Carolyn Hamlin Retires as Organist at Easley First Baptist Church
Dr. Hamlin is Honored at Retirement Reception for 66 Years of Service
By Karen Brewer
Carolyn Hamlin felt blessed by all of the love shown to her at her church’s reception held in her honor. She will retire effective Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024 as organist of Easley First Baptist Church, a position she has held since 1958, and her church hosted a reception for her in the atrium on Sunday afternoon, March 24, to honor her 66 years of service and to honor her as a friend. Hamlin, renowned organist, arranger, and composer, will still be open to play for special occasions and will continue to compose.
“It was unbelievable,” Hamlin told this writer, referring to the crowd of people who came for her reception. “I will never get over it. I felt like I was at my own funeral. I didn’t deserve all that was said to me. It’s just really humbling. It was so sweet to have people, even from such a long time back. Many of my friends I’ve been so connected with are with Jesus now. They’re in heaven.”
Many at the reception told her how much she has meant to them and how much she meant to their parents. “It was so sweet,” she said. “I have done nothing but weep.” Recalling the special day, she said, “I have really gone back through it and have just wept.”
In that morning’s church service, Hamlin’s Pastor, Dr. John Adams, spoke of her and of how God has used her to share the Gospel through music.
“Walking with Jesus can transform your life,” Adams told the congregation. “He did just that for Carolyn Hamlin. Each of us knows our own Dr. Carolyn Hamlin. Each of us has a favorite anthem that she’s written. For mine, it’s “Grace”, and I join her son-in-law Keith Batson in saying, ‘Was I Faithful?’ That text haunts me. She’s gifted supernaturally, and she puts that gift to use through a rigorous work ethic. She text paints the Gospel through her fingertips, and, in her own words, she says, ‘When I was six, I would sit on the arm of a chair and play “Holy, Holy, Holy”, looking out of the window, pretending the trees were a church full of people.’ She continues, ‘Even then, I felt God calling me to be a church organist.’ Anybody got children here today, in elementary school? God’s calling. At 11, she played piano at Flat Rock Baptist Church and was elected pianist at age 13 and full-time organist at 15. She was discovered by our own Gilbert McCall, who attended a funeral there at that church and, on July 6, 1958, at age 20, she became our church secretary and our organist. And now, it is 66 years later, a long obedience, walking with Jesus in the same direction.
“Why has God blessed Carolyn? I humbly say because she lives out her calling. On Sunday afternoons, this noted, gifted organist can be found in the nursing homes, playing on their instruments with those residents who long to be in worship but are physically unable to be there. Carolyn eats quickly and heads to the nursing home.
“She loves her family. Today, for some reason, I can feel the presence of her beloved husband, Talmadge Hamlin, in this place even right now. I love to see how she relates, especially, to her grandchildren. And we’ve all had the opportunity to watch how she has loved on Joshua Batson. She reaches out to every family member, and here’s what I’ve noticed. She will go to them personally and make sure that she has shared Jesus Christ with them. She says, ‘So what if I tour and play across the country and one of my family members not know Christ?’
“Do you see where this anointing and this blessing comes from? But what compels her ministry is for others to know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.
“Carolyn, you asked, ‘Was I faithful?’ We say today, ‘Thank you for just giving us Jesus.’”
Hamlin graduated from North Greenville College (now North Greenville University) and studied organ and piano at Furman University with David Gibson and Edwin Clark and at Bob Jones University with Karl Stahl. She has composed many organ, piano, and choral works, published in the catalogs of several music companies. North Greenville University named The Carolyn Gillespie Hamlin Recital Hall (in its Joe F. and Eleanor Hayes Christian Fine Arts Center) for her and presented her with an honorary Doctorate of Music degree. She was presented The Order of the Silver Crescent by then State Senator Larry Martin.
She has loved music all of her life, and she began singing and playing at an early age. In a conversation with this writer, Hamlin recalled, “Mom said that she would call the roll on the way home from church, because there were so many kids, and she didn’t know if we all got in the car or not. And she didn’t have to call my name, because she said she could hear me humming the hymns.”
While her mother was making Sunday dinner for the family, Carolyn would be playing the family organ at the age of four. “My two brothers had to pump the pedals, because I could not reach them,” she said. “I would pick out every hymn. I would not quit on that pump organ. She said that I would play every hymn that we had sung at church that day, at four years old.”
Her family got a piano when she was six, and Carolyn began playing for chapel in her elementary school in Liberty when she was age six. “It’s a real humbling kind of life I’ve had,” she told this writer. “I started playing for chapel in school when I was six, because no one else at that little country school could play at all. And I played by ear, but I could play everything they sang.” She played all of the way through elementary school and high school and at North Greenville College (now North Greenville University).
