I knew Miss Lilias best as a member of her choir.  I started in the early 1930s.  We had a hand pumped organ then and all the young boys of the church took their turn pumping it.  Some of those were Louis Titus, Harold Jackson, Vernon Clagett, Stanley, John, and Joe Kincaid, and many others.  Two of our present members, Bobby Lowenbach and Larry Hutchinson will remember, they often played games to entertain themselves which upset Miss Janney at times.  They would pump as fast as they could and fill the bellows to see how long it would play, as the volume would die down Miss Janney would play with one hand and wave frantically for the boys to pump.

In later years as the organ began to wear out, we would often hear a squeak from a leaking cipher that would last after the hymn was over until the air was gone.  It was not uncommon to see Miss Janney take the front off the organ during the service, take a hair pin from her hair and fix it.  At that time there was a high cupboard in the back of the balcony where the music was kept. One Sunday during the service, Miss Lilias got up and slowly walked back and climbed upon a chair, opened the cupboard and selected a piece of music to play for the postlude.  Mr. Robert Fulton, a young minister just out of the Seminary, was preaching.  The expression on his face as he followed her with his eyes was priceless.  Only the choir members and the minister knew what was going on in the balcony.

One other story – the Choir was few in number and often did not have choir practice for one reason or another.  One Sunday Miss Lilias wanted us to sing an anthem that we had not sung for some time and had not practiced.  Elizabeth Hutchinson, Mary Page’s mother, objected strenuously but Miss Lilias went on anyway.  We did the best we could with Elizabeth leading and singing her hear out.  At the close of the service, Elizabeth was a bit upset and was ready to say something to her when Miss Lilias said “Elizabeth you did beautifully, Galli Curci could not have done better.”

For fear that you might think Miss Janney was not a real musician, she was the best.  Music was her life, she practiced and played everyday.  She studied in Paris under a noted musician; she used to tell us about her.  If a new person moved to Leesburg (we knew everyone then) Miss Lilias soon found out if they were musical and could sing.  She would have a little soirée at her home and invited them to come - even if they were not Presbyterians, she would invite them to come and sing for us.

When Mr. Wherry first came to be our minister, he went to see Mrs. John Clemens, the oldest living member of our church.  He asked her if she knew Miss Janney.  She said “Yes, very well.  She was a real character” – and she was in the dearest way.  She was a great lady and we all loved her.