“When Miss Floride finally let me play her Steinway,” he recalls, “I knew I had reached a milestone in my development. I knew, even at that young age, that I had arrived at something significant.” Today, that very Steinway piano holds a hallowed spot in Meeks’ own living room, a treasured memory of practicing endless hours under Miss Floride’s ever-watchful tutelage. A precious gift from dedicated teacher to devoted student, it stands as a constant reminder to Meeks that excellence is its own reward. That value was instilled in him from the beginning, when his parents, Floyd and Sallie Meeks, sought out Floride Cox to teach their middle son in the hardscrabble small, southern, cotton mill town of Belton, South Carolina. An intrepid, self-made businessman, Floyd Meeks never did things by half measures. So, when the youngster had a desire to play the piano, his father would only permit him to study with the best teacher in the region. Her studio was full, but Floride Cox couldn’t say no to the lanky boy with the big, brown eyes, and she would guide his career in ways they never anticipated. Together, they envisioned a life as a concert pianist for her talented student. Under her guidance, Meeks, a gifted, scholarly student, graduated from high school a year early and was awarded the four-year Walter Spry Memorial Scholarship to study with noted American composer and performer Edwin Gerschefski. Gerschefski was the Dean of the School of Music at the conservatory of Cox’s alma mater, the Converse College School of Music, located in Spartanburg, S.C. Since Converse’s academic college was, at the time, solely a women’s
Joseph Meeks with Floride Cox, piano teacher, and Edwin Gerschefski, Dean of Converse College School of Music.
arete, class, distinction, eminence, ellency, fineness, goodness, greatness, high quality, merit, perfection, eminence, purity, quality, superbness, remacy, transcendence, virtue, worth, éclat benevolence, beneficence, benefit, icality, friendliness, generosity, good l, grace, graciousness, honesty, honor, maneness, integrity, kindheartedness, kindliness, .kindness, mercy, merit, A thirty-something Joseph Meeks prepares for another classical piano recital.