Hot Tea, Warm Sofa And Music Lessons South Hill Musician Teaches Another Generation Piano With Life Skills Thrown In For Good Measure

Margaret Presley’s front door may be the busiest in town.

“A few kids come in, another goes out,” she says with clear delight.

The South Hill woman has taught piano to the neighborhood children along 21st Street near Manito Park for 26 years. Her living room still hosts a constant flow of youngsters, arriving breathless and punctual for their after-school lessons.

Presley offers each and every guest hot tea and a warm sofa. And that’s a considerable number of visitors.

Over the years, hundreds of neighborhood kids have studied with Presley. She teaches between 25 and 40 students a year.

“I have watched them all grow up, and watched it very happily,” she said.

Presley is now on to a second generation of aspiring musicians.

Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, the Bowman sisters - Stephanie, 11, and Heather, 9 - take lessons from Presley.

The lookalike sisters started lessons this year, 26 years after mom Annette sat before Presley’s shiny piano as a shy 10-year-old redhead from up the street.

“I remember her just as she is now,” Bowman says. “Just a really gracious and wonderful person.”

Presley hasn’t forgotten her former pupil, either.

“Of course I remember her,” says Presley. “She was very mannerly. “I wish I had a rambunctious story about her,” she added with a laugh. “Her daughters would love that.”

Presley has endless stories, whether about students or her own life. She grew up in Butte, Mont., and went on to receive her bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in music. She taught music for several years in Montana’s public schools before moving to Las Vegas, where her husband Charles worked for the Atomic Energy Commission.

“As a musician, I loved Las Vegas,” she said.

Those years cemented a lifelong love of jazz. The Presleys’ next-door neighbor was a well-known bass player whose house guests included Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.

The Presleys never knew who they’d meet when they knocked on the door.

“I once saw Ella Fitzgerald walking in her bedroom slippers,” Presley said. “That’s the truth.”

The Presleys moved to Spokane 27 years ago. For the first year, Presley didn’t teach, as she took care of her quickly growing family, which now includes seven children and 10 grandchildren.

“Every time we moved, I was not even going to let on I was a musician,” she laughs.

But the neighbors always caught on, tipped-off, she suspects, by the fact she was the church organist.

Punctuating nearly every sentence with a “honey” or “darling,” Presley gently gives her students a good dose of etiquette along with their music lesson.

“It’s really all about teaching poise,” she said. “Music, too, but also poise.”

The younger Bowman girl swings her arms as she walks to the front of Presley’s living room.

“Walk nicely, honey,” Presley tells her. “Keep your chin up. That’s right.

“I really love this,” she said. “I think it’s a duty to pass on what information you have.

“Music is one of the great equalizers,” she added. “Everyone should have a bit of it.”

The neighbors along 21st would say the same of her.

“She’s just this woman you’d want your children exposed to,” said Annette Bowman. “There’s not many people left like that.”

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