Despite threats of severe weather, on Sunday, May 11th as part of the Bicentennial Celebration of the First United Methodist Church, the Fairfield County Christian Youth Choir from the 1970’s was reunited and gave a concert that brought tears to the eyes of many in the audience. In the audience were over five hundred and fifty people who were moved to give several standing ovations during the event.

Emotions were running high as the Reverend E. Don McKinney now retired and living in Easley, South Carolina, reminisced about the formation of the choir 35 years ago. “Mr. Mac”, as he became known, spoke of his vision of the church trying to provide some kind of wholesome environment for the young people of the church. He went to Esther Jennings Baughman, a member of First United Methodist Church and begged her to start a choir of teenagers. Starting with fifteen members, the choir grew to approximately one hundred and twenty members with young people representing every denomination in Fairfield County. The group met every Sunday afternoon for two hours of rehearsal from 1973 until 1980. The choir became a great success during that period. They made a recording of which recently has been made into a CD.

Kudos to Esther Baughman who worked tirelessly for many months tracking down the location of those one hundred and fourteen members and making this reunion the phenomenal success it was! Choristers came from as far away as California, Colorado, Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Maryland, Washington DC, Tennessee, North and South Carolina. The weekend started with a party on Friday evening celebrating ’Mr. Mac’s 85th birthday, then intense rehearsal. All day Saturday, culminating on Sunday afternoon with the concert at White Oak Conference Center.

One hundred and two voices were raised in harmony to perform such classics as ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ Paul Simon and ‘Amazing Grace’ Arrangement by John Connor. To the delight of choir and audience alike, the choir’s rendition of ‘Dear Hearts and Gentle People’ Hillard/Fain/Ades was accompanied by Bill Goudelock on ‘spoons’!

Jim Gladden remembered choir members no longer with us, those members who have died are John Stewart Harmon, Mary Elise Leitner, Kimberly King Motte, Susan Collins Howell, Huley Alexander (Zan) Perry and Julie Brooks Hall. On behalf of the choir, gifts and flowers were presented to both Mr. Mac and Esther. The choir was then joined by their children to end the concert with a stirring rendition of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ Rodgers and Hammerstein.

To bring this memorable weekend to an end the audience and the choir were invited to attend a reception at Honeysuckle Acres Bed and Breakfast hosted by the Innkeepers, Hal and Pat Frish. The sun came out and everyone had one last chance to visit, thanks to the generosity of Hal and Pat, before leaving for their homes across the country.