'Everybody knew Geneva': 400 voices rise in honor of mentor, mother, friend

"A pencil-throwing Ninja." That's how a former Springdale choir student described the late Geneva Powers. She led several generations in song as the choir director at Central Junior High and Springdale High School.

That student? Also her son: Travis. "If you were not paying attention, she would throw a pencil at you from the piano -- and she was very accurate," he said.

He also recalled her "fingernail daggle. She'd peck you on the head," he said.

Powers' voice might have been silenced by her death in April, but thanks to her family and Springdale schools choirmasters -- many her former students -- her influence on students will continue.

Student choirs from all of Springdale's junior high and high schools perform at 3 p.m. Sunday at the Springdale High School Pat Walker Theater in a concert to raise funds for a choral music scholarship. The Schola Cantorum of the University of Arkansas -- of which Powers was a member -- also offers a special performance. Four hundred voices will be raised in her honor.

Travis Powers also plans to "lug" his mom's piano, a lamp and a carpet square from his mother's house to the theater lobby. Geneva dedicated a corner in her family's home to her private music students and school choir students preparing for auditions. The student would stand on the carpet square and sing as Geneva played the piano, Travis remembered. He hopes to re-create her niche in the SHS lobby for former students to stand next to the piano for pictures.

Geneva Powers' loved ones want to raise $25,000 to permanently endow the scholarship with the Springdale Public Schools Education Foundation. Admission to Sunday's concert is free, but donations are welcome at the concert or through the foundation.

"(Powers) expected -- no, demanded -- we work hard," said Gretchen Watt, choir director at Central Junior High and a former student. "If you had a fight with your best friend, or did badly on a test, she wanted you to leave your baggage at the door. Her saying was, 'Suck it up!'"

"(Powers' class) was one of the few places that you had a level playing field," Watts continued through a few tears. "She didn't care who you were. She didn't care who your parents were. Or what you had or didn't have. Everybody was treated the same. It was more about a life lesson."

Geneva Umbaugh Powers was born and raised in Springdale, said her sister Joanne Franco, also of Springdale. The family lived downtown, within sight of the (First United) Methodist Church. "She sang there every Sunday," Franco recalled. "In the dark ages, you could hear the church over the telephone wire. Mom would pick up the phone and be able to hear Geneva singing her solo down the street."

Powers earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Arkansas. She was invited to perform with the Schola Cantorum -- described as the most prestigious choir in Arkansas -- and she and husband David traveled with the group. In 1962, while Powers was a member, the Schola Cantorum became the first American choir to win first prize at the prestigious International Polyphonic Competition in Arezzo, Italy, and the group visited the White House to meet President John F. Kennedy, Franco related.

"She was pretty star-struck," Powers' sister said of the meeting. "And that was important to me because she wasn't usually like that.

"But Geneva always wanted to be a teacher," Franco continued. "Geneva could do just anything."

In the mid-1960s, Springdale Superintendent T.G. Smith said he would hire Powers part time, and if she could get enough students, he'd give her a full-time job, Franco related. She went to football practice to recruit singers -- "and, of course, she got them," Franco said.

Leading a choir of 70 to 90 adolescent boys each year, Powers also had mastered working with the changing voices of these youngsters, Watt remarked.

Among Powers' first choir members sang Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson, Franco added.

Powers' influence did not stay confined to the students. Most Springdale music teachers counted on her as a mentor. Springdale High choir director Rhonda Hawley recalled the love and care she received from Powers when she started as the choir director at the cross-town rival, Southwest Junior High.

"She took care of me. She was generous and giving and shared teaching tips." In fact, Powers would drive the short distance to Southwest to help coach some of Hawley's students.

"There are a lot of people who are where they are today because of Geneva," Watt said.

Powers also served the Methodist church as its choir director for 25 years and as the first director of what is today the Arts Center of the Ozarks.

"Lee Zachary was her sidekick," Franco recalled of the longtime president of the Springdale Chamber of Commerce. He and power worked to promote and raise donations for the fledgling, struggling arts center in 1973. Powers and Zachary hired current ACO directors Kathy and Harry Blundell to other positions in 1975. For many years, Powers also directed all music for the center's summer musical performances.

"Everybody knew Geneva," Kathy Blundell said. "She could just get people to do things."

"She could just get people to do things -- without them knowing it," Franco added. "Those kids didn't know they were being taught."

Powers's lessons "just became part of who I was," Watt said. "She was so musical. She taught us to feel the text -- not just the notes and rhythms -- and express it. She wanted us to have an emotional attachment with each piece.

"The thing was, with Geneva, you never knew what she would do next," Watt recalled of her student days at Central. "From standing on a piano bench to running across a row of chairs. She would do whatever it took to connect a story to singing."

"She was witty, outgoing and quick," Franco said of her sister.

"She's the only teacher who ever gave me detention," Travis Powers laughed.

NAN Our Town on 10/01/2015