In Memoriam

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Editor's Note: MTNA would like to recognize those individuals whose lives made a mark in the music teaching profession. We note with sorrow their passing.

Usher Abell, 87, of Vermillian, South Dakota, died February 6, 2003. He taught violin at Ouachita College in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and was concert master of the Arkansas Symphony in Little Rock from 1939-1942. He served as a musician in the U.S. Navy from 1942-1945, and he joined the faculty at the University of South Dakota (USD) in 1946. Abell chaired the school's music department from 1952 to 1969, retiring in 1976 after thirty-one years of teaching. He received the South Dakota Music Educators Award in 1982. In 1988, he and his wife, Edith Barnes Parrish, were presented with the South Dakota Governor Award for support of the arts. Usher served as adjudicator, clinician and …