By Tricia Pursell
The Daily Item
MIFFLINBURG — Kathryn Boyer, of Mifflinburg, received a surprise serenade on her 99th birthday last month.
As Beverley Conrad, known locally as the "Fiddlerwoman," played "Isle of Que Waltz" at the former Selinsgrove woman's birthday party, Boyer listened intently and clapped along to the music she knew so well.
In fact, she wrote it.
J. Howard Burns, an owner of a local furniture store at the time, had written the words and asked Boyer, then Kathryn Mull, to write the music specially for Selinsgrove's sesquicentennial celebration in 1953.
Boyer only had one year of formal music training, when lessons cost about 50 cents a week. She also played the organ in church.
But she accepted the challenge willingly. And she met it with success.
"I can still picture her playing on the flatbed wagon, in front of the judges," said her son, David. He was 12 at the time of the celebration, where Boyer sat on top of a hay wagon, in front of a piano, and played the song as they paraded down Market Street.
"I know it was a very exciting time for mother, because she never had anything like that happen to her," said Kathryn's daughter, Rosie Roush.
"I know she played it for us a lot," she added.
Boyer had written other songs, including "I'll Always Love Just You," which made its way onto the radio.
It was Roush's idea to get Conrad to play the waltz at Boyer's 99th birthday party.
Conrad, who plays her grandfather's fiddle, which was handmade in Germany, every Saturday night at Penn's Tavern, said the song is requested at least once or twice a month.
When Conrad first learned of the song, she discovered that many people in town owned the sheet music, but it sat unused in their homes.
"No one was playing it," she said.
That's when she went to the county historical society and found her own copy so she could learn it and add it to the list of songs she plays regularly.
"When I do programs, it's always included," Conrad said.
She includes songs from all along the Susquehanna River, including "Simple Gift" from Harrisburg and "Shall We Gather at the River" from Lewisburg. She also made note of another local song called the "Milton Two-Step."
The waltz was featured on "Our Town: Selinsgrove" on PBS.
"I think it's nice to have a piece about your hometown," Conrad said. "This is about as local as you can get."
The song's feel, she said, is similar to "In the Good Old Summertime" and "A Bicycle Built for Two."
Copies of "Isle of Que Waltz" can be found at the Snyder County Historical Society. An autographed cover of the sheet music hangs at Kinfolk's Restaurant, Selinsgrove.
Boyer's maiden name was Bailey. At the time the song was written, she was married to Myron R. Mull.
She had owned and operated Kathryn Ann's Bakery at 300 S. Market St., which "sold pies up and down the trail," her children remember.
Rosie and David are two of Kathryn's four children. David is the youngest at 69.
n E-mail comments to tpursell@dailyitem.com.
