SEQUIM — Faith Lutheran pastor Roger Stites reflected on a challenge that has become all too familiar for congregations across the country: the scarcity of skilled church musicians, especially those steeped in the Lutheran tradition.

“Church organists and church musicians don’t grow on trees, and Lutheran ones really don’t,” Stites said.

For decades, Faith Lutheran’s answer to that challenge was Pat Marcy, a dedicated organist whose service spanned half a century.

“Pat had a level of experience that I was not familiar with because she had been here 30 years when I came here,” Stites said. “She just kept saying, ‘I’ll just keep playing. I’ll just keep playing.’”

Marcy’s devotion was legendary — she played at her mother’s funeral, and then her husband’s, never missing a Sunday, even as a

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