Church organist, music teacher left behind legacy of song

Frances Kintigh could play everything from a Bach cantata to a Scott Joplin rag on her baby grand piano, but the hymns she provided accompaniment for were her favorite form of musical expression.

“She loved the songs of the church,” said her daughter, Patricia Kintigh. “Wonderful Words of Life” was among her mother’s favorite sacred songs as she played piano, and then organ, for about 45 years, at services for fellow members of Mt. Carmel Community Church in Upper Tyrone Township, Fayette County.

“Her faith was very important to her,” said her daughter. “She read her Bible every day,” overall reading it from front to back about a dozen times.

Frances E. (Suter) Kintigh, 86, of Alverton, died Dec. 29, 2019, in Excela Latrobe Hospital. Born July 23, 1933, in Ruffs Dale, she was a daughter of the late Quinten Luther and Margaret Naomi (Sherbondy) Suter.

Music was Mrs. Kintigh’s first love, and it was the legacy she left to her family and her community as an instrumentalist and instructor.

“My mother could play by ear and she could also read music,” said Patricia. “She could teach any instrument that anybody wanted.”

Mrs. Kintigh picked up keyboard skills from her mother and assisted as an organist at Ruffs Dale’s Lutheran church while still attending public school. She played trombone with the marching band at East Huntingdon High School, where she was a member of the Class of 1951, and later acquired other instruments, including a flute and a violin.

Mrs. Kintigh was never without a piano in her home, graduating from an upright model to a spinet and then to a baby grand. Up until about a year ago, “She played for hours every day,” her daughter said. “She would embellish on things,” supplementing the melody of a song to achieve a full sound on the instrument.

Pursuing a long-held goal, Mrs. Kintigh enrolled in college later in life, studying at Westmoreland County Community College and then Seton Hill College , where she graduated in 1986, majoring in history with a minor in music.

She taught music at Mt. Carmel Christian School and offered private lessons in her home for more than 30 years. “She liked working with young people,” her daughter said, adding, “She was very patient.”

Patricia Kintigh and her son, Josh Cole, 27, both have carried on Mrs. Kintigh’s musical legacy, as have numbers of students who took lessons from her.

Patricia Kintigh serves as pianist for her own congregation, at Calvary Baptist Church in New Stanton, while her son — adept at guitar, bass and keyboards — plays with an alternative rock band.

“There are kids who learned with my grandmother who are still making music and still doing good at it,” Cole said.

Mrs. Kintigh also was skilled at making fabric creations. She crocheted sweaters and stitched together dresses for family members while embroidering items for visiting church missionaries, who often stayed at the Kintigh home.

A fan of late NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, she also enjoyed tending petunias, crocuses and portulacas in her garden. “My mother never met a flower she didn’t like,” said Patricia Kintigh.

In addition to her parents, Mrs. Kintigh was preceded in death by her husband, George Elmer Kintigh, on Aug. 22, 2003, four siblings, and a granddaughter, Crystal Lynn Kintigh. She is survived by four children: Kit Kintigh and his wife, Joanne, of Scottdale; Patricia Jo Kintigh and her husband, William Cole, of Greensburg; Timothy George Kintigh and Stephen Eugene Kintigh and his wife, Carol, all of Alverton; several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Family and friends will be received from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday in the chapel of the Robert B. Ferguson Funeral Home, 105 Spring St., Scottdale. Additional viewing will be from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Thursday in Calvary Baptist Church, New Stanton, where funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday.

A graveside committal service and interment will be at Sewickley Presbyterian Cemetery.