“But I was not allowed to take one keyboard lesson at North Greenville, because I played by ear, and Dr. Griffin said that he didn’t know what to do with me. So, they didn’t allow me, and now they’ve named a building for me, gave me an honorary doctorate. I said, ‘No, no, no, you cannot name a building for me,’ because I didn’t get to take one lesson. They said, ‘You’ve accomplished more than any student ever has.’
“Now, they don’t require all of this, but, then, they wouldn’t let me take it, because I hadn’t had all the major and minor scales. But God has so blessed me, and I have gone throughout this land and even abroad and have taught seminars on how to play more creatively or really ‘paint the Gospel’ with your fingers and the resources of an organ, and have done concerts.
“And it’s so humbling. I have people in my classes that have their doctorates in organ performance and have years and years of composition, and I had none. It’s just really a miracle – that’s all I can say — to have music in 60 countries and have so many hundreds published — nothing but a miracle.”
Music has been her passion. “I knew that I could play, and I played everything, even at North Greenville,” she said. Other students who had studied piano for several years could not play the hymns for chapel, she said. “So, I played for everything on the campus and got the award for being the most outstanding music student, and it’s unbelievable that I didn’t get to take one lesson.
“And, when I got out of North Greenville and married young, I called Furman (University) in tears and said, ‘Somebody, but somebody, has got to ‘make a crack in the door’ and let me study. And they had never heard such passion. I called the Dean of Fine Arts, and he said, ‘Furman’s going to do it.’ I sold so many organs – traveled, traveled, traveled – selling organs everywhere. My first teacher, David Gibson, is deceased now. He said, ‘Carolyn, Furman University is so proud of all that God has done in your life.’ And I said, ‘Well, He’s done it all.’
“Then, I went to Bob Jones for three years and had babies. I didn’t a bit more have the money to be going to Furman and Bob Jones, but, no matter the cost, no matter what the sacrifice was, I was going to learn the great classics. And just look what God has done in my life. I can’t do anything but weep and just bow on my knees and cry holy. That’s all I know to do. I don’t understand about it at all. It’s just a miracle. God has allowed me to play at Ronald Reagan’s church in California, you just name it. My music has been performed at the National Cathedral in Washington. I’ve done seminars in the Sts. Peter and Paul’s Cathedral in Chicago, everywhere, Dallas, the largest churches there; Chicago; Akron, Ohio; First Baptist, Orlando; First Baptist, Jackson, Mississippi, with 5,000 or 6,000 members with 500 in the choir. It’s unbelievable that a little country bumpkin, that God can take little loaves and fishes that I just dedicated back to Him, because I was so hungry and passionate.
“I don’t know how many hundreds of seminars I’ve done,” she said, naming several states across the country. “Look how God has blessed me, because I felt like I was nobody important enough. But every one was an invitation for me to come. I never ever sent out a flyer, never asked to do anything, never.”
At a seminar in New Orleans, Hamlin said, “They wept when I played that morning. They had put their pipe organ in the corner. Some of the most saintly, humble couples came down. One man said, ‘I’ll pay your way to come back to New Orleans.’ They said, ‘We have just been ‘feasting’ on the hymns you’ve been playing today.’”
In addition to having conducted seminars across the country, she has enjoyed playing for residents at local nursing homes. “It’s been so sweet, to go to the rest homes, the nursing homes, where they can’t go to worship,” she said. “I’m not expected to come and would have never thought about receiving a dime for doing it, but, oh, the blessing.”
This past November, Easley First Baptist Church celebrated its 150 years. “They wanted me to write the Sesquicentennial anthem,” recalled Hamlin, “and I said, ‘I’m not worthy, no, no, no.’ And I prayed and prayed. And I went as guest organist to this small country church. I’ve been in the largest churches in our Convention, but the place that God blesses me the most is when I go to a simple church, like Flat Rock was when I grew up. God spoke to me, and I wept all the way home, and I said, ‘Lord, I’m sorry. I ask for your forgiveness, that I said that I wouldn’t try to write that anthem.’ Because 150 years, to be organized in God’s name, is a long time, and I knew it had to be theologically sound and encompass so much. And that day, all the way home, I cried, and I said, ‘Lord, forgive me.’ Some music I write faster than others, but it took three months of day and night and night and day. And we were 150 years old, and we had 153 singing that Sunday.”
