Mary B. Raynes

Mary Blanchard Raynes was Supervisor of Music in the Billerica public schools from September 1912 until her death on March 29, 1922. A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, she had taught since about 1904, and before coming to Billerica she had taught in high schools that kept a glee club and an orchestra. She also had ties to Westford, where she conducted the school chorus at the Westford Academy graduation exercises of 1918 and 1919.

Her reports stressed tone quality, which she called the first essential in school music, and singing at sight. In 1914 the pupils of the Talbot School gave an operetta that paid for a Victrola and a piano, and that year music was taught again at the Howe School "after several years with no music." On November 22, 1915 she led the pupils of the upper grades in singing at the laying of the corner-stone of the new Howe High School. In wartime she taught the old patriotic songs, writing in 1918 that word had come back from France "that the American Army must be a singing army."

She built instrumental music in the schools. A high school orchestra was begun about 1916, and to train players for it she started a violin class in 1918, open to pupils above the fourth grade at twenty-five cents a lesson, taught by Miss Brennan of Lowell and later also by Mildred B. McKeen; a cornet class followed in 1920. The school bought drums, a trombone paid for by a spring musical, a snare drum and a melophone, and lent them to pupils who would learn to play. The superintendent noted in 1919 that "Miss Raynes has given gratuitously much time outside of regular hours." Each spring she presented the department in the Town Hall, where the high school sang the cantata "The Village Blacksmith" in 1920 and "The Landing of the Pilgrims," accompanied by the orchestra, in 1921.

The superintendent wrote after her death that "in the untimely death of Miss Raynes, we lost one of our most valued teachers who for ten years had been in charge of the music," and the town report of 1922 printed a memorial page to her. She left her cello to the school, and Mrs. McKeen, her colleague at the violin classes, succeeded her.

References

1. Billerica Town Report 1915, Report of Supervisor of Music (Mary B. Raynes): Talbot operetta, music again at the Howe School
2. Billerica Town Report 1915, teachers table: Mary B. Raynes, Music, appointed 1912
3. Billerica Town Report 1916, new High School: corner-stone laid November 22, 1915, singing under Miss Mary Raynes
4. Billerica Town Report 1917, Report of Supervisor of Music (Mary B. Raynes): beginning of a Howe High School orchestra
5. Billerica Town Report 1918, superintendent's report: school orchestra and violin class under Miss Brennan of Lowell
6. Billerica Town Report 1918, Report of Supervisor of Music (Mary B. Raynes): a singing army; violin class; drums
7. Billerica Town Report 1919, superintendent's report: Miss Raynes gives much time outside regular hours to the orchestra
8. Billerica Town Report 1919, Report of Supervisor of Music (Mary B. Raynes): violin classes, trombone for the orchestra
9. Billerica Town Report 1920, Report of Supervisor of Music (Mary B. Raynes): cornet class; cantata The Village Blacksmith
10. Billerica Town Report 1921, Report of Supervisor of Music (Mary B. Raynes): cantata The Landing of the Pilgrims
11. Billerica Town Report 1921, teachers table: Mary B. Raynes, appointed 1912, 17 years experience, New England Conservatory
12. Billerica Town Report 1922, superintendent's report: the untimely death of Miss Raynes
13. Billerica Town Report 1922, memorial: Mary Blanchard Raynes, September 1912 until her death March 29, 1922
14. Billerica Town Report 1922, Report of Supervisor of Music (Mildred B. McKeen): cello left to the school by Miss Raynes
15. Westford Wardsman, June 22, 1918: Westford Academy graduation, school chorus, Miss Raynes, conductor
16. Westford Wardsman, June 21, 1919: Westford Academy graduation, chorus under Miss Raynes
17. Westford Wardsman, September 13, 1919: birthday party for Miss Mary B. Raynes at Forge Pond