Practice makes perfect – or so they say. If that’s true, Arline Smiley’s piano playing must be close to perfection by now. The 80-year-old musician has been tickling the ivories for more than seven decades.

“I started taking lessons when I was 10 years old from Grace Bramhall Howes,” said Smiley. “She made sure that your fingernails were short. And she had scissors right next to the piano to cut them if they weren’t.”

Smiley was charged $1 per half-hour lesson in those days, but says it always ended up being closer to an hour. It was an investment that paid off.

Hundreds of parishioners at the Essex Street Baptist Church in Bangor have enjoyed her skill at both the piano and organ for the last 58 years.

“I’m the oldest member of the church,” Smiley said with a hint of amazement in her voice. “I became a member when I was 10 and have been singing in the choir since I was 13 years old.”

Much more than simply a dedicated performer, Smiley was also music director at the church for many years. She played for Sunday school, morning service, evening service and prayer meetings as well as juggling four separate choirs. She has seen nine ministers come and go, but “I’m still there,” she said.

Even though she’s retired now – both from the dress shop in downtown Bangor that she operated with her late husband, Oaksman, and as church music director – Smiley intends “to play as long as I can. I love doing it for John [Nickerson, current music director] and for the church.”

When Nickerson invites her to join him in a piano and organ duet, she can’t resist.

“I just hate to say no when I’m sitting in church and my feet and legs can work those pedals,” Smiley said.

“I love the people and they like the organ, so I go up and play.”

And it’s a good way to keep her arthritic hands going, she added with a laugh.

It’s hard to imagine her hands not going. She even recalls playing a small battery operated keyboard while sailing with her husband.

Music has always been a part of Smiley’s life. Her mother played piano in church, while she and her sister sang duets.

Her brother, she said, “could sing ‘Old Man River’ like no one else,” and it seems her children have inherited the music gene.

“My son gave me that electric keyboard,” said Smiley, pointing to the instrument. “My daughter, who occasionally plays piano for a small church in Dover-Foxcroft, plays it when she visits while I play the piano.”

When not performing at the Essex Street Baptist Church, Smiley shares her talent with others outside the church’s walls.

“I have had the opportunity to play at different churches,” she said. “I just love accompanying. The choirs are supposed to follow the accompanist but the accompanist follows the soloists. If the singer makes a mistake you go along with it.”

She also plays at Westgate Manor in Bangor every month, and last fall she worked as accompanist for the New Renaissance Singers.

Even when she isn’t playing, Smiley is surrounded by reminders of her passion.

The mantelpiece in her home is peppered with small pianos of different types, and a baby grand – a gift from Mr. Smiley soon after their wedding – is nestled in a corner of her tidy living room.

The piano will surely get used this month. “I just love Christmas music and families getting together,” she said. “It is the season of giving.”

Carol Higgins is director of communications at Eastern Agency on Aging. For information on EAA programs or services, call the resource and referral department at 941-2865 or log on www.eaaa.org.