CALLERY — Doris Baker will celebrate her 91st birthday Saturday with her family before waking Sunday morning to play piano for Crestview Community Presbyterian Church.

A service she's been doing for about 73 years, Baker has only missed when she moved and the church had a choir director for a few years.

“She plays with marvelous musicality and feel for the music,” said Pastor Bob Goossen. “It's just amazing.”

Baker of Forward Township has been a member of Crestview church since she was born.

In her many years at Crestview, Baker has always been a member of the chorus or played the piano.

When she was younger, she earned pins for her Sunday school attendance.

“I went 18 years without missing Sunday school,” Baker said. “... My parents liked to go places to visit, just visiting friends or relatives, but we would stop somewhere and go to church. Then we would bring a card back saying that we were in Sunday school.”

Her grandmother, the late Catherine Pfeifer, was Crestview's choir director and Baker's extended family sang in the choir.

Baker enjoyed singing and started taking piano lessons at age 7, for 50 cents a half-hour.

Her mother, the late Edna Raley, was a musician as well and pushed her daughter to practice.

“I had to practice a half-hour every day after school and if I made a mistake she was quick to tell me, ‘That's not right Doris. Do it again.' I can still hear that.”

Baker can play music just from what she hears.

“I'll play from my ear, I don't have to have the music,” Baker said. “I've got this ability to improvise.”

In high school, she used to play dance music for the students at noon.

“That was in the 30s and there was a lot of dance music then, like ‘Let Me Call You Sweetheart' and ‘I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover.'”

She still plays dance songs when she can at the Evans City Senior Center.

“They'll say the song and lots of times I'll say ‘Someone sing a little of it' and then I'll play it,” Baker said.

Even at her age, Baker is very sharp. She doesn't need to practice the songs and is still able to get around with little assistance.

Baker's daughter, Joyce Krebs of Forward Township, said she's not surprised her mother is so strong.

“Our family has always been a longevity family,” said Krebs. “I had a great aunt who lived to be 92.”

Baker keeps a small black book with all her appointments so she is always on time, driving herself to and from.

“Here I am going on 68 and I've started slowing down,” Krebs said. “I'm trying to keep up with her.”

Baker says she feels her age some days and doesn't have the finger dexterity she used to.

“Lately they've been giving me a couple Sundays off a month because it's beginning to be a chore for me at 90,” Baker said.

When she's not playing piano those two weeks, Baker sings alto in the choir.

Despite her musical skills, Baker has chosen not to use them as a profession or teach piano.

“I've been asked to, but I didn't know how to begin,” Baker said. “I'd have to get music and the proper things to teach.”

Instead, she uses the talent to entertain her growing family of three daughters, six grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren during special occasions.

“We would go to our friend's house and she would play the piano and at Christmas time she would play piano for us,” Krebs said.

Baker also plays for many church performances and weddings.

“I was keeping all the wedding programs until my daughters and I were looking at my old stuff and they asked ‘Do you want all these?' I said ‘No, throw them away.' There was about 70 of them.”

Baker doesn't plan on retiring from piano or slowing down anytime soon.

“The age issue is not a thing for her,” Goossen said. “She just wants to worship and help lead the people with music.”