EVERETT — Amanda Stanfield was a reluctant church pianist.
She was 14 when her brother and cousin moved on, leaving empty the velvet-cushioned piano bench in the downtown Everett church.
She played nervously that first Sunday in 1990 in what is known today as the Gospel Light Church. She quickly resolved that she would never do it again.
“I can’t do it,” she told the pastor. “I won’t do it.”
“Just pray about it,” the Rev. Newton Waldrop recalls telling the frightened teen.
Twenty-five years later, Stanfield’s fingers move up and down the keys on the same Everett baby grand. She sits on the same piano bench, recently reupholstered, that was in the church when it opened more than seven decades ago. She knowingly coaxes the pedals by pushing them both in and down so they won’t squeak.
There is a familiarity and comfort to it she couldn’t have imagined after that first Sunday.
“I was terrified. I was scared to death,” Stanfield said, laughing at the memory. “I don’t think anyone really heard me for the first one-and-a-half years.”
She showed up the next Sunday and has been there ever since.
With a limited repertoire, Stanfield churned out the same “Power In The Blood” hymn during offerings those first six months. “Page 10 in the white hymnal,” she recites by memory.
Waldrop’s wife, Kay, became her reassuring ally. She played the organ and often would give Stanfield hand signals on what keys to begin with.
“Play what you can play and if you don’t know it, just tootle along,” she’d tell her.
So Stanfield tootled when need be, all the while honing her skills.
The church on the 2800 block of Rockefeller Avenue has been a second home for the pastor and the pianist. Their families’ roots run deep.
Newton Waldrop is the second of three generations of pastors in his family to lead the congregation. His parents, Gladys and Newton Waldrop, brought their Calvary Mission from Darrington to Everett in 1942 before building the church six years later.
Newton can remember the first service in October of 1942. He was 6 and his parents called him Scooter. It was just him and his mom — she, the preacher singing, playing the accordion and giving her testimonial — standing on the corner of Hewitt and Rockefeller.
“Scooter, do you think anyone will come out?” she asked.
They did, particularly young World War II-era servicemen renting rooms at the YMCA across the street. Today the church has a congregation of around 50 people.
Newton took over for his mom in 1958 and led the church for 55 years. He drove a school bus in Everett and Marysville for 27 of those years to support his family. Today, he is the senior pastor. His son, Daniel Waldrop, is the lead pastor.
On Sundays, Stanfield joins four generations of her family at the church. They load up the Dodge Durango to make the drive from Marysville to Everett for services.
Her grandparents were the third couple to be married in the church. Her grandmother, Eva Scott, at age 90, still attends. Her mother, Arvilla Stanfield, grew up with the church, which welcomed her warmly when she moved back from Wenatchee after her husband died in 1982.
Stanfield has adopted two children who needed a loving home. Her sister, Anita Grimm, who also had been active in church activities, had taken in their second cousins before she died in 2012. She urged Stanfield to take them that January and died in April.
Stanfield, once the reluctant church pianist, now leads Wednesday worship services and plays songs during the midweek gathering as well as on Sundays.
“She has a great smile,” the Rev. Daniel Waldrop said. “She is loyal, consistent and dependable, which obviously in that position is something you need, and she is very, very family-oriented.”
As impressive as 25 years might seem, Stanfield has a long way to go to equal the 44 years Grace Austvan spent as the church’s first pianist. During that time, Austvan wore out three pianos.
“We told Amanda that she only has 20 years to go to break Grace’s record,” the younger Waldrop said.
And that just might happen.
“I don’t have any intention of going anywhere,” Stanfield said.
Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.
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