Both Helen and Duncan grew up in Ohio, and they met on orientation day at Ohio University in Athens in the late 1940s. Helen had earned a degree in music performance at Sherwood School of Music, part of Roosevelt University of Chicago, and had come to Ohio University to get a teaching degree. Duncan had just finished eight years of service in the United States Air Force and was there to study photography and, later, psychology.

They met while in a group being given a tour of the campus; they got acquainted; and that, as Duncan recalls, was pretty much that. On June 10 of this year, they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

Helen had been interested in music "from the time I can remember," and her first instrument was the piano. When she was about 9 years old, she and her father heard a violin solo on the radio. "My Dad said, ‘Listen to this music,’ and it struck me. From then on, I wanted to play the violin." She began taking lessons and won a scholarship to Sherwood School.

[Duncan Hannah uses calipers to measure the thickness of the violin top he is carving out of spruce wood.]

Duncan didn’t discover his talent for woodworking, and in particular for making stringed instruments, until after he married Helen.

"I had a friend whose mother had an old violin which she thought was valuable. She gave it to us, but it wasn’t even suitable for hanging on the wall. I took it apart to see how it was made and then put it back together again. It still didn’t sound good, so I tried making one myself," Duncan recalls.

He quickly branched out into other areas of woodworking, at first because it was the best and cheapest way to get the furniture they needed.

"We needed a table, so he made a table," Helen remembers. "Then he made us a cedar chest and a tea cart."

"Rather than paying for the furniture, I bought the tools," Duncan says. "Then I could use those tools to make more furniture."

The Hannahs lived in Athens, Ohio, where their six children were born, then in Pittsburgh, and came to Lincoln in 1965. Duncan, who has a master’s degree in psychology, was a counselor at Lincoln College for several years, then went to the Lincoln Developmental Center as a psychologist and counselor.

Helen met other musicians in the Lincoln area and played in a string trio. This soon developed into the String-Alongs, a group of up to 12 stringed instruments who played show tunes, popular and semi-classical music locally at weddings, dinner parties and other functions. The String-Alongs played together for nearly 30 years.

To participate in the classical music which she loves, Helen played with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra in Springfield for 15 years and with the Peoria Symphony for five. She also plays solos for churches in the Lincoln area and for special occasions.

In 1985 she helped organized the Lincoln Area Music Society (LAMS) and plays in the LAMS Symphony Orchestra. This group of 30 to 40 musicians gives two concerts a year, one at Christmas and one in the spring.

She taught stringed instruments in District 27 and Lincoln Community High School for 20 years, and she still has private students. She teaches piano, violin, viola, cello and string bass, although most of her students study either the piano or the violin.

[Helen Hannah shows violin student Amanda Harmsen the correct way to hold her wrist. Amanda, 15, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Ron Harmsen of Emden, has studied with Mrs. Hannah since she was five years old.]

"It’s exciting when you get a student with real talent. Some of mine have gone on to play with city orchestras, and several have been successful as professional musicians," she says.

While Helen is practicing or teaching, Duncan is likely to be in his woodworking shop. Many pieces of furniture in their home today were made there: two corner cabinets, a drop-leaf table, an entertainment center, a music stand, clock cases and bedposts. Wooden plates and goblets sit on high shelves over the doors, and turned wooden bowls and vases grace tables and stands.

He has always kept his woodworking hobby just that – a hobby. He does not sell his work but gives much of it away to his children or to friends.

(Editorial note: This article will be continued in a future posting, with more about Duncan's woodworking, which includes making violins.)