Mary Essel

In the year 1945, Mary Anna was pledged ino the Mu Phi Chapter of Mu Phi Epsilo at the Conservatory of Music of Baldwin Wallace College in Berea, Ohio, near Cleveland. She wasn't very active in the remaining years of college because she was married before the Jr. year, and had a baby girl beginning the senior year.
After graduation, she went to Tallahassee, Florida, where she was given a graduate assistantship position at Florida State University. They found a place for her to teach piano in their Demonstration School Department. It was very valuable training. Tragically, her intended two year stay to finish her Master's degree was cut short by the untimely death of her little Cheryl.
She pursued her graduate studies off and on for the next five years at Northwestern and Western Reserve Universities, living in Illinois, Ohio and Wisoconsin. She did complete her Master's Degree, and she had her second daughter in 1950.
She moved to California in 1954, to the Valley. Her son was born in 1956, the only native Californian in the family. When he started school, she enrolled in the Valley State College, now CSUN, to earn a General Secondary Credential. It was a challenging, exciting and fun filled five years of part time work.
She started teaching piano and voice the year she arrived. In the early 50's she formed a women's choral group which eventually came to be known as the Mary Annettes. They perform all over the ara for nearly 30 years. in 1956, she bacame a Chartermember of the Alumni Chapter of Mu Phi Epsilon. In 1960, she was a Charter Member of the San Fernando West Valley Branch of the Music Teachers' Association of California.
Mu Phi provided the first of many long time friendships, and gave her the oppurtunity to participate in numerous cultural activities. It was literally "Woven into the Fabric" of her life ever since. It's hard to believe that from humble beginnings and many struggles that she survived and achieved the level of community service thay she did. She can, and should be proud, of all that she has done.