A century of harmony: Des Moines music teacher Mary Bierma celebrates her 100th birthday

The basement of Glen Echo Christian Church in Des Moines was decorated with blue balloons and flowers Wednesday. Kids ran between the legs of adults while holding cupcakes.

The only indication that the party was to celebrate a 100th birthday were the balloons on the wall and the cake, which was short about 100 candles.

Mary Margaret Bierma was born in a farmhouse one mile east of Hartford 100 years ago, on Dec. 27, 1923. She has lived in Des Moines since 1943 — the year she started classes at Drake University.

She said she remembers a Des Moines with streetcars and two daily papers: one in the morning from the Des Moines Register, and the Des Moines Tribune in the afternoon.

Bierma has a love story with music that begins in Hartford.

“I had a cousin that lived in Hartford, and she was a really good pianist,” Bierma said. “I always admired her, and she started giving me piano lessons. It just grew from there.”

At her birthday party, members of the family gathered with Bierma to share stories and song, even singing a “Bierma version” of "Happy Birthday" — a rendition where the goal is to sing as off-key as possible.

Her eldest son, Bob Bierma, said with a smile and tears in his eyes that this mother is the keystone of the family. He followed up by expressing frustration with his mother for passing down her "soft side."

“I really believe my mom is a real special woman,” Bob Bierma  said. “She's one of the kindest people I’ve ever met.”

Bob said Mary was the best advocate for him and his siblings as children even when they broke a rule banning them from the living room during her piano lessons. But when he and his brothers would act out, they’d be met with the dreaded phrase: “Wait 'til your dad gets home.”

“We knew we were in trouble, so it's time to stop right right now,” Bierma  said.

Mary, who taught piano at her home for decades and only stopped accepting new students because of the COVID-19 pandemic, has helped build a sense of community through her time instructing.

Bierma graduated with a bachelor's degree in music education in January 1946. She briefly taught in Denison.

She was proposed to by her husband, Marvin “Marv” Bierma, on June 14, 1947.

She began teaching at Washington Irving Junior High, which once stood at 16th Street and Forest Avenue, in the fall of 1947, concluding in January 1951.

Marv Bierma passed away Feb. 21, 1993, due to complications from surgery for a cancerous tumor. The couple had five children, who went on to give them 12 grandchildren.

Besides serving as an teacher in the Des Moines Public School system, Mary Bierma also served as a choir director for Glen Echo Christian Church for 38 years.

Ron Bierma, Mary’s third child, said she helped instill in him a love for Black gospel music between the 1960s and '70s by participating in a program called God’s Army of Youth.

During a time in America where racial tensions were high following the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Ron Bierma said, his mother’s bold move helped shape him into the person he is today — even though he didn't stick with her piano lessons.

“Get involved with people, and a good way is through music,” Mary Bierma said.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Des Moines music teacher Mary Bierma celebrates her 100th birthday