88 Keys

Notes in the Life and Career of Gerrie Collins

Welcome

A Message from Gerrie's Niece

Back in late 2019, I began plans for what I hoped would be a very special surprise party to commemorate Gerrie’s 88th birthday the following October. Some of you may even recall the Christmas card announcing the event, which urged recipients to check this website in the coming year for details.

A month or so later, a little thing called “COVID” happened. And . . . well . . . that was that.

So gerriecollins.com is launching three years “late,” but it retains its original “88 Keys” title as well as the core of its original purpose: to celebrate Gerrie’s life and career and to serve as an information hub for a grand party in her honor. Except that the party will now be a memorial service, and she won’t be attending (at least not in person.:-))

So please check back in the coming weeks for updated information relating to the service and to the Gerrie Collins Endowed Piano Scholarship being established at MSU.

All the Best,

Elizabeth

Latest News

Endowment Goal Reached

Elizabeth Lowrey March 4, 2024 No Comments

Today, on the first anniversary of Gerrie’s passing, the piano scholarship that will bear her name reached the $25,000 threshold to become a perpetual award. I mailed a check for the final $412.50 to the MSU Foundation last week and post-dated it to March 4th, 2024, so that the fund’s passage to fully-endowed status would coincide with this most meaningful, symbolic day.

Memorial display at my home in Milton, Florida

Gerrie’s greatest legacies, of course, are the love, admiration, and gratitude she inspired in those who were privileged to know her. If, as the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay once wrote, “the best is lost,” I count it a worthy consolation that some “fragment” of her will remain at the institution where she unreservedly poured herself into her students for 27 years.

I offer my humble, heartfelt thanks to all who so generously supported this cause. And I look forward to the day, hopefully next spring, when the first recipient of the Gerrie Collins Endowed Piano Scholarship is announced.

With Gratitude,

Elizabeth Lowrey

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Want to Honor Dr. Collins?

To support the Gerrie Collins Endowed Piano Scholarship, visit the Mississippi State University Foundation giving page, and use the search box to quickly locate the fund. Alternatively, you can simply print and fill out the pdf form, specifying the fund name on the appropriate lines, and mail it to the Foundation with a check, which will avoid imposition of credit card fees on the fund.

Though we reached the minimum threshold for endowed status on March 4, 2024 (the first anniversary of Gerrie’s death), we welcome additional contributions in order to maximize the size and/or number of scholarships the fund can ultimately support. With education costs continually rising, the amount of assistance many students require–now and into the future–can’t be overestimated.

Thank you so much for your help!

Elizabeth