Blanche Marie Gangwere

BLANCHE MARIE GANGWERE, 101, died Friday, March 22, 2019, at the William Newton Hospital in Winfield, Kansas. Services will take place at 1:00 p.m., Friday, March 29, at the McGilley State Line Chapel, 12301 State Line Road, Kansas City, MO, with burial in Forest Hills Cemetery. Friends may call at the Chapel from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., Thursday, March 28. In lieu of flowers, and in support of the Cassavant pipe organ, the family suggests contributions to the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts (Note: EPOCH Organ Endowment), Kauffman Performing Arts Center, 1601 Broadway Blvd., Kansas City, MO 64108.

Blanche was a concert pianist, organist, school teacher, composer, and author. She was born January 21, 1918, in Kansas City, MO; the youngest child of Charles H. and Grace Baum Gregory. She attended Northeast High School in Kansas City, and Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. She completed double bachelor degrees in Music Performance and Education (1939) and a Masters in Music Education (1944). After raising three children, Blanche pursued her doctorate degree at UMKC’s Conservatory of Music and studied with Dr. John Obetz, but had to quit her studies because of ill health. She was a member of Alpha Gamma Delta social sorority and Sigma Alpha Iota music sorority, was elected to Pi Kappa Lambda national music honor society, and was a life-long member of the American Guild of Organists.

As a child, Blanche was blessed with supportive parents and talented teachers allowing her to pursue her love of music from an early age. One of her early mentors, Hans Christian Feil, who had studied organ with Felix-Alexandre Guilmant in Paris, taught her to play the piano and pipe organ. Later, she studied concert piano with Dr. Kurt Waniek, Professor at the American Conservatory of Music in Chicago, IL.

Among her many public piano recitals, Blanche performed Bach-Liszt’s “Prelude in A Minor,” Brahms’ “Capriccio,” Liszt’s “Etude de Concert;” and Schumann’s “Papillons,” and DeFalla’s “Andaluza” at two recitals at the Music Hall at Northwestern; and Karl von Weber’s “Konzertstuck” at Northwestern’s Music School’s annual commencement concert in 1939.

But, for Blanche, the highlight of her career was when she performed “Konzertstuck” with members of the Kansas City Philharmonic Orchestra, as part of that orchestra’s 1939 “Concert in the Park” series. She also performed numerous public recitals on the pipe organ at Independence Boulevard Christian Church in Kansas City. Those recitals included such pieces as Johann Sebastian Bach’s “b Minor Prelude and Fugue (BWV 544), Olivier Messiaen’s “L’Ascensien”, and Charles Marie Widor’s “Fifth Symphony” Nos. I, IV, and V.

Blanche’s professional career included teaching music at the junior high school level, serving as the children's choir director at Broadway United Methodist Church in Kansas City, and serving as the organist for Independence Boulevard Christian Church in Kansas City from 1964 to 1978.

Blanche married Kansas City native Lt. Leslie C. Barnes, U.S. Army Air Corps, in April 1942. However, Lt. Barnes was killed in Africa less than four months later. Determined to contribute to the war effort, Blanche joined the American Red Cross' Overseas Department and served as part of a Red Cross clubmobile crew from July 1944 to September 1945. Part of the time she was attached to the 303rd Bomber Group (the original “Hell’s Angels”) at Molesworth, Harrington and Grafton fields near Kettering, England, and later in the war she served in France and Germany.

While in Germany, Blanche met Ohio native Capt. George H. Gangwere, Jr., who was serving with the 3rd U.S. Army, and they were married in June 1946. Later, he was the senior partner with the law firm of Swanson, Midgley, and served as General Counsel for the National Collegiate Athletic Association. They were married for nearly fifty-seven years before his death in 2003.

Blanche was the author of three internationally recognized reference books on music history covering the Late Roman, Gothic, and Renaissance Periods. In addition, she and other local organists formed the EPOCH committee to support the inclusion of a pipe organ in the Kauffman Center and assist in its selection. She was also the composer of numerous musical compositions for the pipe organ, some of which have been publicly performed.

Survivors include two sons, Dr. George H. Gangwere, III, of Winfield, KS, and Robert L. Gangwere of Kansas City, MO; two grand-daughters, Stephanie N. Woodard (husband Lynn) of Wentzville, MO, and Rachel L. Gangwere (Aaron Richmond) of Liberty, MO; two daughters-in-law, Patricia Dudley-Gangwere of Winfield, KS, and Kay E. Kramer-Gangwere of Kansas City, MO; and three great-grandsons, Hunter, Mason and Evan Woodard of Wentzville. Blanche's husbands; her parents; her daughter, Margaret M. Gangwere Hipp; her brother, Lloyd L. Gregory; and her sister, Vera Gregory Torrey, preceded her in death.