Clubhouse

Pianist makes her last stanza

“I can’t read music,” Ruthee Cowan quips, “but God filled my heart and soul with it anyhow!”

A fixture at club meetings, Ruthee Cowan’s piano playing has been striking a chord with Kiwanians for decades.

For proof, consider that Ruthee has been playing piano for the Mount Clemens, Michigan, Kiwanis club for more than 40 years. She is part of the legion of ladies who, in addition to being pianists, served as club secretaries, bookkeepers, and helpers long before July 7, 1987—the day women were allowed to become Kiwanians (see “Celebrating 20 Years of Women in Kiwanis.”).

“I started in the 1960s,” Ruthee recalls, “playing piano at sing-alongs for the (former) L’Anse Creuse, Mount Clemens, Kiwanis club, of which my husband, Harold Cowan, became president. At that time I joined what was called the ‘Queens of Kiwanis.’ When the opportunity to play regularly for the Mount Clemens club arose in June 1977, I accepted it.”

Ten years later, after her “official induction” into the Mount Clemens club, Ruthee began accompanying her role as club pianist in many ways, including typing up the club’s songbook, serving as chairwoman of the a bake sale conducted during the club’s annual pancake breakfast, helping on the highway cleanup project, and walking in the Christmas parade.

“Becoming involved in Kiwanis activities has been a highlight of my life,” Ruthee says. “But now I am 90 years old and plan on retiring from playing the piano at the club so I can work on my family genealogy and my autobiography.”