Eugenia Toole Glover
June 18, 1928—November 4, 2011
Eugenia Toole, the third child and only daughter of Frances Ray Greiner and William Franklin Toole, grew up in Augusta where she graduated from Tubman High School in 1945. She began her career as a musician early, serving as organist at Trinity-on-the-Hill Methodist Church at the age of twelve. She graduated from Wesleyan Conservatory in Macon, Magna Cum Laude, in 1949 with a double degree in piano and organ. She then returned to Augusta where she established a piano studio, participated in establishing the music department at Augusta College, and accompanied the newly-formed Augusta Choral Society.
She began further music studies at Yale and Julliard during the summers, and enrolled at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York in 1958. A student of Dr. David Craighead, Eugenia received her M.M. one year later, with a double major in organ and music literature. She then enrolled in the doctoral program at Union Theological Seminary’s School of Sacred Music. At that time she also became the organist at Long Island’s Congregational Church of Manhasset.
Eugenia concertized extensively throughout the New York area, accompanied professional singers from the Metropolitan Opera, and was recognized in multiple ways as one of the outstanding young organists of the time. She “broke the stained glass ceiling” when she was appointed as the organist of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church, the first woman to serve a major New York church in that capacity.
In 1968 Eugenia married the Rev. Mortimer W. Glover. When Mortimer became rector of St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in New Harmony, Indiana, Eugenia established and organized the New Harmony Festival of Music, bringing international and local artists to perform in what grew to be an annual concert series. For her efforts, Eugenia received an “Outstanding Contribution in Music” award from the governor of Indiana. Throughout this time Eugenia continued to pursue her now-global concert career.
The Glovers returned to Augusta in 1989, where Eugenia served as president of the Augusta Opera Guild, secretary of the Augusta Symphony Guild, dean of the American Guild of Organists Augusta Chapter, assistant director of the Augusta Collegium Musicum, and Director of Music at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church. At her retirement from St. Augustine’s, Mayor Deke Copenhaver declared May 15th, 2011 as “Eugenia Toole Glover Day” in Augusta.
Eugenia is survived by her brothers, Michael Greiner Toole of Montgomery, Alabama and Boston, Massachusetts, and William Francis Toole of Augusta; by two nephews, William Robert Toole and McDonald Michael Toole; great-niece Lauren Toole and great-nephews Michael and Colin Toole. Through her brother William Toole’s marriage to Bertha Lee Battey, Eugenia acquired seven additional nieces and nephews as well.
The family wishes to acknowledge and thank the many and great friends who have cared for Eugenia over the years, especially Kathy Clark, Barbara Hancock, Helen Howard and Claire Murray.
The family will receive guests at home on Sunday afternoon. Private burial in Westover Cemetery will be followed by a memorial service and reception at St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church, 3321 Wheeler Road, at 11:30 Monday, November 7th. In lieu of flowers, memorial gifts in Eugenia’s name may be made to the music fund of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church or to Historic Augusta, Inc., 415 Seventh Street, P.O. Box 37, Augusta, Georgia 30903-0037.