Old Missoula

The Article below is an excerpt from – A History of the School of Music – Montana State University 1895 – 1952, by John R. Cowan Jr.

Blanche Whitaker (1856-1941)

Mrs. Whitaker is remembered as a small, energetic, and very musical woman with a brilliant mind and a forceful personality. She and her husband and family came to Missoula in the 1890’s and took up a homestead on Miller Creek, near Missoula. Mr. Whitaker, an artist and designer of fine furniture, died soon thereafter, and Mrs. Whitaker and her twelve children moved to a home on Pine Street in 1894. Many other prominent pioneers of Missoula also lived on this street. The Whitakers had previously made their home in England, and were probably influenced to come to Montana by publicity aimed at settling the West. Such publicity was circulated by the railroads at that time. Soon after arriving in Missoula, Mrs. Whitaker began making house to house calls with her horse and buggy to give piano lessons.

Mrs. Whitaker was a well-trained musician. She was reared in England by her grandfather, educated in private schools there, and held the degree of Associate in Arts from Oxford University. She studied music with Dr. Cedric Bucknall and Edward Roeckel, and had many years of successful teaching experience In England and in the United States. Her forebears, to mention a few, were statesmen, ministers, church musicians, and composers. Mrs. Whitaker is said to have been an exceptionally fine interpreter of Chopin. She gave all of her children musical training.[1]

From 1896 to 1910, Mrs. Whitaker was very prominent in the musical activities of the University and the Missoula community. She was instrumental in bringing such artists as Leopold Godowsky, pianist, Edward Baxter Perry, the blind pianist, and Max Benedix, violinist, to Missoula for concerts. It was mainly through her efforts that the University obtained its first reed organ for use in the auditorium of University Hall. Besides many other activities, she gave lectures on the History and Philosophy of Music, as well as formed a Music Club interested in music history and composers. She also wrote articles and papers, some of which were presented before the Cosmos Club, a literary club of men and women from Missoula and the University faculty. Mrs. Whitaker was a very fine and inspirational teacher. Among her pupils were Marjorie Maxwell, later of the Metropolitan Opera Company, and Mrs. Bernice Hamskill, Associate Professor of Music on the present School of Music faculty. One of the many picturesque details of Mrs. Whitaker’s public appearances was the regularity with which her dog, “Watch,” sat beside her on the stage when she played the piano for University convocations and programs.

Mrs. Whitaker will also be remembered for her fine sense of humor. She was extremely well-read, and able to speak intelligently on practically any subject. She retired from her University duties in 1910 because of illness in her family, and died in California, at the age of eighty-five.