There was an outpouring of love for one of the founders of the Lambton Youth Choir.
Ruth Brown died earlier this year after a brief illness. It was a shock to the young people she mentored in the choir and taught in Sunday school at First Baptist Church in Petrolia.
But her passing was also felt deeply by the performing arts community. Brown, along with the youth choir and her sister, Diane O’Dell, had worked with David Rogers and David Hogan on their productions, particularly at Christmas. Brown’s quiet unassuming ways made a deep impression.
“We loved her and she was so generous to us,” Hogan said before the performers took the VPP stage to perform in a benefit concert for St. Joseph’s Hospice, where Brown was cared for at the end of her life.
“She was so community minded and the kids loved her,” Hogan told the crowd at the event. “We have so much to be thankful for.”
The tribute was called Grateful Hearts and the first song by the Lambton Youth Choir was called Thankful.
There was also gospel music, reflecting Brown’s faith and desire children at home and around the world to know that Jesus loves them. That familiar children’s song played at the beginning of the tribute as photos of Brown flashed across the screen.
The amount raised by the concert for St. Joseph’s Hospice was not released at press time.