Uncrowned Community Builders

Lois Josephine Barnes was born on September 17, 1909, in Olean, New York. Her parents are Oliver and Olive Cady Barnes. Miss Barnes married Robert Easley on February 4, 1928.

Following in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother, Mrs. Easley became an accomplished pianist at a very early age. She not only used her musical talent as a source of employment, she also gave freely to the community, playing benefit concerts for groups such as the Red Cross, March of Dimes, Gold Star Mothers, American Legion, the Olean Service Club, area veterans' hospitals, and other charitable and civic organizations.

She would accompany high school students at annual music competitions and attended many auditions with her daughter, Lois, and son, William, in addition to those of her grandsons, Reginal and Timothy Spiller. Many Olean High School students would request Mrs. Easley to accompany them when they auditioned for music colleges.

In the late 1950s, she was den mother for Cub Scout Troop 87, Den 5.

Mrs. Easley, and her husband, who was a drummer, played with the Bob Easley Band at clubs and dances throughout Olean, Western New York, and Pennsylvania from 1929 to the mid-1960s. For a brief period in the 1940s, she had her own band.

She was a pianist at Bethel AME Church after her mother was unable to continue as the church organist. She was honored by Bethel AME Church in 1991, for her forty years of volunteer service.

In addition to her musical talent, Mrs. Easley was a poet who wrote over one hundred unpublished poems since 1959. The Friends of the Olean Library honored her for her poetry in 1996. In 1997, Mrs. Easley, along with her son, William, received the first Regina A. Quick Arts award from St. Bonaventure University.

Mrs. Easley died in Olean on November 19, 2000, at the age of 92.