She has had several invitations to play at different locations during her retirement. “Now, I can go,” She said. “I really would try to be faithful at First Baptist and not be absent all the time. And I would work it out and play concerts during the week.” One Friday night, she played in a concert in Anchorage, Alaska, and conducted a seminar on Saturday, and played at First Baptist Church in Anchorage on Sunday morning and Sunday night. “And I was so tired and weary,” she said.
She loves the old hymns, including “Rock of Ages”, “It Is Well With My Soul”, and “Amazing Grace” — “music that is so sacred”, she said. “Millions of people have knelt and given their hearts to the Lord and are in heaven today,” she said of the old hymns.
And she writes new music. Her original piece “Grace”, which she wrote after the passing of her mother, is in 60 countries.
The words of the song are: “Lord, as I seek your guidance for the day, I find my thoughts unyielding, confusion clouds my way, But then when I bow to you, the challenges you guide me through, Your promises are ever new, I claim them for today, Your will cannot lead me, Where your grace will not keep me, Your hand will protect me, I rest in your care, Your eyes will watch over me, Your love will forgive me, And when I am faltering, I still will find you there. Each new day’s design is charted by your hand, And graciously revealed as I seek your master plan, Keep my footsteps faithful, When from you I go, Return me to the joy that your blessings can bestow, Your will cannot lead me, Where your grace cannot keep me, Your hand will protect me, I rest in your care, Your eyes will watch over me, Your love will forgive me, And when I am faltering, I still will find you there, Your eyes will watch over me, Your love will forgive me, And when I am faltering, I still will find you there.”
Hamlin related a story concerning her song “Grace”. “I played for the national fundamental churches for 12 or 13 churches,” she said. “I was playing the organ for a conference. This lady kept trying to catch me. There were thousands there, and she couldn’t get to me. But she finally caught me in the restroom. She said, ‘I had to get with you before we went back.’ I think they were from Minnesota. She said her husband was a Pastor of a church, and they were expecting their first baby, and she started hemorrhaging, and they knew that she was losing the baby. So, he drove her real fast to the hospital. Probably, they were close enough that he could get her there faster than the ambulance. And she said when they got in the car, the chorus was saying ‘your will cannot lead me where your grace will not keep me’, and she said in that moment God used that piece, and her husband reached over and clasped her hand, and they committed themselves to the Lord, that He would not take them where His grace would not keep them. And she said, ‘He sustained us and helped us live through the death of that baby.’ And she said, ‘I just want you to know that we’ve had another little baby, and it’s a little girl, and we named her Grace.’ Isn’t that touching?”
Hamlin told another story about how her song “Grace” touched another life. During a reception that North Greenville University held in Hamlin’s honor, a music student, from another state, was playing background music. “I heard her playing mostly hymns, but she played some classical music beautifully, and then she’d play something from “The Sound of Music”, all really beautiful music. She would play a little bit of secular music, but mostly classical and sacred. And I heard her play ‘Grace’, and I thought, ‘Oh, that’s sweet. She’s playing it because I’m standing over here.’ So, when they brought her over to meet me, Dr. Griffin said, ‘I want you to meet Carolyn. This is Carolyn Hamlin.’ And I said, ‘Thank you so much for playing ‘Grace’. She said, ‘Oh, do you know that piece?’” After realizing that Hamlin was the writer of the song, the music student wanted to share with her what that piece meant to her and said, “Let me tell you what God did in my life.” Hamlin recalled, “She was suicidal. She said, ‘I went to church camp, and “Grace” was the theme song for all of the teens who were there, because God was not going to lead us where His grace was not going to keep us and take care of us.’ And she said, ‘It changed my life.’ And she clung to the Lord. And she said, ‘Here I am, at North Greenville.’
“It just lets me know it’s not a bit of anything I’ve done – nothing,” said Hamlin. “It’s what God has done, because I just hunger.
“It’s not for me to show how many runs I can do and how loud I can make the music and everybody jump up and down. No, no, no. If they come into church, and their heart is broken, they need to be comforted.
“It’s been a wonderful journey,” she said, “and all I know to do is thank the Lord with every inch of gratitude I can have in my heart. It’s like I’m on Mount Sinai now, looking back at what He’s done, and I can’t believe it.” Once again recalling all of the words spoken to her at the reception held at her church, Easley First Baptist, on March 24, she said, “What people said, I’ll never get over it.” She added, “It’s not about me. It has been music, but God did it all. God has allowed me to stay healthy and play these many years. It’s been a wonderful journey and a wonderful life, and God has worked in my life. It’s just all come full circle. I want them to see the Saviour I’m writing about.”