Summerhays Music’s Colleen Summerhays Passes

Colleen Summerhays of Summerhays Music in Utah passed away last month.

In a 2009 NAMM Oral History interview, Summerhays recalled walking into her local music store in 1940 to inquire about a clerical position and meeting her future husband, Hy Summerhays, who had opened the retail shop four years earlier. They married and worked together during the difficult years after World War II, when instruments such as the piano were difficult to obtain. In the interview, Summerhays reminisced about her husband traveling to nearby states to buy used pianos and bringing them back to Utah, where the market was beginning to flourish as soldiers returned home to marry and start families.

A statement from NAMM said, “Her passion and dedication to her family and community made Mrs. Summerhays an inspiration both within the music industry and in her community.”