A small congregation waited on the green velvet pews in the chapel of the Galleria Woods Retirement Community. Dressed in their Sunday best, Rogers and Sara Moore slowly entered. Mrs. Moore took her place at the organ and flipped through a large music book. She played antique, tender hymns as the congregation concluded their conversations. While her body swayed gracefully to the tunes, she glanced up to smile at the incoming attenders.
Moore grabbed the organ to help himself up from the front pew. He introduced himself, introduced the guest preacher and welcomed the congregation. He then opened a forest green “Baptist Hymnal” and led the congregation in singing “My Jesus, I Love Thee” while his wife accompanied them on the organ. The couple has been leading Sunday services together since they moved to the retirement community in 1992.
“They are quite talented. They provide their services freely and joyfully. They’re a lovely couple,” said resident Martha Asbury.
The Moores have been a couple for a phenomenal 76 years. Moore, 95, met Sara Hunt, 94, one Sunday night in 1925 at Ruhama Baptist Church in South East Lake.
“I saw Sara and wanted to date her. We hit it off fairly well. I only had two years to persuade her,” he said.
College sweethearts
Both were students at Howard College, now Samford University. Moore, who grew up in Monroeville, had transferred from Auburn University and was a junior. Mrs. Moore was a sophomore concentrating in English and music. She was raised in Scottsboro. The two dated for three years until she graduated.
“I came from a little-bitty town and a little-bitty high school. Socially, and in a sense educationally, I gained a lot from Sara,” Moroe said.
On Aug. 15, 1928, at First Christian Church in Birmingham, the couple was wed in a double wedding ceremony with Sara’s sorority sister, Marguerite Pence, and her fiancé. L.O. Dawson, for whom Dawson Memorial Baptist Church in Homewood is named, married the couples.
During their working years, Mrs. Moore taught private piano lessons from her home and was also a piano teacher at the schools where Moore was employed. Moore, an education major at Howard College, was the assistant superintendent in Florence where the couple resided from 1959 till 1992.
The couple has been consistently involved in church ministry and particularly making beautiful music together. At both Woodmont Baptist Church, Pell City, Mrs. Moore taught Sunday School and played piano while Moore sang bass in the choir.
Mrs. Moore said they couldn’t have kept going without God’s help in their lives.
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