Margaret Patrick

Margaret Patrick (1913–1994) was "Ebony" in Ebony and Ivory, the name given to a pair of great-grandmothers in New Jersey, one white and one black, who played classical piano together. Each had a stroke in 1982 and became partially disabled. They were introduced to one another the following year and began playing piano together, one hand each. A reporter covering their story dubbed them "Ebony and Ivory" after the 1982 hit song by Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder.

Biography

Patrick grew up in Harlem and started playing the piano at the age of eight and immediately fell in love with it. At the age of ten, she began to accompany her sister, who played violin and by the time she was twelve, she was accompanying local singers and orchestras. In 1929, aged 16, she graduated from the Martin Smith Conservatory of Music and was awarded a gold medal for having passed her piano and theory classes with honors.

Patrick married in 1933 and became a piano teacher and taught for 50 years. She continued accompanying singers and orchestras. She also played the organ and conducted the choir of a Presbyterian church in the Bronx. At one point, she directed a choir that sang with Duke Ellington and his orchestra, a highpoint in her life. "I felt elated to work with him," she told McCall's magazine. In January 1982, she had a stroke that left her disabled on her right side and unable to speak. After months in the hospital, she returned to her home in Englewood, New Jersey, able to speak a little bit, but unable to move her right hand enough to play the piano. A local reporter dubbed them Ebony and Ivory and the name stuck. They began to play in other senior citizen facilities, at veterans' homes and hospitals. They were on television both in the US and abroad and appeared with Regis Philbin, Geraldo Rivera and David Hartman. Liberace, who was a fan of "Ebony and Ivory", made his last television appearance on the Hour Magazine with Gary Collins and made it a condition of his appearance that if they would bring Patrick and Eisenberg on the program, he would come. Newsman Morry Alter won an award for his CBS News report on them. They were featured on PM Magazine, CNN and NBC Nightly News, with Tom Brokaw.

Patrick and Eisenberg's story was included in a book by Norman Vincent Peale and in More True Stories, an ESL reader in its third edition. It is included in sermons and religious publications in the US and other countries.

Partial list of television and radio appearances

Television

New Jersey and You, WOR-TV (December 1983). Interview and performance PM Magazine (May 24, 1984). Performance CBS News (October 21, 1985). Interview with Morry Alter (won an award) Good Morning America with David Hartman, ABC (September 9, 1986). Interview The Morning Show with Regis Philbin, ABC (October 1986). Interview Hour Magazine with Gary Collins (December 8, 1986). Interview and performance (Liberace's last television appearance) NBC Evening News with Tom Brokaw, "Assignment American: Ebony and Ivory" reported by Bill Schechner (May 6, 1988). News feature

Radio

The American Character with Norman Vincent Peale, WOR (February 24, 1985). Feature in a special radio narration Rambling with Gambling with John Gambling, WOR (October 15, 1985). Interview Morning Edition with Karen Michel, NPR/WNYC (March 9, 1987). Interview