Reunion at Woolsey Hall  singing Randall Thompson's Alleluia.......and now I've got the Biebl's Ave Maria playing full blast for Dad too, of course.   And I am overwhelmed..........as you can well imagine.   We've been listening to Yale Glee Club CDs full blast tonight........and suddenly, all of the pieces I've ever heard the Glee Club perform in my whole life, since I was a little girl, with many of the texts about death and dying, are taking on a new and deeper meaning ........my own Dad's passing over........it's simply beyond words at this point for me.  Beyond words.......All I want to do is lie on the floor on my back, like Dad used to in his retirement years in New Hartford, and listen to Glee Club CDs and LPs full blast, and to listen with my whole heart and my whole mind, like he did all of his life...........as a family, Dad would have us all gather in the living room and he would put on a favorite song on the stereo and after giving us a passionate speech about why he thinks the upcoming piece is basically out of this world, he would make us sit in absolute silence and let the piece wash over us all, full blast and we'd all ball like babies.   I think these were the most memorable family times I had with Dad and the ones I will miss the very most.  The times he'd make me sit in silence, not a word was allowed to be uttered, and he and I and the family would all sit together with the music taking us all to higher ground together.   I will miss my dad beyond words.     But I will always be able to visit him for the rest of my life in the music, for he will always be there.

~Peggy Heath Ogilvy, devoted daughter

3 comments:

  1. Dearest Fenno, Carol, Sarah, Lucy, Terry, and Peggy,

    Thank you for allowing me to be with you as we witness the process of life.

    "Keep calmly knowing change." This reverberates as I prepare myself, too, with an aging father.

    It is such a gift to read the many posts from Yale Glee Club members as I learn more about a past I was not part of but have helped me piece together those memories you cherish and connect them with the most current 12 years of Cornstock events in Cornish, New Hampshire: Fenno reading "Fern Hill" and The Heath Sisters singing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" and Terry setting up the fireworks display, and Carol playing wonderful contra dance music or leading us to parade The Plainfield Yankee Doodlers in "This Land is Your Land" and "Yankee Doodle."

    Magic, music, and wonder. You are a wonderful family.

    Love, Mary

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  2. What beautiful words, Peggy. And how hard it must be for you to find ANY words that come anywhere near what you are feeling. This website is wonderful. It is as if you are allowing EVERYONE to sit vigil at Fenno’s bedside.

    One memory: Fenno asked me if I'd like to be the accompanist for his University Glee Club. I warned him that I was a rotten sight reader, but he said I'd be fine. At one early rehearsal, he got mad at me for not finding, IMMEDIATELY, where he wanted to be in the score, and for this he yelled at me in front of all those men. I jumped up from my seat and told him we should settle this in his office. He looked startled but agreed to call a tiny break.

    "You're a total bully, you know!" I gnashed at him. Again, he was startled, but he rallied nicely.

    "Are you quitting?" he roared back.

    "I don't quit," I yelled. " . . . But I promise I won't ever be much better than I am right now, and I warned you about this. So perhaps I will retire very, very soon, how about?"

    To both our relief, I did. Thank God we remained friends -- he even signed on to sing (with great, flamboyant flair and humor) the part of the "Music Master" in an opera Carol had asked me to write for Hooker School children. And wouldn't you know: during an early read-through of my new score, Fenno admitted that HE wasn't that hot a sight reader either!

    Hooray for your honesty, Fenno!

    I began composing because of Carol, and Fenno's support of my efforts was wonderful.

    I can't say good-bye. The membrane between "here" and "there" seems so very frail and thin these days. I will continue carrying him around in my heart, just as I do now. You too, Carol. xoxoxo love. Sue

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  3. Hi! I didn't know your father, except through knowing you and your gift and love of music. Oh, and through his recorded appearance on the Christmas album you recorded with your sisters - having never met him, just those recorded moments made me wish I had known him and could have sung with him. My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. I have been reading the blog entries from those lucky enough to have had the chance to sing with him, and it is stunning how many lives he touched and brought to music. These lives have gone on to reach others in waves outward, as music does. Be well, take care and sing on!

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