“Greatest Unknown African American Classical Pianist in the World”
Muriel Susan Faulk, who was called the “Greatest Unknown African American Classical Pianist in the World” died peacefully in her sleep and went to God, Monday Morning June 22, 2020. Her music teachers were Dr. Eleanor Cole and Dr. Anna Bobbitt Gardner. Muriel Faulk performed at Symphony Hall many times and performed Chopin before Arthur Fiedler of the Boston Pops Symphony Orchestra fame. Muriel Faulk was born December 15, 1928 and would play Classical Music, including Bach, Beethoven, Chopin and Handel for family and friends for the next sixty years. Muriel (Faulk) Rose of Roxbury, Massachusetts married Frederick Burleigh Rose of Cambridge, Massachusetts on February 22, 1952 and had two children, Conant Burleigh Rose (aka Tony Rose), a successful Music and Book Publishing Industry professional and Felicia Jean Rose, a successful Insurance Industry Professional, who were raised in the Whittier Street Housing Projects, in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Muriel Waller, who passed in her sleep June 22, 2020, married Charles Waller on April 14, 1965 and moved to Dorchester, Massachusetts. She made Metropolitan Baptist Church her home church, where she became Deaconess Muriel Waller and served and loved the Lord for the next fifty years. She worked for the Joseph Lee School in Dorchester as a Teacher’s Aide and as a Teacher’s Aide and Bus Monitor at the J.J. Hurley School in Roxbury. In the 1980s, Muriel adopted and raised four children: Deborah Waller, Solomon Waller, Vincent Waller and Tasha Waller. Muriel taught Vincent how to play the piano and he lovingly performed the songs with the Morning Shining Stars, the Waller Family’s Children’s Gospel Singing Group, at the Metropolitan Baptist Church and other Roxbury, Dorchester (Boston), churches. She also became a piano teacher for many local children in Dorchester, Massachusetts. In 2003 Muriel Waller retired from the City of Boston, Boston Public School System; and her son, Tony Rose, her daughter, Felicia Rose, and daughter-in-Law, Yvonne Rose bought her a home in Phoenix, Arizona, where she lived in harmony and embraced the Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church as her home church for seventeen years. In her later years she attended Corpus Christi Catholic Church and Foothills Baptist Church until she died peacefully in the Grace of God, June 22, 2020. Muriel Waller was ninety-one years old. She is survived by her children, Conant (Tony) Rose, Felicia Rose, and her daughters-in-law, Yvonne Rose and Kate Saylor; her children, Deborah Waller, Solomon Waller, Vincent Waller and Tasha Waller; four grandsons, Conant B. Rose, Jr., Alton Gaskins, Jautau White, Tajian White; and numerous other grandchildren; two great grandchildren, Aidan Gaskins and Claudia Gaskins; a host of nieces and nephews; and numerous friends.
A Private Funeral Service will be held on Service is Friday, July 10, 2020 at 12:00 pm at Floyd A. Williams Funeral Home, 490 Columbia Road, Boston, MA 02125. Private Family Viewing will be at 11:00 am. Interment: Oak Lawn Cemetery, Roslindale, MA. Arrangements Entrusted to: Floyd A. Williams Funeral Home,617-436-5592.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donations in memory of Deaconess Muriel Waller to Metropolitan Baptist Church, 393 Norfolk Street, Dorchester, MA 02124. For online condolences and directions, please visit https://www.floydawilliamsfuneralhome.com/
