Celebrating the legendary Jane McFarland

By JANET HART LEONARD
For the Reporter

A little over 50 years ago, a group of Noblesville High School students packed a choir room to be directed by Mrs. Jane McFarland. Those same students packed the choir room of the Noblesville First Methodist Church to sing under her direction last Thursday evening.

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It was an evening of singing the songs that were sung in the years 1964 to 1971. Choir members whose hair had become gray and whose voices may not have been so strong still found their soprano, alto tenor, and bass voices to sound just as sweet as they did all those years ago. They were honoring a teacher who had become a legend to all who were blessed to be under her direction.

Mrs. McFarland, as was told, had returned to her favorite place of teaching. That says a lot when you consider she had been teaching up until last year. She retired at the ever-so-sweet age of 98.

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She walked into the choir room as her students applauded. Her smile grew as she looked into the eyes of everyone who had come to celebrate her. For three hours those students sang the songs they had great difficulty learning but could not easily be forgotten. The harmony was heavenly. The memories shared that night were etched not only in the minds of her students but in their hearts.

Mrs. McFarland had taught the world-renowned opera singers Robert McFarland and Michael Sylvester. She also taught the voices of Old Noblesville how to sing: Lynne Lively Sylvester, Debbie Williams, Bruce McMahon, Jim McGee, Jim Kaylor, Janet Scott Smith, Rex Dillinger, Vicki Swaynie Jackson, Kathy Kepner Brehmer, Barbara Pyke Carter and a chorus of others who graduated from NHS. David Petrie was there to accompany the choir just as he did back in the old days.

Jim McGee, Robert McFarland and his wife presenting Mrs. Jane McFarland with the Proclamation that Thursday, Sept. 29, 2022, was Jane McFarland Day in Noblesville by Mayor Chris Jensen. (Photo provided)

Every year at Christmas, Mrs. McFarland would bring her students from the junior high and high schools together with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra as well as Indiana University guest soloists to perform Handel’s Messiah.

Those attending the celebration again harmonized as they sang “The Hallelujah Chorus.”

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It was a pleasure to once again be together with such an amazing teacher, who at 99 years of age hasn’t lost a beat.