Dunford-Ridenhour Concert Series
The Ridenhour-Dunford Legacy
Nancy Ridenhour Dunford spent much of her life studying and performing on the piano and sharing her great love of music with others. A native of Concord, North Carolina, she studied piano privately then majored in music at Salem College. After World War II, she did postgraduate work with master music teachers in New York City. She later earned her Masters degree in music from the University of Texas. In 1947, she married Dr. B. C. Dunford of Winston-Salem, who had also majored in music at Salem College, later earning his Doctorate in music at Eastman Conservatory. During their years together they taught music and for a time taught at the North Carolina School for the Deaf. Later they both became faculty members at William Carey College in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. During their marriage, the Dunfords gave many duo-piano concerts over the southeast on their two grand pianos. Mrs. Dunford died in 1980, a few years after her husband’s death. To promote interest in classical music and to honor her husband, she bequeathed generous sums of money to Salem College and to local churches in the form of trusts, the income of which would be used for the support of music and the sponsoring of musical events. Mrs. Johnsie Sims Ridenhour, the mother of Nancy Ridenhour Dunford, was a devotee of music as well. She and her husband, Robert E. Ridenhour, Jr., instilled that love of music in Nancy at an early age. At the death of Mrs. Johnsie Ridenhour, she too bequeathed a considerable sum of money in trust, the income of which was to be used by St. James Lutheran Church to perpetuate that love of music and as a memorial to her late husband, Robert E. Ridenhour, Jr.