Great Bend piano instructor Darlene Boley recently received her 50-year membership pin from the Music Teachers National Association.
The announcement was made by Brian P. Shepard, deputy executive director, at the MTNA annual meeting on March 27 in New York.
Boley has taught piano in Great Bend for 54 years and is a member of the Central Kansas Piano Teachers League and Kansas Music Teachers Association. She is also a long-time member of the local Parnassus Club.
 As a board member of KMTA, she was responsible for organizing the musicianship testing used by the association’s statewide piano auditions. Boley has served as district president and has taught numerous KMTA winners and other students who have earned prestigious awards.
After teaching in Lincoln and Wilson, Boley moved to Great Bend where she taught at Roosevelt Junior High School. She continues her private teaching career at the JD Boley Music Studio and is church organist for the Prince of Peace Parish of Great Bend.
Darlene is married to Joe Boley. She taught their three daughters to play, and they continue to use their piano skills today, Joe said. Daughter Maggie teaches music at Osawatomie, JoAnn is pianist at St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Independence, Mo., and Mary is a Taekwondo teacher and exercise specialist in Frisco, Texas.