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Obituary: Ellis, 98, spread love of music to listeners, son
Web Posted: 11/06/2007 12:23 AM CST
Jenny LaCoste-Caputo
Express-News Staff Writer
A few weeks ago, 98-year-old Harmon Howard "Pop" Ellis was playing the fiddle for the "old folks" in his assisted living facility in Boerne, spreading music, joy and humor, just as he'd done his entire life.
Music was his passion and his legacy. The talent came from his father and was passed on to his son.
"I've got a picture of him on his 98th birthday playing fiddle with his country-western band," said his son, Dan Ellis.
Harmon Ellis died Friday in San Antonio.
He grew up listening to his grandfather and father playing the fiddle. His grandfather's dedication to music was so great that he was kicked out of his Baptist church when he refused to stop playing at square dances. Instead, he'd hold church in his own home, reading the Bible and praying with his family.
When Ellis was 14, his parents sent away for a violin and correspondence courses from a music school in Chicago. The lessons came once a week, but soon his parents decided to invest in a higher-quality instrument and send their son to Galveston for lessons. He developed a love for classical music and played with the Galveston Symphony.
Though he wasn't college-educated, Ellis rose in the ranks of management at the Amoco Refinery in Texas City. He also taught violin and piano lessons and operated his own business drilling water wells.
His daughter, Faye Jarrell, said her father worked hard to make sure his two children could go to college.
Dan Ellis earned two music scholarships. His dad taught him to play the violin, and he later switched to clarinet and saxophone. He had a career in music, going on tour with the likes of Johnny Carson, Jack Benny and Vickie Carr. He eventually landed a job as a band director in the Alamo Heights Independent School District and is now retired.
"That was all because of him," Dan Ellis said.
After retiring, Harmon Ellis and his wife, Gladys, spent time RV-ing around the Hill Country.
"He became friends with a bunch of guitar players, and they said, 'Hey, you've got to drop this classical stuff and get with the Hill Country fiddlers,'" Jarrell said.
Not only did her dad trade Beethoven for Bill Monroe, Farrell said, he became a Texas Old Time Fiddler and won more than 20 fiddling competitions.
Gladys Ellis, who died five years ago, taught herself to play the autoharp, and the two would perform together.
"When they were in their 80s, I'd call to see what they were doing and they'd say, 'Oh, yesterday we went and played for all the old folks at the assisted living facility,'" Farrell said.