Meet the Athens musician who composed the lullaby for St. Mary's hospital 30 years ago

At St. Mary's there's a lullaby that plays throughout the hospital every time a baby is born there. Appropriately soft and gentle, it's hard to imagine there was a time when the soothing melody wasn't a regular part of life for patients and staff at St. Mary's and other hospitals that play it several times a day.

Titled "St. Mary's Lullaby," the tune was composed and performed more than 30 years ago by Athens musician and recording studio owner Mark Maxwell, who was commissioned by then-hospital vice president Marilyn Hill to boost morale following a tragic incident. Hill and Maxwell spoke to the Banner-Herald about the circumstances that lead to the creation of the lullaby.

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In the fall of 1991, Hill was the administrator on call at St. Mary's on a fateful night when the hospital's morgue was full and she had the unthinkable task of finding room for one more stretcher. Two children had died in a house fire, and Hill recalled that one gurney was used for both, casting a pall over an already grim scenario. Hill decided that something needed to be done.

"I was the new kid on the block, and I told (then-president and CEO of St. Mary's Edward Fetchel Jr.) that morale at our hospital was in the sewer," said Hill. "We had to find a way to celebrate all of the good things that happened at St. Mary's. I thought of all the babies, the little ones that we had saved, and I told him there ought to be a button we can press that plays music whenever one is born."

Hill enlisted the help of her daughter's former boyfriend, Athens musician Mark Maxwell, to make the idea a reality. Maxwell, who received a degree in classical guitar from the school of music at the University of Georgia, started by researching lullabies at UGA's music library.

"I looked up the definition for the word 'lullaby,' and it's exactly what it sounds like; a tune that lulls the listener," recalled Maxwell. "Reading that was incredibly helpful, because it told me that the tempo needed to be about the same as a heartbeat. No percussion or anything jarring, just keep it simple. I'm still amazed at how it turned out. It's the best thing I've ever done in my life."

In addition to composing, performing and recording the lullaby, Maxwell was also tasked with figuring out how to make it work at the hospital. In keeping with Hill's specifications on how the button would need to function, Maxwell rigged a doorbell in the maternity ward's nurse station to trigger an answering machine on the floor below. When the button is pressed, an abridged version of the Lullaby is played throughout the halls of the hospital.

By the time Maxwell's first child was born in 1992, the St. Mary's system had been up and running long enough for Maxwell to press the button while holding the baby, and a cassette of the lullaby and other songs was being given out to new parents to help soothe their children at home. At the time, the Banner-Herald reported that hospital staff and visitors would stop and smile every time the tune played over the P.A. system.

More than three decades later, "St. Mary's Lullaby" continues to lift the spirits in Athens and at more than one hundred hospitals in cities across the United States thanks to Maxwell's system, which he has traveled to install at other locations over the years. In the age of streaming music and MP3, the song is now available on demand for new parents anywhere in the world.

For Hill, the lullaby is just one of the many innovative programs she is proud of at St. Mary's, but it's one that she holds closest to her heart. Not only did it achieve the goals she was looking for in terms of boosting morale of the staff, but she saw the comforting effect that it had on patients in other areas of the hospital as well. Hill sees the tune as one of the ways the hospital gives back to the Athens community that supports it.

"I've been listening to the lullaby for 24 years," said Jackie Iley, director of women's and children's services at St. Mary's. "I'll be downstairs in nursing administration or on another floor, and when it plays, we'll pause and say, 'Oh, we just had a baby.' Families in the waiting room will hear it and come up to the window to ask if it's for the baby they're waiting for. It's soothing, but it can also be exciting."

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: St. Mary's Hospital celebrates baby lullaby's 30th anniversary