According to the October 6, 1906, Methodist Recorder, “The Mt. Calvary Methodist Protestant Church, Garards Fort, Greene County, Pennsylvania, was dedicated Sunday, September 23 (1906), by President Spahr, of the Pittsburgh Conference. It is a handsome frame structure 36×42 feet, with a seating capacity of 225. It has a metallic ceiling, beautiful chandeliers, amber glass in the plentiful windows, opera chairs, a neat pulpit, with upholstered pulpit furniture, and a beautiful copy of the Bible.
The building has a commanding position and the deed calls for nearly an acre of ground, giving room for hitching-posts as well as for a parsonage.”
“I was raised in this church,” Lois Headlee Johnson, 93, revealed one recent Sunday morning before services at what is now known as Mount Calvary United Methodist Church.
Lois’ parents, Russell and Edythe (Strosnider) Headlee, had both been very active at Mount Calvary, attending every Sunday with Lois and her four siblings in tow. Russell regularly attended General Conference and served as lay speaker. Edythe was the church pianist for several years.
In 1960, Mount Calvary purchased a Gulbransen electric organ. Edythe taught herself how to play it and, thus, was Mount Calvary’s organist for several years. When she and Russell moved to Waynesburg, daughter Lois, by then a wife and mother herself, took over the responsibility. Like her mother before her, Lois had taken piano lessons, then taught herself to play the Gulbransen.
“When I came to church on Saturdays to clean, I practiced. I just kept after it until I caught on to it, I guess,” Lois said with a shy giggle.
Getting Lois to talk about herself is a challenge. Quiet and soft-spoken, she is just too humble to consider herself newsworthy. But that’s just her opinion!
“I adore Mrs. Johnson!” fellow parishioner Wilma Juracko gushed. “I love her so much…and I’m so grateful. I call her ‘Miss Mount Calvary.’ She’s been here so long and has given so much.”
Given indeed! Johnson has been the church’s organist for fifty years – and she still uses the same Gulbransen organ that was purchased in 1960!
“It is just such a blessing to have this wonderful woman playing for us so faithfully every Sunday,” says parishioner Pat Walkos.
Lois was married to the late Clarence Johnson, and together they raised five children: Kathy, Keith, Dale, Donna, and Susan. A grandmother of four, and a great-grandmother of six, Lois enjoys quilting, needlework, baking cookies, reading, and tending her flowers. Don’t ask her to name her favorite hymn, though: “There’s too many to choose from.”