Recently I joined retired school employees from Johnson and Somervell Counties to give children a standing ovation.

They were music students from Grandview Intermediate School. Named the Zebra Strings, for their school mascot, the group packed more power than any athletic team.

They had touched the heartstrings of their listeners.

Perhaps you’ve heard the third-, fourth- and fifth-graders play the cello, viola, bass and violins in recital or heard their select performance group play violins at your service club or professional organization.

If so, you remember the “Cotton Eyed Joe” and how they sway in rhythm and reach across with their bows to play their partner’s fiddle.

Hearing them again brought back memories of the year 2000, when I had first visited Vicki Lynn Nichols’ Grandview Intermediate School classroom.

I wrote then about the teacher’s budding dream:

“It was right after lunch, the time when students are typically most sluggish. The class instruction would last only 20 minutes, so every second counted.

Nobody dawdled.

Like clockwork, the fifth-graders sat down and expectantly awaited their section numbers to be called so they could retrieve their violins from storage racks on the wall. Meanwhile, assigned students distributed the music books. There was no roll check. If an assigned chair was empty, the classroom aide knew that student was absent.

Within two minutes, students knew their music page number and sat in position with their violins on their left knees, watching for their signal to raise them.

Their teacher sat facing them behind a piano -- she uses a keyboard today -- seated on a tall stool. She ceremoniously raised her hands, and violins snapped under chins, with bows raised, awaiting a down beat. She accompanied them, and I listened.

When that first sound emerged, it was surprising, bringing cold chills.

Their music was basic, to be sure, after only four weeks of school that first year, but it was on key and in unison. Their intensity touched me as much as their music. That year 82 children shared 50 violins.

They played the same piece in half, quarter and eighth notes, playing faster and faster. They learned how to pluck the strings.

It was one of those ‘mark this down’ events, for I sensed I was there during the program’s infancy.”

I was right. Eight years later the Grandview Independent School District, assisted by the Talbert Grant Program, has provided more than 100 child-sized violins as well as cellos, violas and bass violins for use by its students. Currently 260 of them are enrolled in the strings program.

It all began when Mrs. Nichols feared her fifth-graders would lose interest in her music program.

“I had been teaching these fifth-graders since they were in the second grade,” she said. “They could read music, and I just knew that if I placed another recorder in their hands again they would lose interest. My dream was to teach them violin.”

She said she explained that to Superintendent Harold Pinkerton and Elementary Principal Randy Rice, both now retired, and they and the school board approved her request and purchased 50 child-sized violins.

“They told me to go for it,” she said with a smile.

It wasn’t as if she would have to learn how to teach the instrument. At Vicki Lynn’s Music Center at 503 West Henderson in Cleburne she’s taught guitar, piano, mandolin, banjo and violin for years. Her husband, Nicky, teaches drums. Her staff of instructors works with her when she joins them after school.

She is a professional musician in her own right. She and her band were chosen Favorite Entertainers of the Year at the Cross Timbers Opry in Stephenville. But there’s not much time left for personal shows these days.

After winning the first-place trophy at Sandy Lake competition from 2001 through 2007, Zebra Strings has performed at Bass Hall twice. They were featured on two television news stations in 2003 and appeared on Daystar TV’s “Celebration in 2004 and 2005.”

They participated in the American Classic Festival at the Meyerson Center in Dallas in 2005.

And now, an annual trip to Branson, Mo., has become the group’s primary goal. Traditionally, fifth-graders audition for the 25-30 spots for the travel team. Their trip in May 2009 will mark Zebra String’s fifth time to open as a 20-minute pre-show for such theaters as the Presleys, the Haygoods, Celebration City, Dick Clark Theater, Jim Stafford, and aboard the showboat Branson Belle.

Her husband and their children, Michael and Jodi, back up Nichols at the keyboard as they accompany the strings.

“Every year we attend a violin workshop with the Haygood Family,” she said. “Their critique is awesome for us. It is amazing how it helps us. They are also very loving towards the children. They sent us a violin that had belonged to their son, Dominque, when he was 10 years old. The entire family autographed it, and we pass it around each day at performance so that every student gets to play it. It is truly treasured.”

“This May will be our fifth trip by chartered bus to Branson,” Vicki Lynn said. “No child pays anything. We raise all the money together. They sell cookie dough, have a sock hop, an auction. We play for the community and the area, and they are kind to give us donations. The kids send out letters to relatives and family friends. When an envelope comes back to them, we are all so excited when they get an opportunity to read their response to the class.

“Our goal this year is $21,000.”

In 2007, Grandview Mayor Jack Orr and the city council declared a Zebra Strings Day.

“The entire town honored us,” she said. “We went downtown and had cake and punch, and they all got a T-shirt. It was wonderful to have a day named for them.”

Vicki Lynn Poteet Nichols is a product of Grandview Schools. She was born and raised there, the youngest child of D. A. “Andy” and Bonnie Poteet. She recalls loving music as far back as she can remember, first studying piano in grade school from Olive Steed.

Her mother told her she had several relatives in Tennessee who were musicians on her side of the family.

In 1972, at age 15, while a cheerleader at Grandview High, Vicki Lynn’s power of persuasion surfaced. She convinced Fred Dickson that she should teach guitar at his music center instead of continuing lessons there. She sensed he wondered if anyone would take lessons from someone so young.

Soon she had 40 students.

Innovative by nature, she developed her own teaching curriculum and has continued to use it successfully throughout the years.

In 1978, she purchased Music Works in Cleburne and renamed it Music, Etc. In 1981, she opened her present business, Vicki Lynn’s Music Center, as the only full-service music store in Johnson County.

After studying music at the University of North Texas, she earned her teaching degree from Southwestern Adventist University. She has taught in Grandview ISD for 11 years. Elementary-intermediate Principal Kristi Rhone said the school system was fortunate to have Nichols as a teacher and expressed her pride in the strings program.

Nichols spends time outside of class, cleaning all 100 violins and other stringed instruments, tuning the strings and adjusting the colored tape on the necks of instruments used for instruction. Extra time is necessary, also, to rosin all the bows.

“Our students are trained in a variety of musical styles,” she said. “They enjoy playing everything from gospel and bluegrass to classical and even old-time rock and roll. We love to share the joy and hope we find in music with our community as well as others.”

I think one of the most touching parts of a performance by Zebra Strings is to watch the rapport between the teacher and her students. She smiles a lot. They are almost breathless, watching and listening. They perform as one. Their faces show they love what they are doing. The audience responds in awe and misty-eyed appreciation. As their director plays the keyboard in the background, the children are the stars.

At their recent performance they played “Amazing Grace.” Listeners were emotionally touched by it. I thought of the day a young man left class after playing that song and came back to ask Nichols a question.

“I stood before the class and gave my answer, ‘Years ago there was a man named Jesus. He came and died for us that we might have life. That, boys and girls, is what ‘Amazing Grace’ is all about.’”

The child had asked, “Why does that song make us cry?”



Larue Barnes may be reached at laruebarnes@yahoo.com



To schedule a Zebra Strings

performance or to make an equipment or travel contribution, contact Vicki Lynn Nichols,

Director, P.O. Box 310,

Grandview, TX 76050, call

817-866-2701, or e-mail

vnichols@gvisd.org.