From NYC to BR
Pianist finds niche in local music community
In 2009, Millie Fine moved from New York, home for most of her 85 years, to Baton Rouge, where the only person she knew was her son, Jon Fine.
The Brooklyn, N.Y., native brought a lifelong interest in music and a love of life when she made the 1,400-mile move to Louisiana. And unlike many octogenarians, Millie Fine was not moving close to family to die. She was moving to live.
“I wanted to move while I still can do what I want to do and go where I want to go,” she said.
Two years later, Fine, now 87, is a Southerner by choice, comfortably settled at St. James Place, a local retirement community.
“I still feel I’m on vacation,” Millie Fine said. “I have found that people are very friendly, and I have had no trouble adjusting.”
An accomplished classical pianist, she studied for years with a teacher taught by “the greats from Europe,” she said. She majored in music at New York University, did graduate work in NYU’s Department of Music and took courses at Teachers College Columbia University.
One of her first jobs was teaching piano and music theory at New York’s Third Street Music School Settlement.
After her wedding, she and her physician husband moved to Altoona, Pa., where she started a children’s theater and worked as a kindergarten teacher.
They later moved to Indianapolis, and she became active in several community organizations including the League of Women Voters.
When Fine was in her 30s, her husband died.
“I came back to New York, and that really embarked me on a career where I taught in the New York City school system for 30 years,” she said. “I needed to support two children.” Fine taught music and first-grade for much of her career.
In her spare time, she became an advocate and fundraiser for the mentally ill through the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (now the National Alliance on Mental Illness, or NAMI).
“I took people to the theater, anywhere from 20 to 60 people,” she said. “I had musicales in my home and in other people’s homes for the benefit of NAMI.”
In the evenings and on weekends, Fine took advantage of the cultural activities New York has to offer — the museums, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic and chamber music performances. “I was busy,” she said. “I had subscriptions all over the place.”
Since her move to Baton Rouge, Fine has become involved in the music community. She is active with the Baton Rouge Opera Guild, the Baton Rouge Music Club and BRAVO (Baton Rouge Area Volunteers for Opera). She attends the Baton Rouge Symphony and has high praise for conductor Timothy Muffitt.
She enjoys playing bridge and is involved with Hadassah, the Jewish women’s organization. She has tickets to the Baton Rouge Little Theater and serves on the St. James Place Advisory Committee.
“Millie was determined when she moved here that she was going to get to know people and enjoy her life,” said longtime St. James Place resident Virginia Hopper.”She is well-liked here.”
Recently Fine embarked on a new project, tutoring a student at Highland Elementary School. She missed working with children but worried that her New York accent would keep her from being effective.
“I find it hard to understand what a lot of the people here are saying,” she said. “I thought the children wouldn’t understand me.” Fortunately for Fine, the student assigned to her is from Connecticut.
Another plus, Fine said, is South Louisiana’s food, especially the seafood. “In New York, you get a very meager portion of shrimp because they are so expensive,” she said. “But here I can eat all the shrimp I desire.”
But there are other foods that she misses such as New York bagels and pastrami sandwiches. On a recent visit back to New York, she filled her suitcase with bagels for the return trip.
Fine enjoys learning new things in her new life. “In the South, there are different definitions for words that are not used the same way in New York,” she said.
Fine continues to enjoy playing the Steinway grand piano her father bought for her during the Great Depression.
She practices but not enough, she said. She has filled in for the regular pianist who accompanies the St. James Place Snazzy Singers. She would love to find an instrumentalist or an ensemble to practice with regularly.
Most of all, Fine said she loves the relaxed atmosphere of the South.
She recently bought a new car at a local dealership. She couldn’t get over how casual the process was.
“I bought many a car, but never like this,” she said. “They let me take it out without giving any money, without any paperwork.”