Louise Filarski Bennink was born in Kalamazoo to Louis and Marie Koopsen Filarski and grew up near her church, Fourth Reformed, when it was still located on Dutton Street, near the downtown area. She attended and graduated from the Kalamazoo Public Schools. Louise's father died when she was seven, and her mother then raised Louise and her sister Eleanor as a single parent and worked for many years as the Kalamazoo City Clerk. Also at the age of seven, Louise began piano lessons, and in the ninth grade she began studying the organ as well. She said about the organ for an article in the Kalamazoo Gazette in 1998, "It was the sound. It just really thrilled me to hear it."
Louise remembers how in the fall of 1938 two men from Bethany walked to her house and asked her mother if Louise would be interested in playing for a Sunday service at Bethany. A short time later, young Louise Filarski, still a teen-ager, agreed to become Bethany's organist. Louise said later, "I probably just had nerve more than anything else." Her official starting date was November 7, 1938. We are honored today to have her give a special performance as part of our centennial celebration.
Louise later added choir director to her job description, and over the years she continued studying both organ and piano from prestigious artists and at prestigious places. She has studied with local artist and musician Glenn Peterson and the highly regarded organist and music arranger Diane Bish. She has attended music and organ workshops at Hope College and at St. Olaf's College in Minnesota.
In addition to sharing her talents with the Bethany family, Louise gave piano lessons for many years from her former home on Royce Street. Our guest pianist at Louise's recital, Nancy Voss Gezon, is a former student of Louise. Many Bethany young people over the years studied piano and also organ from Louise and frequently shared their talents during church services. Many of Louise's students later received college scholarships to study the piano; some have become piano teachers themselves.
On February 23, 1944, Louise was married in the parsonage to Bernard "Bud" Bennink, a lifetime member of Bethany, by the Reverend Jerry A. Veldman. Louise and Bud raised two daughters, Marcia and Mary. Marcia is now married to John Knapp and they live in Ann Arbor. John is a professor of psychology at Eastern Michigan University. Marcia has recently retired from the travel industry and she was formerly a teacher as well. They have two adult children and their spouses, Kristen and Chris Lin and Daniel and Andrea Knapp.
Mary is married to the Reverend Paul Wesselink and they live in Ada, Michigan where he is the pastor of the Thornapple Reformed Church. Mary is the registrar at Forest Hills Central High School. They have four children: Elizabeth, Adam, Paul and Brett. Elizabeth is married to Brian VanderWege and have a daughter Anna. Adam is also married to Stacey and has a two-year-old son, Aedon. Louise is now a great-grandmother of two as well as a grandmother of six!
The Benninks moved to a home at Indian Lake, near Vicksburg. Bud Bennink passed away in 2002, but Louise has remained as active as ever. She participated in Bethany's mission trip to Hungary in 2003 and while there played the organ in several churches whose organs had not been played since the Communist takeover in the late 1940's. She was able to bring the organ's powerful sound to people who had never heard it. (See photo at left.) Louise also plans on participating in this summer's mission trip to Italy.
Anyone who knows Louise also knows that she is very reluctant to receive any honor or attention for her talents and her many years of service to Bethany. She truly believes that all of the honor and glory should go to God. Her celebration performance as part of our centennial is nevertheless an appropriate celebration of her years of service and talent given to Bethany Reformed Church for over 60 years. We thank her today for her years of service and for her willingness to share her special gifts with us.
