Even at age 90, Madelyn "Mandy" Becker still enjoys tickling those ivories.

Becker has been the organist at Grace Evangelical Congregational Church in East Petersburg for the past 17 years.

She also schedules the church's special music, accompanying some performances — and singing herself once in a while.

"I like to keep the pipes going," she said.

Becker started to play the piano when she was 6 years old.

"My big brother took lessons. I played by ear," she said. "He'd bring something home to practice and I'd pick it up."

She, too, eventually took lessons, but soon she gave it up because instead of reading the music she'd play it by ear.

Becker picked up the lessons again when she was 12 and began reading the music. She took lessons for 1!-W years.

"My father was a minister, so we had to move a lot," Becker said. She took another year of lessons in Mount Carmel, "but that's all the professional teaching I had, so I played around with it."

Although she can play the piano, Becker said she enjoys playing the organ better. "With my arthritic fingers, the organ is easier to play," she said.

Becker doesn't play Bach or Beethoven; instead, she plays hymns and songs from the 1930s and '40s by ear. Her favorite hymns are "How Great Thou Art" and "Jesus My Lord Will Love Me Forever."

"I can't play the new kind of music (praise songs)," Becker said. "I'd rather do what I can rather well, than not do something I'm not capable of."

When she was a young girl, Becker helped out at her father's church playing the organ whenever she was needed. She said she played an organ that had to be pumped with her feet at prayer meetings but didn't play during Sunday services.

Because the churches were small, "they were pleased with whatever I could do," she said.

Becker has played the organ at the former Grace Evangelical Church in Millersville from 1926 to 1933; the former St. Paul's Evangelical Church in Mount Carmel; and Lawn Evangelical Church.

When her late husband, Alfred, served in the National Guard at Indiantown Gap, the couple started a Sunday school and church for those on the post in 1948. "I became organist for services, along with a sergeant," she said.

When they moved back to Lancaster in 1956, Becker began helping at the former Pearl Street Evangelical Church. She then assisted at Salem United Church of Christ in Rohrerstown from 1970 to 1992.

In 1992, the organist at Grace Evangelical Congregational Church needed to be away one Sunday.

They knew Becker, who sold soft pretzels at Park City, could play, so they asked her to substitute for that one Sunday, "a once and done thing, but sadly, he had lung cancer and the other one became infected, so I stayed on," she said. "I never thought I'd be there 17 years."

The Lititz resident also has played for weddings and funerals.

"I've played for quite a few good friends my age," she said.

She also has subbed in Washington Boro, Landisville and almost all of the churches in Mount Carmel, she said.

Playing the organ "gives me a feeling of accomplishment. It's about the only thing I can do. I can't sew or knit. If I can't paste, pin or staple it, I throw it away," Becker said.

Becker said she practices about one to two hours a week for church services, "then I play for pleasure."

Music is Becker's means of relaxation, but it's also a way to touch people.

"People enjoy my music," she said. "I play things people understand."

lvaningen@lnpnews.com