At 103, Mary Ellen Anderson lived long enough to see the Ville neighborhood of her childhood transformed, the rise and fall of segregationist laws that she marched against and the thousands of students she taught to read, perform or draw a bow across violin strings.
The educator, musician and advocate died Nov. 23 at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
“Simply saying that she was an educator isn’t adequate,” says Dale Anderson. “My mom did teach elementary school for a few years, but her love was teaching music and teaching theater.”
She performed in the violin section of the University City Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Burke III, with her son Dale until age 97 — stopping only when the COVID-19 pandemic forced a temporary shutdown of the orchestra.
She not only taught the arts, she immersed herself in community arts for decades — both as an artist and educator — performing in local dinner theater productions, teaching theatre to high school students and overseeing various stage productions.
Born Jan. 28, 1922, in St. Louis, Anderson witnessed construction of Homer G. Phillips Hospital, the only public hospital for African Americans in the city from 1937 until 1955.
A 1938 graduate of Charles Sumner High School and a 1942 graduate of Harris-Stowe State University, Anderson exhibited an early interest in literature and developed a lifelong love of the violin.
She passed that love of music on to her three sons — John M. Anderson III, a Wisconsin attorney who learned to play clarinet; Dale Anderson, a St. Louis psychiatrist who learned to play the violin; and the late Bruce Anderson, who became an accomplished pianist and earned his Ph.D. in music.
“My mother encouraged us to develop our abilities and our talents, to study hard and to excel,” recalls Dale Anderson.
Before marrying her husband, the late Dr. John M. Anderson, she became a teacher. While he attended Meharry Medical College, she taught violin in Nashville’s public school system to support the family and continued her work as an educator upon their return to St. Louis, where he worked for years as a psychiatrist and associate professor at Washington University School of Medicine.
Her career as an educator spanned two decades with the St. Louis Public Schools, where she taught elementary school and instrumental music.
She later decided to earn a master’s degree in speech and theatre arts from Saint Louis University and returned to complete her doctorate in education after she retired.
“There’s such a huge history of a core group of African Americans who were the firsts of things in St. Louis, and my parents were friends with Mary Ellen’s circle of friends,” said Rita Washington, who worked with Anderson at the local chapter of Young Audiences. “It was a huge circle. All of the children knew each other. We mingled socially, but also with our parents.”
Anderson served on the board of directors for Young Audiences, a national arts education organization now known as Springboard to Learning. Washington, who served as director of arts education during Anderson’s tenure, says Anderson became a sort of ambassador for the organization, serving on the board and conducting her dissertation on its history.
“I introduced her to the organization, and she was immediately captivated by our program in arts in education,” recalls Washington, who began working with Anderson at Young Audiences in the late 1980s. “Young Audiences was on a mission to show how the arts wasn’t frivolous, but pivotal to our lives.”
Whether working to provide scholarships through social groups, advocating for arts in education or fighting racism, Anderson immersed herself in improving her community.
A devoted member of Trinity Episcopal Church for 64 years, she joined the Episcopal Diocese Commission on Dismantling Racism after retirement. She served as a group leader for many years with Rev. Chester Hines as chairman, training people to recognize and overcome racial bias.
“She was an extremely important voice in that work because of her own personal experiences regarding race as well as her observations about how [racism] adversely impacted people in the community,” said Hines, who grew up knowing Anderson as a member of one of the families on his newspaper route.
As a champion of the performing arts, she devoted time to The St. Louis Black Repertory Theatre and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, establishing a fund in honor of her late son, Bruce Anderson.
She performed in the violin section of the University City Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Leon Burke III, with her son Dale until age 97 — stopping only when the COVID-19 pandemic forced a temporary shutdown of the orchestra.
“She encouraged me to join the orchestra, even though I had been away from playing regularly for a long time because of the demands of medical school, residency and private practice,” her son said.
Though Burke led Anderson and her son in the orchestra, he had known the family since childhood, growing up with the Anderson boys and attending John Burroughs School with Dale.
“Anything she could offer us was welcome. She was always a presence. She let it shine,” said Burke.