She will pick up the silver trumpet and play it one more time.

“I hope I’m able to get the notes out,” she said. “I’ll be emotional.”

The trumpet belonged to Joe Sills, a longtime band director throughout the Mid-South, who died of COVID-19 at age 78.

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When he knew he was dying, Sills asked that one of his former students, Terri McConnell, play his trumpet at his graveside.

So she will be playing the trumpet at Saturday afternoon’s service at Oakwood Cemetery in Brownsville. But McConnell will not be alone.

She’ll be joined by James Harrison, another former student, who is driving in from New Mexico to play percussion. And Deana Graham, another former student, who is driving in from Ripley — where she is the high school band director — to play the flute. And Kent Eversmeyer, another former student, who is driving in from Alabama to play the French horn. 

McConnell will be joined by 28 of Sills’ former students, who will set up at an appropriate social distance from one another and then perform in honor of the man who taught them how to play.

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“Joe Sills is Mr. Holland,” McConnell said. “I can’t put into words the impact he had.”

It’s about life

Someone asked me the other day why I’ve been writing so much about death. I told them that’s not how I think about it. I’m writing about lives.

Sills is another of the more than 400,000 Americans who have died of COVID-19. He was still writing for the Mid-South Hunting and Fishing News when he got sick.

“It’s tragic, really,” said his son, also named Joe. “He chose not to believe the science of it, he chose not to let COVID change the way he operated. Oh, he would wear a mask. He wasn’t an anti-mask guy. But he kept going to eat with his friends, his fishing buddies. He wouldn’t argue with me when I told him to be careful. He just didn’t change.”

Somewhere around New Year’s Day, Sills contracted the virus. He seemed to be doing OK for about a week.

“Ten days into it, he went to get the newspaper at the end of the driveway,” his son said. “It’s about 50 yards. He barely made it back. They took him to the hospital and he never made it out.”

So now there will be a graveside memorial service. For a man who lived an extraordinary life. And the best way to tell you about that life is to tell you about his trumpet, a 1956 Mendez by F.E. Olds.

“Dad was so poor growing up, they didn’t have a bathtub,” the son said. “His father was a bricklayer. They didn’t have much of anything. But Dad had a horse that he loved.”

The horse was named “Lady.” She was a brown horse with a white stripe down her nose.

“Dad was crazy about that horse,” said his son. “But when he was 16, he sold her to buy a car. I think he regretted that for a long time.”

Sills had started playing trumpet on a beat-up old instrument. He was a natural. He was so good, he was asked to join Carl Perkins for a New Year’s Eve gig in Jackson, Tennessee, when he was still in high school.

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“He got a scholarship to what was then Memphis State,” the son said. “He couldn’t read music, but he could play anything he heard, like a mockingbird.”

But Sills didn’t have a proper trumpet. So he sold the car and bought the silver horn he would use the rest of his life.

He played it at Memphis, where he was first trumpet for the Mighty Sound of the South. He played it as the conductor of bands at high schools in Bolivar; Murray, Kentucky; Ripley; Haywood County; and Dyersburg.

“He had an uncanny ability to make you want to do better,” said James Harrison, the former student who is driving in from New Mexico, who went on to become the drumline instructor at Boise State. “I don’t know how he did it. He instilled a kind of pride.”

Sills’ marching bands won nine Bandmasters Championships at the Liberty Bowl. His 1977 band in Murray won the national marching band championship.

“And then, when he was about 50, he decided he wanted to do something else,” said Joe Sills, the son. “He took the last quarter of his life off to go fishing, I guess you could say.”

Sills had always loved fishing, ever since he learned to pull fish out of farm ponds as a kid. Indeed, he always said he dreamed up his best, most creative marching band routines when he was sitting in a boat.

“I think he got a little burned out on band directing,” his son said. “And he wanted to spend time with me. We spent a lot of time fishing when I was growing up. I was lucky he made the switch.”

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For the past couple of decades, Sills has been writing for the Mid-South Hunting and Fishing News. He didn’t bring his silver trumpet out all that often. Just to play taps, when an old friend died.

So it was only natural for Sills to request that a former student play the trumpet at his own service. McConnell — who was soloist for the 1977 band that won the national championship — was the logical choice.

But nobody expected McConnell would be joined by Harrison, and that Harrison would be joined by Graham, and that Graham would be joined by Eversmeyer, and that soon an entire band of former students would be taking shape.

“Dad picked out music that he wanted for his service,” said Joe, the son. “But I think he thought it would be played on a speaker, that we would find a CD or something. We didn’t expect this.”

It is a testament to the impact of a band director. Anyone who ever played an instrument in high school understands it. A good band director — and Sills was a great band director — shapes students long after they have put down those instruments. 

“I think if you weren’t in band, it’s hard to grasp it or understand it,” Eversmeyer said. “We became better husbands, better fathers, better neighbors and better musicians because of Joe.”

The group will play three songs outside, at the gravesite, including “Goin’ Home” from the “New World Symphony” by Dvorak.

“I think it’s incredibly fitting,” said Joe Sills, the son. “Dad would be so proud.”

Joe was driving home from Memphis when he texted me Friday afternoon. He had just picked up his father’s silver trumpet from Amro Music, where he had taken it to be polished and fine-tuned.

“It’s looks fantastic,” he said. “It really does. There are a few dings, just from living life. But otherwise, it’s beautiful.”