Jack Milton Lines papers

Jack Milton Lines was born on 22 May 1924 on the Otis Deem farm near Adams, Decatur County, Indiana, to Marshal Neal Lines and Lillian Jane Porter. In the fall of 1926, Lines's father loaded up the family and truck for Miami, Florida where he drove for Standard Oil. After the 1929 stock market crash, the parents returned to the farm with Marshal becoming a butcher and Lillian becoming a beautician while Lines and his sister Patricia Lou Lines (Adams) stayed with their grandparents, Edward and Grace Foster/Porter/Stewart in Rush County. In the fall of 1930, Lines began attending the Milroy public schools but quickly switched to the Greenwood, Indiana public schools in 1931. In 1934, Lines began piano lesson with Mary Brackett, the Methodist church organist. In 1937, Lines and his siter performed a duet in a 125 piano and 250 people music festival at the Indianapolis, Butler Field House. Their grandparents, Lewis Lines was a singer and accordian player while the grandmother Mabel played the piano. Mabel's father, Elmer Shelhorn, played the violin as well. In 1938, as a freshman at Greenwood High School, Lines started playing the trombone and proceeded to play in many concerts through the span of his life with the instrument. From 1938-1942, Lines was part of the Greenwood High School band and choir and hard a part in an operetta. He also helped his father on the weekends behind the Kroher store meat counter. During the fall of 1942, Lines was a freshman at DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, and a music teacher major. He played the trombone in the band and orchestra and sang in the Methodist church choir. In 1944, Lines joined the Men's Hall Association in Longden Hall and recieved a music honoraria: Phi Mu Alpha Symphonia, Fraternity of America. In 1946, Lines went to his first music educator's conference in Cleveland, Ohio (MENC/ Music Educators National Conference). In the fall of the same year, Lines got his first music teaching job in Liberty, Indiana where he taught choir and band and all the elementary music. In the fall of 1947, after attending the summer school at Vander Cook School of Music in Chicago, Lines went to Buhl, Iowa where he became an instrumental band teacher. During this time, Lines made friends with other young teachers and learned to snow ski. In 1948, Lines attended summer school at the University of Michigan and the following summer at the University of Idaho and proceed to teach in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho in the fall of 1949. In 1950, Lines attended the University of Southern California summer school and, at the same school, obtained a masters degree in music. His thesis was titled "Concerted Mass for High School Choirs". Lines also earned $25 as a movie extra in "The Will Rogers Story". In January of 1951, Lines suffered an injury in skiing and ended his participation in the sport. The following year, Lines graduated with his Master's degree. From 1952 to 1953, Lines was in Salinas, California as an elementary band director and was a Methodist choir member. In 1953, with his masters degree, Lines moved to Yakima Washington where he was an elementary teacher for six elementary schools, helped with the school marching band, joined the First Presbyterian choir, and took over high school age choir in the fall of 1954. From 1955 to 1965, Lines became the Congregational Church choir director in the oldest church in Yakima. From 1954 to 2004, Lines was also a member of the Camerata men's glee club. From 1955 to 1957 Lines played trombone with the Yakima Symphony and from 1956 to 1967 was with the Yakima Philharmonic Choir that became the Yakima Symphony Chorus, from 1967 to 2000, which would go on to sing at Carnegie Hall in 1993. From 1953 to 1964 Lines was with the Elks band and from 1961 to 1964 he played bits in the Yakima Little Theatre productions. In 1953, Lines lived in a court in Yakima where he met a commercial teacher, Shirley Jeanne Swank, who lived in the same court. Shirley and Lines would later marry in 1958 in the new Presbyterian West Minister church, Yakima, the second wedding to occur in the church at the time. In 1957, Lines's grandmother, Mabel, left him with $2500 to a house in Yakima. In 1959, Lines and Swank's son Marshal Swank Lines was born on March 14 and in 1961 another son Lewis Kent Lines was born on November 14. In 1964 in the month of May, Shirley filed for divorce because, despite dropping a few activities, Lines was never home according to him. In 1964, Lines purchased a different home across the street from the YVCC college and set up college rooming for foreign students which later provided his income. In 1964, Lines also opened the four piano studio, teaching the Robert Pace class piano method. In the same year, Lines joined the Yakima Democrats and was precinct committeeman in 1968. Lines was a big advocated of keeping Church and State separate. Lines wrote an article titled "Class Piano, It Works" for the British Columbia, Canada, music journal ancd it was published in 1969 in the Washington State Music Educator's Journal. In 1967, Lines became interested in Genealogy and co-founded the Yakima Valley Genealogy Society. In 1968, after the divorce settlement and house sold, Lines was able to go to Europe where he participated in English Quaker research, and then went to France for the International Music Educators Conference. In Hungary, Lines studied the Kodaly vocal choral music method which was designed to teach children to listen and use their ears for spelling and playing the violin in tune. Lines proceeded to make a TV show with this method. In 1972, after meeting with a Jearn Jone in Millville, New Jersey, Lines was able to gather enough Shelhorn-Shellhorn-Schellhorn genealogy with the help of Fred and Margaret Carver and the book was 608 pages. After the 1968 Texas Supreme Court ruling limiting school expulsions for disciplimary purposes, Lines got in trouble hold sutdents in place onto their seats to stop their running around in class. After several court hearing, in 1977, Lines was banned from teaching in the elementary school capacity. In 1983, Lines joined the Yakima Stamp Club as well at the Yakima chapter of the National Chrysanthemum Society and became a 'mum' judge, traveling to California, Arizona, and Georgia as well as Victoria, Canada, to judge. In 1984, Marshal and Kent graduated from Washington State University where Kent became a chemical engineer and Marshal formed an internet company "Access One" which sold later for $3 million. Lines became increasingly outspoken about atheism and even sponsered "The Atheist Viewpoint" on the public access cable television channel since 1995. Lines was very outspoken against George W. Bush's presidency as well. Jack Milton Lines passed away on September 2, 2013 at the age of 89 in Yakima, Washington.