NATCHEZ — The ebony and ivory keys of a piano have always called to JoAnn Mullins.

Whether in Lincoln County where she grew up or in her “adopted home” of Natchez, the retired schoolteacher never goes too long without striking a note in full modesty.

“I’m not accomplished by any means,” Mullins said, laughing. “It’s just something I’ve always enjoyed doing.”

When The Dart landed on John Glenn Avenue Saturday, Mullins was sitting just a few feet from her Baldwin piano enjoying a calm weekend afternoon.

The keys of the piano, however, didn’t stay cold for much longer.

“I like a lot of the classics,” Mullins said while playing. “I like to play a little bit of everything.”

Mullins was interested in music as a child, but truly began to understand more about it during her college years when she attended Mississippi College.

Teaching was something Mullins always knew she wanted to do, but her curiosity and interest in music led her to pursue a minor in the field.

So when Mullins moved to Natchez in 1965 to begin teaching at Carpenter School No. 1, one of her first purchases was a Baldwin piano.

“I remember living on North Rankin Street and having to move that piano into that house and then again when I moved to North Pearl Street a little while after that,” Mullins said. “That was the first thing I ever bought on credit.”

Her interest in music grew even more when Mullins married her husband, Dick, a Natchez native who Mullins said deserved all the musical credit.

“He was the accomplished one, and much better than I was,” she said, smiling. “I think music connected us, and I would just love to sit and listen to him play.”

But shortly after their marriage, Dick suffered a brain aneurism in 1972 that left him disabled and unable to continue playing music of any kind.

He underwent surgery two weeks after doctors diagnosed his symptoms as a brain aneurism, but Mullins said the damage had been done.

“The surgery was satisfactory, but there had been significant swelling in the brain that they couldn’t do anything about,” Mullins said. “Our lives were totally different after that.”

The couple found plenty of other interests and hobbies to pass the time after moving back to Natchez following a brief stint in New Orleans.

Mullins returned to her first love of teaching and called a classroom at Vidalia Upper Elementary home until retiring in 1995.

“It’s a very rewarding thing to see learning and growth taking place in children,” Mullins said. “I love children, first of all, so teaching was always something I wanted to do.”

After her retirement, Mullins said the couple enjoyed spending time at their remolded John Glenn house and being a part of as many Natchez happenings as possible.

Following Dick’s death eight years ago, Mullins said she’s still enjoying the community that welcomed her with open arms straight out of college.

“Natchez is great,” Mullins said. “It’s really my adopted home.”