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Bettie Downing
Organist
Bettie Downing graduated from Leon High School and Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. During her college sophomore year she was a student at the American University of Beirut, the Near Eastern School of Theology, and the Beirut Music Conservatory, where she studied piano with Anis Fuleihan. At FSU she studied organ with Roberta Cruikshank Beard and Lee Rigsby, and later in Honolulu, Hawaii, she studied with Charles Brennan at Kawaiahao Church. Also, the year before she left Honolulu to move to Orlando, she played for a sing-along and dance time at the hospital for leprosy patients.
Bettie has held positions as an organist at the First Christian Church in Tallahassee, Florida, organist/choir director at the English-American Anglican Church in Karachi, Pakistan, organist at the military chapel in Naples, Italy, organist at the First Christian Church in Honolulu, Hawaii, and also organist in Winter Park, Florida. In 1986 she accepted the position of organist which 
she now holds at Niceville First United Methodist Church.
As a member of the American Guild of Organists, Bettie has attended regional and national conventions.
In addition to her organ career, Bettie is also certified with the Library of Congress as a music braillist. Her clients include the Canadian National Institute for the Blind and professionals and college students throughout the United States.
