Those who attend the 36th annual Scott Joplin International Ragtime Festival may be filled with notes of sadness in their hearts this year as they remember Randy Crowell, whose work was heard at virtually every previous Joplin Festival.
Although Crowell never performed at any of the events, he was one of those who made it possible for others to do so. Crowell spent his adult life as a piano tuner, making sure the notes others played were in perfect tune.
After being diagnosed with Stage 4 terminal esophageal and bone cancer in early January 2016, he died peacefully Sept. 7, 2016, surrounded by the family and friends he so dearly loved.
“During his final days he was able to say a lot of his goodbyes but in his last days, he badly wanted his heartfelt gratitude to go to every single customer he ever had in his 40-year career,” his sister Angie Stuart said. “He loved every minute and wanted each person to know how honored he was and how thankful he was that they allowed him to do what he loved for so many years and for sharing their stories with him and for listening to him.”
Stuart said her brother would often comment that he felt he never worked a day in his life because he was always able to do what he loved to do.
Crowell started his career at 17 when his uncle, Carl Wilken, hired him for the summer to work at Wilken Music.
“Everyone found it funny that he couldn’t play an instrument or sing but no one could tune or run sound like he could,” Stuart said. “Randy was one of a very, very few in Missouri who knew how to fully restore pianos and who provided professional piano moving services.
“He had customers from Columbia to the northern and southern state lines,” she added. “If you said to someone, ‘You know Randy, the guy who tunes pianos?’ most people would respond, ‘Oh yeah, that guy. I know him.’”
According to Stuart, Crowell was welcomed by both individuals and families as well as churches, schools and events such as the Missouri State Fair to move or tune pianos for his clients.
“Randy never met a stranger,” Stuart lovingly said. “No matter where he was or what he was doing, pumping gas, at the store, tuning pianos, riding his Harley or walking his dog, he loved talking to people and people loved talking to him.
“Hearing their stories or telling them was one of his favorite ways to spend his days,” she recalled. “He had story skills and would light up, changing his voice according to who he was portraying or what he was saying and his facial expressions and gestures made hearing the story an experience.”
His stories, voice and laugh are the first things people say they miss upon hearing of his death.
“His heart and love for everyone is neck and neck with his stories,” Stuart said. “If he could help he did in any way that he could.
“Not many people know that he would buy or pick up old beat-up junk pianos and restore them so that when he heard of someone wanting to learn to play but couldn’t afford a piano, he would show up with one and give it to them at no charge. If one was lost in a fire or flood or something like that it was the same deal … he would hear of it and just show up to deliver one he had restored. “
Last year was the first Scott Joplin Festival that Crowell did not attend. His health simply wouldn’t allow him to do it, Stuart commented.
“He always looked forward to the Scott Joplin Festival simply because he admired the skill and the talent of the people who performed,” Stuart said. “He always said, ‘anyone who could knock a piano out of tune in one day after he had tuned it was a master and those people were talented.’
“Randy always said that he was blessed, but I feel that we were the ones who were blessed,” Stuart added quietly. “He is missed beyond description and the world is just a little darker without his light shining in it and without his laugh lifting our hearts and his stories making us laugh.”
