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Hope and Faith: Kathy Heine Overfield's music is an inspiration to all -- 01.05.2009

Piano teacher, recording artist and performer Kathy Heine Overfield’s professional and personal accomplishments range from the glowing praise of her arrangements by internationally known musician Mark Hayes to ovations at venues that range from the Governor’s Mansion and Little Theatre to Roger’s Steak and Seafood in Zachary.

Boasting 34 years of piano teaching experience, Kathy has honed the talents of students from Bakerfield Elementary and Agapeland Daycare in Baker to Brownsfield Baptist Academy in Baton Rouge and elsewhere. She currently is the music teacher for pre-school through seventh graders at Galilee Baptist Academy where she also offers private piano lessons. (Acct. No. 8013155702)

When not teaching or performing, this enthusiastic New Orleans Saints fan also produces CDs in her home studio of spiritual, jazz and seasonal music and loves to perform at concerts, weddings, dinner clubs and special events.

All this came about because her mom, Georgia Pilcher Heine, who was a pianist at First Baptist Church in Baker while pregnant with Kathy, refused to let the eldest of her five children give up piano lessons, no matter how much she hated them.

“When I took my first piano lessons as an 8-year-old in a little room behind the auditorium at Bakerfield Elementary it seemed like fun, but pretty soon I tried to quit. My mom had no intention of letting me quit. I’d cry the entire way to piano lessons, but mom would shoo me out of the car saying, ‘dry it up, you are not quitting.’ I’d hide my piano books, but she’d just buy more, determined that I would excel,” Kathy recalls with a chuckle.

Reports from piano instructors that Kathy possessed a “special talent” encouraged her mother to press on, in spite of her daughter’s defiant stance and problems with multiple teachers moving. “Like any child, I couldn’t see that the Lord was using my mom to keep me at something that would eventually become a passionate part of my life,” Kathy recalls, adding she has since studied in workshops with such notables as Mark Hayes, Stephen Nielson, Ovid Young and Willis Deloney.

That in turn has resulted in performances at the Louisiana State Museum, Baker and Baton Rouge Little Theatres, Aubin Lane Dinner Playhouse, Camelot Dinner Club, Hemingbough in St. Francisville and many other venues.

She’ll play for the Plains Presbyterian Church choir during the televised Nov. 21 LPB Barnes and Nobel Christmas Extravaganza in Baton Rouge, and admits “I really enjoy live performances at concerts, restaurants or dinner clubs.” Kathy also serves as the pianist/organist at Plains Presbyterian in Zachary, serving with her mentor, friend and high school choir director Tom Jones. In addition, she is the accompanist for the Zachary High School choral department under the direction of Jason Bowers, playing for all of their concerts, including last year’s performance of “Bye Bye Birdie.”

“There’s a growing appreciation of the long-term advantages of music training in public education,” Kathy proclaims. “It’s long been known there’s an association between music and math as well as the positive influence music has on younger students. Students who may not excel in sports or academics may become accomplished musicians. Students that have excelled in sports have also done very well at the piano. And unlike sports, the capacity to follow a musical passion isn’t reduced by age or diminished physical ability.” In fact, she’s got several students who show up for practice in football or other sports uniforms.

“Eventually, you have to give up most contact sports, but music is forever. Unfortunately, it always seems that the first thing that’s cut during any budget crunch in public education are the arts and music. And this happens even in the face of evidence that music has positive educational benefit, promoting focus and discipline in all age groups,” she adds. The eldest of five children of civic leader and former Baker Mayor Pete Heine and his wife, “Miss Georgia,” Kathy admits her mother and father’s strong faith and events such as the death of her mother on Dec. 12, 2005 and her brother, Steve, on Aug. 5, 2002, have influenced her music.

Last year, Kathy nominated her Dad for a special civic award. While he may be better known for 23 years as the mayor of Baker, when 79-year-old Pete Heine was recently named the “Peoples Health Champion” it was in recognition of exceptional achievement by those over 65 for his coordination of the construction of a church for the Leland community. Besides his career as the Mayor of Baker, Pete Heine also held the position of Parish Manager for West Feliciana Parish. Pete’s dad, the Rev. Charles Heine, helped organize Victoria Baptist Church and Southside Baptist Church, also serving as pastor of several local churches.

“Miss Georgia” was always active in various service organizations. An accomplished pianist herself, she played piano at Baker First Baptist Church and passed on both her passion for music and her cooking talent to her daughter. Kathy keeps the tradition of Miss Georgia’s little pecan pies alive by baking them for special occasions. When Kathy sells her CDs at local arts and crafts shows, she also offers the pies that she says sell as well as the CDs. Steve Heine was one of four brothers that also include Chuck, Lee and Scooter.

After Steve passed away in 2002, she remembered him in music by dedicating her CD “Kathy’s Sacred Keyboards” to him and including the jazz arrangements Steve always enjoyed. The CD’s cover features a photo Kathy took on Steve’s birthday shortly after his death when he seemed to be sending his family a sign that everything would be okay. And just to prove that a passion for music never goes away, her brother Chuck, who is part of the Marketing Department at DEMCO, is still trying to fulfill his dream of learning to play “Stairway to Heaven,” 34 years after his sister failed in her attempt to teach him to play the song for a ninth grade talent contest. One of her favorite photos shows her and Chuck at the piano doing his best Jerry Lee Lewis interpretation.

Kathy operates a home studio where she offers private piano lessons when not teaching music at Galilee Baptist Academy.She and her husband, Glenn Over- field of Arizona, live in the Beaver Creek Golf community near Zachary where Glenn follows his own passion for golf. The couple have two beautiful daughters, Hallie and Tommie. Hallie graduated from Zachary High in May 2008 and plans to attend Baton Rouge Community College next spring. Tommie is a sophomore at Zachary High.

“I have to confess I wasn’t as tough on my girls as my mom was on me,” Kathy laughs. She let them both quit piano but they both have a love of music and a strong foundation in piano, which Hallie is now applying to singing. If you’re interested in Kathy’s repertoire of music, check out her web site www.kathyskeyboards.com or call her at 225/241-1722.

You can also check out her selection of seasonal, spiritual and popular CDs, listen to excerpts from her CDs, review a schedule of performances, student or school events, recitals and even view a gallery of photos and some personal reflections on her family on the website.

You can also listen to excerpts from Kathy’s mom’s memorial service including Miss Georgia playing the piano as well as the messages from the family’s former pastors, Rev. Allen Johnson and Rev. B.K. Miller. Kathy’s three piano solo CDs are available for purchase on her website, at Crossroads Junktion, Feliciana Communications, Galilee Baptist Academy, Plains Presbyterian Church, Roger’s Steak and Seafood and Rose’s Florist.

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