Juanita Kunzler coached, directed, performed and taught music for decades before she stepped away from the field last month.
No matter where her assignments took her, the former nun's parish leaders always seemed to find out about her talents, and tap into them.
Now 83, Kunzler took piano lessons while in the eighth grade in Meta. A nun recognized her talent and approached Kunzler.
"She said she thought I could do organ. 'We need somebody,'" the nun told Kunzler. "I didn't realize what I would get into."
Seventy years later, she feels the pull to continue. The church still needs musicians, she explained. Her parish at Immaculate Conception needs musicians.
"Even though I can still play - I can still do it - I'm old," she said Nov. 22. "I know we do need musicians at Immaculate Conception. It's all volunteer that's why I felt bad (about retiring)."
Seventy years have passed in heartbeats.
Kunzler became a nun at 20. She later left the order and married Donald Kunzler in 1971. Donald, who always referred to Juanita as his bride, died in 2012.
No matter where she was, she remained dedicated to the church and music.
As a nun, the Catholic Church sent Kunzler to different, sometimes exotic, places. One of them was the Island of St. Martin in the Caribbean. Shortly after arriving, church leaders asked her to take the musical reins from an older woman who was leaving. How they found out about her musical background, she wasn't certain. However, Kunzler found herself in charge of arranging music for a First Communion Celebration.
She set out to do her best. The production value the small church created - with professional camera lighting and music was a little unnerving at first, she said.
"They played steel drums," Kunzler said. "The melody blended, sort of (with traditional church music)."
She always took those experiences with her.
"It was exciting to help out," she said.
"The Caribbean was the most interesting place, I think, because of the music. Sometimes, with these steel bands, I was amazed at what they could do," she said.
Kunzler spent time in Las Cruces, New Mexico, about half an hour from El Paso, Texas, and the Mexico border.
"That was interesting," she said. "Their culture - their music - was a little different. I had to get used to that."
Kunzler served in many parishes in Missouri.
Near St. Louis, she worked in Des Peres and Flint Hill.
She taught at St. Joseph, St. Peter and Mary's Home, where she was also principal. Kunzler was principal at Immaculate Conception for seven years.
"Every time I was teaching, I was the musician - I had to be the musician in addition to teaching," she said.
Flint Hill was a parish that was so little, and the pastor was elderly, Kunzler said.
"He never turned the furnace on when we were going to church during the week. We'd only be in there a half hour, and he didn't want to heat the whole church," she explained. "So, it was freezing in there. My superior wanted to take the children in there to practice music and singing."
Her fingers were so stiff, she could hardly move them, let alone play.
The superior would hear Kunzler's playing and ask if she were "playing in the cracks."
"She was thinking I was not playing very well. I wasn't," Kunzler said.
Kunzler always feels honored to play for people during their weddings or during funerals.
"That is probably one of the greatest honors," she said, "for a funeral - to play music to comfort people, do something that makes them hopeful."