Two TV screens positioned above the communion table at Wesley United Methodist Church told an American tale Monday morning.
The telling was in the form of an endless loop of snapshots and formal photographs, depicting the life and times of John Pyles.
Pyles, a longtime Monongalia County lawmaker and music educator, died last week in his Morgantown home at the age of 89.
His funeral was at the stately church on North High Street, where he served as choir and music director when he wasn’t conducting the civic matters of Mon.
The friends who came out on the cold morning praised him just as much for his famous vocal cords as they did his encyclopedic knowledge of county and state codes, ordinances and other civic tweaks adding to the tune.
That was evident in those photographs on those monitors.
In one sequence, there’s the lawmaker, at a microphone at a podium on a stage with the American flag behind him, making a proclamation on an issue of the day.
There he is in another, smiling with Tip O’Neill and Jimmy Carter.
A third round captures his band director days in the local school district and a final sequence is a dive deeper than that: Call it a time-machine capture of black-and-white moments in a certain frame house on Lorentz Avenue, where Pyles squared up to be mentor to his kid brother, Rodney, after their parents’ divorce in the late 1950s.
The photographs cycled through, then they cycled through again, always moving.
Just like his big brother, Rodney said, as he greeted guests.
“John was always there for people,” he said. “Always working. We just wanted to give him a nice sendoff.”
Prayers were offered, songs were delivered and stories were told.
Current and former lawmakers from across the county and Capitol Hill shared space in the pews.
Everyone laughed at the accounts of Pyles’ famous lunch gatherings at Ali Baba — where lyric sheets came standard with the menu.
At those proceedings, you didn’t necessarily have to sing for your supper. You were, however, strongly encouraged to dig into an offering from the Great American Songbook (see above), after you dug into to your dessert.
‘John was my buddy’
Al Anderson was late getting to the funeral, but the arrival of the businessman, community activist and local entertainer didn’t go unnoticed.
He exchanged hugs and handshakes as he made his way to a side pew. He was on the program.
Like those family album snaps on the TV, their friendship, Anderson said, illustrated the attributes of Pyles as a policymaker and a person.
Anderson, who is Black, grew up in Osage, and lit out for Hollywood, Calif., in the late 1950s, touring with the nationally known doo-wop group, Billy Ward and the Dominoes.
Pyles, whose pigment is the opposite, was a show biz-obsessed kid who came up on Wiles Hill. The aspiring vocalist ventured to New York City and successfully auditioned for a national talent show that was canceled before he could perform live.
He stayed in the city for a time, though, to sing with the Vincent Lopez Orchestra at the Hotel Taft on Times Square, on top of nailing another audition: Pyles performed with the Billy Graham Crusade Choir during the clergyman’s appearance in 1959 at Madison Square Garden.
“We didn’t know each other then,” Anderson said. “We got acquainted after we both came back home, to go to the work for the community.”
Part of that work included their successful co-founding of the Scotts Run Public Service District at Osage.
Anderson sang, “How Great Thou Art,” and gave a nod at his friend, who was in repose at the front of the church.
“Sometimes, he’d call me, and he’d say, ‘Let’s go grab a hot dog,’” Anderson remembered, smiling.
“Before we knew it, the whole afternoon was gone. John was my buddy.”
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