Marjorie Nelson spent her life teaching her children to love music as much as she did.
"I'm sitting here looking at the organ she used to teach me, and it brings back a lot of memories," her son, Scott Nelson of Ballwin, Mo., said as he sat inside his parents' Murrysville home. "Pretty early on she ... encouraged music to be part of me and my brother's lives."
Marjorie Florwick Nelson of Murrysville died Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2009, at West Penn Hospital-Forbes Regional Campus. She was 66.
Mrs. Nelson, a graduate of Duff's Business Institute in Pittsburgh, worked for several area accounting firms.
She devoted much of her life to music and the church.
She sang with the Murrysville Festival Chorus, the Masterworks Concert Chorale and the parish choirs of St. Mary's Church in Export and Mother of Sorrows Church in Murrysville.
She studied classical organ and voice at Seton Hill College, where she obtained a certificate in sacred music.
"She loved music," said her husband, Peter Nelson. "She was always in choir. Her dad used to take her Downtown to the five-and-ten (store) and buy her sheet music."
In 2000, Mrs. Nelson accompanied the Mother of Sorrows choir to Italy to sing in the celebration of a Papal Mass for Pope John Paul II at the Vatican and at a public concert at the Church of St. Ignatius in Rome.
"It was an honor for all of us," said Mr. Nelson, who made the trip with his wife. "It was a memorable experience for both of us."
He said his wife had a strong interest in spiritual texts and accumulated a large collection of books. She also spent time reading about health issues, particularly alternative medicine, he said.
"She's a person that's been interested in anything but history, and of course I love history," Mr. Nelson said.
One thing the couple did together was volunteer with the Greater Pittsburgh Literacy Council.
"Each one of us had worked with a facilitator in Monroeville and had two or three students that we helped to speak better English," Mr. Nelson said. "I think that brought us a lot closer together."
In addition to her husband and son, Mrs. Nelson is survived by another son, Craig Nelson of Glen Allen, Va.; and a brother, Donald Florwick of Fayetteville.
A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated at 1 p.m. Saturday at Mother of Sorrows Church in Murrysville. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests sponsoring a Memorial Mass in her memory or making a donation to the Masterworks Concert Chorale, c/o Calvary Lutheran Church, 4725 Old William Penn Highway, Murrysville, PA 15668.
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