Nellie Jeannette Scruggs Lipford

Nellie Jeannette Scruggs Lipford

Nellie Jeannette Scruggs Lipford, beloved voice professor for generations of students at Abilene Christian University, passed away Sept. 22, 2020, in Abilene, Texas, at age 91.

Due to Covid concerns a service will to be held at a later date.

Lipford was born Feb. 25, 1929, in San Angelo, Texas, the daughter of ranchers who lived in nearby Cristoval and the granddaughter of Texas’ earliest settlers who accompanied Stephen F. Austin. She moved to Abilene with her family at age 3.

She graduated from Abilene Christian High School in 1945 and from ACU in 1949 with a B.A. in education. She studied voice at Baylor University and Lipscomb University before earning an M.A. in education from ACU in 1987. She also did graduate work in music at Southern Methodist University and The Juilliard School in New York City.

Jeannette met classmate Harold Thomas Lipford in ACU’s A Cappella Chorus and they wed Sept. 3, 1948, in Abilene. She developed extensive teaching experience in Texas and Tennessee while Harold was a minister and working on graduate degrees in Waco and Nashville. She served as a music coordinator for the elementary division and taught second grade at Abilene’s Wylie Elementary School, and taught music for second-graders in the Ozona (Texas) ISD and kindergarten music at Otter Creek Christian Schools in Nashville.

The couple returned to Abilene in 1966, and she taught voice to approximately 2,000 students in the music and theatre departments from 1968 to 1992, and continued to instruct and coach scores more for the next 25-plus years. She received the university’s Outstanding Part-time Faculty Award in 1999. Lipford was a member of Mu Phi Epsilon International Music Fraternity, the National Association of Music Schools, the Texas Music Educators Association, the Abilene Opera Association and the Abilene Harmony Club.

Jeannette endeared herself as a one-of-a-kind teacher and mentor in the lives of students and so many others in the university’s history. She retired in 1992 from full-time work as assistant professor emerita of voice, yet continued to teach voice lessons as time and health allowed. Her students went on to become Broadway stars, studio musicians, recording artists, music teachers and vocal coaches. Among them was Grammy Award winner Amy Grant.

Lipford was vocal coach for ACU Homecoming musicals for 47 years – from Fiddler on the Roof in 1972 to Beauty and the Beast in 2019 – and for Sing Song hosts and hostesses for 22 years. She also coached performers through Freshman Follies, Summerstage, the ACU Opera, singing groups Daybreak and Reflections, and countless senior recitals.

Harold and Jeannette were instrumental in establishing Mission Church in Abilene in the 1990s. He served as a deacon at Abilene’s University Church of Christ, where he and Jeannette were longtime members. They were beloved by thousands of talented students who found in the Lipford home an open door, a welcoming spirit, a love for God, and deep appreciation for the musical and theatrical arts.

They were active in ACU’s Alumni Choral Reunion, and performed with the Over the Hilltoppers group at Abilene Christian’s USO Show at Homecoming 1990 in Moody Coliseum. The Lipfords also supported the Abilene Opera Association.

The Jeannette and Harold Lipford Music/Theatre Scholarship Endowment was established at ACU in 1994. In 2000, Sing Song established the Lipford Award in her name, annually recognizing a person for exhibiting exceptional character, teamwork, dedication, and for raising the event’s standards to uncompromising levels. Jeannette was honored at ACU’s 2020 May Commencement with the annual Dale and Rita Brown Outlive Your Life Award.

In 2015 at age 86, she gave brief but penultimate stage performances in October as the Bird Woman in Mary Poppins , her alma mater’s Homecoming Musical, and in November with voice protégé Ben Jeffrey of Broadway’s The Lion King . In the former, she sang “Feed the Birds” and brought down the house. In the latter, Lipford sang and danced briefly with Jeffrey on Irving Berlin’s “You’re Just In Love (I Wonder Why)” during her former student’s one-man cabaret show fundraiser for ACU Theatre. She reprised “Feed the Birds” at her 90th birthday celebration in February 2019.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Guy and Bess (Allen) Scruggs; Harold, her husband of 66 years; brothers Gene Scruggs and Robert Scruggs; and a daughter, Susan Lipford. Among survivors are daughters Cindy Hudson of Nashville; Amy Wright and her husband, Tommy, of Brownwood; and Croatian daughter Svjetlana Vuksic of Abilene; grandchildren Boone Haynes, Parker Haynes, Aaron Hudson, Marnie Kate Hudson and Zachary Hudson; and great-grandchild Kyelee Hudson.

Memorials may be made to the Jeannette and Harold Lipford Endowed Music/Theatre Endowment (ACU Box 29132, Abilene, Texas 79699-9132, acu.edu/giveonline ). Condolences may be offered to the family online at pbfuneraldirectors.com .