Helen McCoy (far left) is seen playing with Ernie Fields' orchestra in the 1950s. The pianist and longtime Tulsa-area resident died Sept. 2 at age 86. A public visitation will be held Sunday. Courtesy
There wasn't much that Helen McCoy couldn't do with a keyboard.
Veteran Tulsa saxman Frank Swain, who played with her at Greenwood District clubs in the early 1960s, recalls being amazed at how "she could even make an organ sound like a (string) bass."
"Now that took some doing. She did it using her left hand and a foot pedal. Aren't many around who can pull that off."
More often than not, though, McCoy's organs and pianos sounded just like they were supposed to - supposed to, that is, when played by the hands of a master.
McCoy was only in her 20s when future Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Famer Ernie Fields Sr. hired her to join his orchestra.
In the 1950s, she would travel all over the U.S. and Canada with the bandleader.
Eventually leaving the road behind, she still had no trouble captivating an audience. McCoy continued to play publicly for years, including at church and at such Greenwood venues as the Flamingo Club.
Helen Jean McCoy, a lifelong Tulsa-area resident and accomplished musician, died Sept. 2. She was 86.
The service is private, but a public visitation will be held from 3-6 p.m. Sunday at Jack's Funeral Home.
Raised from infancy by an aunt and uncle, who moved to the area from Texas, McCoy grew up in west Tulsa's South Haven community.
This was long before South Haven - which had grown rapidly after many black residents who were displaced in the 1921 Race Riot relocated there - was annexed by the city of Tulsa.
McCoy attended the two-room South Haven Elementary School through sixth grade, then rode the bus to Carver Middle School and later Booker T. Washington High School, from which she graduated in 1944.
McCoy would call South Haven home her entire life, and lived for years in one of the community's oldest houses.
"She was a quiet person and led a quiet life," said Ed Goodwin, Tulsa newspaperman and authority on the historic Greenwood music scene.
"You wouldn't know she'd played with some of the people she did. She was a great piano player."
McCoy was with Fields' group from 1950 to 1956.
While traveling with Fields, McCoy, whom band members nicknamed "Mamacita," maintained her privacy. But though she mostly kept to herself, she was highly respected by the bandleader and fellow musicians.
She would inspire similar admiration wherever she played.
A longtime member of Philadelphia Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Sapulpa, she played at services there for years.
"Helen was definitely a soldier for the Lord, and an excellent piano player," said Ethel Guess, her close friend and fellow church member.
McCoy's survivors include her sisters, Joyce McCoy and Emma McCoy.
Tim Stanley 918-581-8385
tim.stanley@tulsaworld.com
Original Print Headline: Tulsa musician quietly took music world by storm
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