Marion Wyckoff, of Syosset, has died at 97

Marion Hendrickson Wyckoff taught more than 1,000 students to play the piano during a long career as a private instructor, and she had a little trick to lure them in.

The longtime Syosset resident would show them how to play pop music by groups such as the Beatles and the Monkees, but then later teach them how to play Bach, Beethoven and Chopin, recalled her nephew, James Wyckoff of Huntington.

"She got them to do the heavy lifting by giving them the pop stuff," James Wyckoff said.

Wyckoff died on May 7 at the age of 97 in Durham, N.C., where she had been living in an assisted living facility.

Wyckoff was born in Oyster Bay in 1913, the daughter of Edward T. and Frances H. Wyckoff. By the time she was in her teens, the family moved to Syosset, where she lived for much of the rest of her life.

She was active in local churches and their choirs. She was a member of Christ Church Episcopal church in Oyster Bay, where she served as its organist and choir director from 1955 to 1973.

She also taught piano lessons out of her home in Syosset. Her nephew estimated that throughout her life she taught more than 1,000 people. "I always remember her teaching," he said.

After her mother died in 1973, she moved with her father to Citrus Springs, Fla., where she continued teaching piano and organ out of her home. She served as the organist at Holy Faith Episcopal Church in Dunnellon, Fla., until 2007. She also created and directed a choir at Holy Faith for several years.

Her "love of music and her dedication to church was evident to anyone who had the honor of knowing her," her nephew said. "She touched so many lives with her beautiful music and helped shape the lives of so many of her students."

Wyckoff was cremated and her ashes are to be interred in the family plot at St. John's Memorial Cemetery in Syosset during a family service to be scheduled in June. The ashes of her pets, Beau, a poodle, and Buttons and Bitsy, two cats, are to be buried with her.

In addition to her nephew, she is survived by a niece, Lael W. Jackson of Chapel Hill, N.C.