"Gussie" Lowell was born in San Francisco in 1857 of New England parentage and began her first musical study with Professor Striby, one of the earliest piano teachers. On moving to Oakland, when nine years old, she studied first with Miss Mary Simpson (now Mrs. Barker) of the Blake seminary, then Miss Gaskill (now Mrs. Andrews) and afterwards with Mrs. Blanche Emerson and Mrs. Babcock. Organ study (on the reed organ) was begun in 1874 with John H. Pratt, and when John P. Morgan in 1875 came to Oakland from New York, where he had for years been the beloved organist of Trinity Church, Miss Lowell took up the study of the pipe organ at the old Congregational Church in Oakland and practiced there, at the First Presbyterian Church and the Independent Church, where she later became organist after a two years' service at the First Baptist Church. As Mr. Morgan was the conductor of the San Francisco Handel and Haydn Oratorio society and the Oakland Harmonic, Miss Lowell had the unusual advantage as organist of these societies of playing in all the oratorios given under the direction of Mr. Morgan as well as Mr. Toepke and Mr. Gustave Hinrichs. After Mr. Morgan's lamented death, Miss Lowell took his place as teacher of the organ in the conservatory founded by him, where also taught Mr. Morgan (piano), Mr. Louis Lisser, Mr. Henry Heyneman and Mr. Julius Hinrichs (violoncello), Miss Susie Morgan, Mr. D.P. Hughes and dear old Stephen W. Leach (voice culture). [Illustration: Rose Champion Elsie Mae Hunt Mrs. Cora Rayburn Mrs. Mayme Bassford Arthur Victory Elizabeth Lanktree Elsie Noonan Jennie Christofferson Harry Crandall PUPILS, 1898-1902] For three years prior to Miss Lowell's departure for New York in 1880, she was organist for Rev. Mr. Hamilton's Independent Presbyterian Church, where she conducted a large choir of sixteen voices.