RACINE - For nearly 70 years, Ruth Schoening has been sharing her musical talent with others.

And at 87, she says she's going to keep playing the organ and piano for as long as she's able.

You could say music is in her blood, but that would really be an understatement.

"This is really a family inheritance," Schoening said, sitting at the dining room table of the home on Illinois Street that her husband, Raymond, built 60 years ago.

She comes from a long line of musicians, and her passion has touched nearly every aspect of her life from her career, to her community service, to her contribution to her church and the talent she passed to her children.

Carrying on a legacy

Schoening's grandfather had a wonderful bass voice and was invited to sing for the Queen of England at the age of 16. Her mother, the late Cora Wilhelmsen, also had a beautiful singing voice. She was a vocal instructor at the University of Kansas for 10 years.

That's where she met Schoening's father, the Rev. Karl Wilhelmsen, who was in seminary at the time.

The daughter of a talented musician and a pastor, Schoening started playing piano at age 7. Later, her dad insisted she learn to play the organ.

"I didn't like it at first," Schoening said. But now she loves both instruments. In fact, she made a career out of her talents that has stretched into volunteer work in her retirement.

"I don't think I've ever thought I'd do anything else," Schoening said.

A life spent playing

Schoening's father was the pastor at Gethsemane Lutheran Church, 3319 Washington Ave., for more than 20 years, and during that time she became the church organist. When she was 18, the regular organist's husband took a job elsewhere. Schoening stepped in and played during Sunday services from 1940 to 1960, when her father retired.

Almost immediately afterward, Schoening became the organist for the newly forming Lutheran Church of the Resurrection, 322 Ohio St., a blend of two former Lutheran churches in Racine. Since their official founding in January of 1961, Schoening has been the organist there, playing during some Sunday and weekly Saturday services.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a degree in music education, Schoening was also a music teacher at Racine Christian School from 1960 to 1975 and an instructor at UW-Parkside from 1987 to 1995.

And she's been a private piano instructor since 1945.

Her favorite music to play is that composed by Johann Sebastian Bach. When it comes to hymns, Schoening has many favorites. One is "Children of the Heavenly Father," a Danish hymn she recently played at a Sunday church service.

Her passion

Throughout her years of teaching, Schoening has never lost her enthusiasm for playing. In fact, she's spent her spare time as an accompanist for different choirs, including the Racine Symphonic Chorus - now Racine Choral Arts - and the Kiwanis High School Chorus.

Schoening began volunteering with local student groups when one of her grandsons was in the Goodland School Choir. "They needed an accompanist and he said, 'My grandma will do it.' "

She didn't let him down, and played with the school choir for 10 years as a volunteer. Then another grandson volunteered her to play with the Park High School Concert Choir, which he was a member of. Schoening played with them for more than eight years. She's also volunteered her talents to the Lutheran High School choir and for Lincoln Lutheran's worship services.

And if that wasn't enough, Schoening has authored and edited musical instruction workbooks, textbooks and papers.

"It was fun," she said of her life's work. "I have been given the blessing of working in a vocation that I have always loved and still love to do. I am thankful also for my husband's support, which has been given in many ways."

Continuing the tradition

The Schoening family's musical talent has also been passed down to her and her husband's children and grandchildren. Their son Stephen plays the trumpet in the Belle City Brass, and son John is a violist in the San Francisco Symphony. Another son, Benjamin, is working on his doctorate in vocal performance, and their daughter, Carol Haertel, is a choir director and in a professional level bell choir.

Schoening's brothers were also musicians. One played the French horn and the other the oboe.

"It's a family tradition," Schoening said. "I couldn't escape it. The whole family has been musical."

And she wouldn't have it any other way.

"I'm going to play as long as I'm physically able," she said.