Longtime Sweet Adelines' Singer In Harmony With Hobby

Bette Killeen carried two scrapbooks to her kitchen table to show what singing with different chapters of Sweet Adelines International has meant.

The scrapbooks are overflowing with photographs, programs and mementos from her more than 40 years of singing with the group.

"You can always find a chapter wherever you are," Killeen said.

"You make friends. You have fun. They always tell us, 'no matter what else - have fun!'"

Killeen has sung with chapters in Missouri, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and, finally, in Avon Park. According to their Web site, Sweet Adelines International is a worldwide organization of women singers who promote barbershop harmony through education and performance. It is one of the world's largest singing organizations for women.

Killeen sings bass with the group which is typically a man's part. She explained that the sheet music is often transposed for a woman's voice but the structure of the music is the same.

"My husband's pitch pipe goes from F to F, and ours goes from C to C," Killeen added.

Bass sings the pitch that's blown; the lead singers have the melody; tenors are above the lead; and the bass is below the lead, she said.

"And what's leftover is given to the baritone," Killeen said.

As she walked around her living room, she pointed to photographs of herself over the decades with different groups of singers.

"The human voice can do lots of things that a keyboard can't," Killeen said.

"If it's in perfect harmony there will be another tone up above. Everybody can't hear it but they call it an overtone. Sometimes there are undertones, too."

Killeen said if she stands outside of the group of singers, she often hears the overtone.

There are 39 women singing in The Heart of Highland Sweet Adeline Show Chorus of Region 9. The women sing in one show each year and in one international competition. Last year the competition was in Hawaii. This year it will be in Nashville.

"This is my first quartet right here and this is me," Killeen said.

"When we first moved here, I didn't join. But I couldn't stand it so I finally went back in again."

This is the 17th year that the Avon Park chapter has offered a $1,000 scholarship to a young woman in college with music in her curriculum. If someone is interested in applying for the money, they should contact their high school guidance counselor.