Elonzy Ogletree Jr., 79: Music teacher, composer

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By Michelle E. Shaw

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Elonzy Ogletree Jr. had to be a musician, he didn’t have a choice. From a young age he was observed drumming his fingers on the window sills of his boyhood home in LaGrange, mimicking pianists he’d seen at church.

HANDOUT As a teenager, Elonzy Ogletree Jr. cut grass and raked leaves until he could save enough money to buy a piano.

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“It has been said that we don’t choose music, music chooses us,” said Don Reginald Ogletree, a brother from Fayetteville. “And music definitely chose Elonzy.”

When he was a teenager, he cut grass and raked leaves until he could collect enough money to buy a piano. Once the instrument was purchased and he started lessons, he would return home and teach his younger siblings what he’d learned.

“He was always a teacher,” said Bertha Somerville, a sister who lives in Atlanta. “And I think more than anything, he loved being a teacher of music.”

Elonzy Ogletree Jr., of Decatur, died Feb. 8, after a two-year battle with cancer. He was 79. A funeral is planned for noon Thursday at Warren Memorial United Methodist Church. Murray Brothers, Cascade Chapel is in charge of arrangements.

After graduating from East Depot High, Mr. Ogletree, the oldest of 10 children, enrolled in Clark College. He left Clark to join the Air Force, with plans to complete his education later. Once his military service was complete, Mr. Ogletree enrolled in San Francisco State University and earned undergraduate and graduate degrees in music. While in California, he taught music in San Francisco, Berkeley and Oakland public schools.

In 1972, Mr. Ogletree returned to Georgia to teach chorus and piano in DeKalb County. He later took a job at Tri-Cities High School for the Performing Arts and helped turn a piano class into a piano program, said Viola Turner, former director of the visual and performing arts.

“He wanted the students to have access to the best of everything,” she said. “Everything he did was with excellence.”

Mr. Ogletree retired in 2008, but still kept in touch. A couple of years ago, when Tri-Cities opened its new performing arts center, Mr. Ogletree helped pick out the piano for the facility, Mrs. Turner said.

In addition to teaching high school students, Mr. Ogletree taught music theory and piano at Morris Brown College between 1995 and 1998 and he operated a private studio were he offered lessons.

Mr. Ogletree’s love of music went beyond teaching, which he also did at Atlanta Metropolitan College, his brother said. He wrote approximately two dozen pieces, which include hymns, anthems and other songs for worship. His work, which could be heard around the metro area, was performed by students at Tri-Cities, and by church choirs at Warren Memorial United Methodist and in LaGrange, his brother said.

Since retiring, Mr. Ogletree considered having some of the works he composed published, and was talking to an interested publisher.

“We are still going to see that through,” Don Ogletree said.

Additional survivors include brothers, Clarence Ogletree of Stone Mountain and Phillip Morris Ogletree of Jonesboro.