Mary Muntz: Dedicated to music, education

NOTE: This is Part 5 of a series leading up to the Highland County Historical Society inducting five more members into its Hall of Fame on Aug. 17. This week, we profile the late Mary Muntz.

By Steve Roush
HCP columnist

Ladies and gentlemen, Mary A. Muntz (1910-97) became something of a living legend in the area because of her many, many years of hard work and dedication to music.

Miss Muntz, a person few Highland Countians in her era did not know, or at least knew of, was born in Hillsboro on March 27, 1910. She was a graduate of Hillsboro High School, as well as Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, majoring in Piano. She later took Music Education courses at Ohio State and Wilmington College. 

She also took a major in English with a minor in French and for several years, taught French at Lynchburg High School. She also taught in Mowrystown and substituted in several other county schools, especially during the war years.

Her real teaching home, however, was Lynchburg where she taught choral as well as instrumental music. Lynchburg did not have a football team, but Miss Muntz would have the band perform on the basketball court and it was not odd to see basketball players and cheerleaders, still in their team uniforms, marching with the band during halftime. 

According to Debbie Williams, a student of Miss Muntz who also became an educator, one of the best “Mary Stories” she ever heard involved a young boy in elementary school. He dearly wanted to be in the rhythm band with his friends, but had little talent for rhythm. Rather than not let him be involved, Mary went to the hardware store and brought back two sponges, telling the youngster that she had a special instrument just for him and presented the sponges which he hit together with all the gusto he could muster, happy to be involved!

Miss Muntz taught many piano students throughout the years (well into her 80s), often able to spot the ones who were taking piano lessons at the behest of their parents rather than of their own desire. One former student related the story of his piano lessons where Mary allowed him to continue coming, but rather than suffer through his lessons, she allowed him to pull weeds in her garden. Nearly every person who knew Miss Muntz will have a story about her.

One of the events involving the most singers from across Highland County was the annual presentation of Handel’s “Messiah.” At the performances during the 1960s and 1970s, Hillsboro’s First Presbyterian Church’s sanctuary and Sunday School room were filled with attendees.

Mary Muntz passed on to some music event in heaven on Jan. 10, 1997 at the age of 86, and is buried in the Hillsboro Cemetery.

In addition to Mary Muntz, the 2025 Highland County Historical Society Hall of Fame inductees are Bill and Janet Butler, the late Al and Alice Cassner, the late Dayne “Woop Woop” Puckett, and the late Virginia Bell Thompson Telfair, granddaughter of C.S. Bell.

The recipients will be honored at an induction ceremony Sunday, Aug. 17 at 2 p.m. at the Presbyterian Church in Hillsboro, followed by a reception at Highland House directly across the street from the church. The public is cordially invited.
For more information on the society or the upcoming Hall of Fame ceremony, please call (937) 393-3392 or email the society at hchistoricalsociety@gmail.com.
 
Steve Roush is president of the Highland County Historical Society and served as chairman and vice chairman on the HCHS Board of Trustees for two terms, a board member of the Highland District Hospital Foundation, a vice president of an international media company and a columnist and contributing writer for The Highland County Press. He can be reached by email at roush_steve@msn.com.