Thad
Hardee started piano lessons later
than
most of his peers, but he's still playing
the
organ in church after all these years
 It wasn't until he reached the 8th grade
at Smithfield School that Thad Hardee began learning
to play piano.
By the 10th grade he was good enough to "graduate"
into private lessons from Flora Canaday, a legendary
local teacher who produced several outstanding
pianists over the years, including Smithfield's Ella
Ann Lee Holding (who still plays publicly on occasion)
and LuLong Ogburn Medlin (who played piano as her
talent in winning the "Miss North Carolina" pageant in
1951).
A year out of high school, Thad was studying
accounting at Hardbarger's Business College in Raleigh
in 1965 when he was invited to play the organ for
worship services at Smithfield's First Baptist Church.
That "gig," with one year off, added up to 27 years,
he figured.
"It was my full-time part-time job, or perhaps my
part-time full-time job," said Thad. During those
first years at the church, he played for Sunday
morning and evening worship services and Wednesday
night "prayer meeting," not to mention choir rehearsal
on Thursday evenings under director Mary Gordon Batten
(the wife of Dr. Woodrow Batten).
He was doing all that while finishing up his studies
at Hardbarger's and also taking organ lessons at
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in the town
of Wake Forest.
"I think it was divine intervention that I ended up
playing," Thad said. "In my younger years I would
sometimes listen to the Sunday service at First
Baptist on the radio and pretend I was the organist,
tapping my fingers on the table."
The church's organist in those days was Wade
Massengill, whose place Thad later took after working
under him as an "understudy."
Meanwhile, Thad got a full-time "day job" after he
completed courses at Hardbarger's. For 14 years he
handled the bookkeeping at Jordan Motor Company, the
local Dodge dealer based in nearby Selma. After that
he embarked on a 32-year accounting career with First
Citizens Bank, mostly in Raleigh and for a short while
in Roanoke, Va. He retired from service with the
Smithfield-birthed bank in January 2013.
Ever
since giving up his place as principal organist at
First Baptist a quarter-century ago, Thad has
continued to substitute when needed at weddings and
funerals, not only there but also at Smithfield's
Centenary Methodist as well as Clayton's Baptist and
Methodist churches.
"For most of the people who've asked me to play for
their weddings, I was the church organist here (at
First Baptist) when they were growing up," Thad noted.
 He practices regularly to be
prepared for those occasions. "I may practice
every day as we get closer, depending on how the
pieces are going," he said.
During those first years at First Baptist, Mrs.
Batten challenged the church choir with what Thad
termed "demanding" anthems. "I would practice
daily for hours then," he recalled. "I even got
blisters doing that."
His piano teacher would have been proud of that,
and perhaps even prouder that Thad Hardee is still
playing after all these years.
Pictured are Flora Canaday (center)
with student Carol Ann Wickham and fellow teacher Joan
Neighbors in one of the small piano "studios" at
Smithfield School. According to Julia McCullers in her
history of the school, Principal A.G. Glenn allowed private
lessons during school hours to accommodate parents,
rural parents especially, who were hard-pressed to
"chauffeur" their children to take lessons offered
elsewhere. (Photo from the 1962 Smithfield High School
yearbook)
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