VIDALIA — She may be a Methodist, but Eleanor Street resident Beth Tucker spends her Sundays in Vidalia’s Catholic and Presbyterian churches.

Tucker, a pianist since the age of seven, is a hired musician for both Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church and First Presbyterian Church of Vidalia.

“With the Catholics and Presbyterians, you have somewhat different styles of music,” she said.

She is also a piano teacher of more than 30 years.

Tucker took nine years of piano lessons under the tutelage of Winnsboro teacher Beatrice Moore, a graduate of the New York State Conservatory.

Tucker’s first piano came from a cousin in Rayville, she said.

“It was a big old upright that weighed two tons,” she said.

Moore’s teaching rubbed off on Tucker in more than one way, she said.

“Whenever we were going to play in a competition, we would have extra practices at my teacher’s house,” Tucker said. “She had a grand piano, and I always said I wanted a grand.”

She now owns a grand piano, and above it hangs a picture of Sweedish nightingale Jenny Lind.

“(Moore) had a picture of (Lind) over her piano, and after years I found a print of that picture in an antique shop,” Tucker said.

When she played in National Federation of Music Guild competitions as a student, Tucker always received “excellent” marks, but her last year she was rated “superior.”

“We went in there, and it really makes you nervous to see the judge sitting there and to be surrounded by all those virtuosos,” she said.

As an adult, Tucker played with the Musical Art League in Natchez.

She has had many students throughout the years, and she said she is currently teaching 18.

“Everywhere I go, I run into younger — or older — faces, and I realize that I taught them,” she said.

Tucker will host a recital for her students at First Presbyterian Church in Vidalia at the end of May.