During intermission at the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the usual suspects would spill into the lobby for cocktails and conversation.

Then there was a smaller crowd that stayed behind and huddled inside the concert hall. These were the friends of Helen Morgan — pianist, classical music instructor and indefatigable life of the party.

Family photo (ENLARGE)

'Some people ought to be exempt from death ...,' family friend Clayton Farnham said of Helen Morgan.

Once Mrs. Morgan was no longer able to get up and mingle with her friends, they simply came to her.

"We'd always go down during intermission to hear what Helen had to say," her friend Clayton Farnham of Atlanta said.

"There'd be 25 people gathered around her, including some of the big musical figures in town, and she'd be sitting there holding court."

Those chats were merely a coda to Mrs. Morgan's long career. For years, she taught piano lessons, delivered music appreciation lectures and led "Lunch and Learn" talks with the Atlanta Symphony Associates.

Every time she spoke about music, Mr. Farnham said, she offered such keen analysis that he felt like he was hearing with fresh ears.

"She absorbed music wherever she could," he said, "and had a power of articulation that, for an ordinary mortal like me, was like turning on the lights."

Helen Neilly Morgan, 93, died of a stroke April 3 at her Carrollton residence. The body was cremated. A memorial service will be held later. Cremation Society of the South is in charge of arrangements.

When Mrs. Morgan moved to Atlanta in 1982 with her late husband, professional bass-baritone Mac Morgan, she had a lifetime of musical memories packed away with her possessions.

She graduated from the University of Rochester at 20, studied piano at the Eastman School of Music, toured with her husband and accompanied him in concert halls across the country, worked at the New England Conservatory of Music and organized classical music tours throughout Europe.

"When she moved to Atlanta, she was comparing the level of music professionalism here with what she'd experienced in New York and Boston, and her thought was to bring the standards up here," said her daughter Anne Morgan of Atlanta.

"The idea of my mother sitting around doing nothing or going to ladies' luncheons was absurd," she said.

"She had to have some intellectual engagement or community involvement to make her life meaningful. So she sought that out here, and if something wasn't there, she created it."

"Helen was one of the most sophisticated music lovers, scholars and performers in the area when she came here to retire," Mr. Farnham said. "She was a person of deep intelligence, wide experience and with a charm that just made you love life."

The constants in Mrs. Morgan's home were a grand piano, a radio tuned to classical music and a rotating cast of dinner guests.

Evenings were punctuated with laughter and talk, mostly from Mrs. Morgan. Strong-willed and opinionated, she loved to prod others into spirited debates.

Toward the end of her life, Mr. Farnham would visit her home and listen to their favorite recordings together. By then, her eyesight had failed, "but her mind was just as quick," he said.

"Some people ought to be exempt from death because they add so much to the world," he said. "You want them to stay around forever because you can never get enough of them. And Helen Morgan was one of those people."

Survivors include two other daughters, Kathryn Lynn Skoglund of Amherst, N.H., and Elizabeth Morgan Graf of Carrollton; her sister, Dorothea Winnie of St. Petersburg, Fla.; her brother, Andrew Neilly of Weston, Conn.; four grandchildren, six step-grandchildren and one great-grandchild.