PORT ANGELES — It is possible to teach a man, over the phone, how to play the ukulele.
Lil Tinsley of Oahu, Hawaii, and Bill Tinsley of Iowa learned as much a good 54 years ago. They became sweethearts when both lived in Torrance, Calif., and conducted much of their courtship on the phone, since he was a fireman working the long shifts.
Lil and Bill went on to travel the world together, teaching in Asia and, after 38 years of marriage, moving to Eden Valley outside of Port Angeles.
Half a dozen years ago, the couple started the Eden Valley Strummers, a kind of house band at the Port Angeles Senior & Community Center.
“We’re strummers. We’re not Jake Shimabukuro,” says Lil, referring to the young virtuoso who plays “Bohemian Rhapsody” on the uke.
Those ukuleles, as it turns out, have proved powerful beyond their size.
Lil and Bill have stepped back from leading the group, as they’ve gotten busy with other things. But the pair are still fierce about their music.
Sitting in the sunshine last Sunday, posing for photographs, Lil and Bill dived right in to “Are You Missing Me,” a love song. Singing and playing ukes, clearly, was much easier than talking about themselves.
After a few songs, the couple went inside, to Laurel Park’s living room, for more. They volunteer at the assisted living center at 1133 E. Park Ave. for “Sunday sing,” an informal get-together with “no preaching,” Lil says.
It’s about praise through music: hymns like “Amazing Grace,” “The Old Rugged Cross” and “It’s No Secret.”
“These old songs, I’d forgotten all of them — until you start,” said one of the women who came to listen.
Lil’s volunteer work at Laurel Park, which included visits two or three times weekly to read aloud, relax and reminisce with the residents, has just turned into a full-time job. At 74, she is the activities director, officially the “meaningful pursuits coordinator” in charge of finding out what the elderly residents like to do.
So far she’s been playing music, of course, and just talking and listening to the people of Laurel Park.
“If you need to find her, just listen for the laughter,” said residence director Susan Kohlleppel.
When she started advertising for a coordinator, Kohlleppel didn’t know Lil would be interested. Upon finding out, “I couldn’t get her an application fast enough.”
Last week, Lil decided to call attention to the Hat Project at Laurel Park. A number of residents are knitting hats: for babies, teenagers, adults, anybody who needs one. The hats are delivered to local shelters and to Olympic Medical Center.
At lunch with two of the knitters, Caroline Salinas and Margie Henderson, Lil spoke with pride about their effort, then showed off a table loaded with the hats.
Lil treats the women like sisters. She’s gotten to know them in her visits, Bill by her side, ukuleles in their hands.
“It’s cute to see them together,” said Henderson, who is the same age as Lil.
Lil learned to play as a girl, and today, as a septuagenarian, enjoys the way the sound of a ukulele can soothe the listener.
“Music puts [people] in a frame of mind, to where they’re open,” she says.
As for Lil, “If I get up in the morning and put my Hawaiian music on, I’m good.”
Roma Peters, a Hawaiian-born resident of Port Angeles, met “Aunty Lil” soon after moving here. Joining the Eden Valley Strummers, she found out fast about Lil’s “determination to bring out the talents hidden within us.”
Through Lil’s teachings, Peters said she gained the confidence to sing and play the uke in public. She now performs, under the name Hawaii Amor, during Port Angeles’ Second Saturday art festivities, and has a running gig at Elliott’s Antique Emporium on the second Saturday afternoon of the month.
Through Aunty Lil, “my dream of one day to be able to share the beautiful music of my birthplace, Hawaii, came true,” Peters said.
Aunty Lil is now planning a luau, replete with music, hula dancing and traditional Hawaiian cuisine at Laurel Park on Sunday, Aug. 4, at noon.
Laurel Park and the Eden Valley Strummers are an extended family, a family in addition to those who call Lil “Mom” or “Grandma.”
“She’s very protective of her grandchildren, always checking in, asking, ‘What do you need?,” said Richard Stephens, her son-in-law.
Stephens and Lil and Bill’s daughter Liane are the parents of four of their grandchildren: Ciandi, Chaz, Tia and Robert. Lil and Bill also have two sons, Jesse and Karl, and a total of eight grandchildren.
Last summer, Stephens brought Lil on stage in the Port Angeles Light Opera production of “South Pacific,” in the role of Bloody Mary, the islander who hopes to marry her daughter off to a U.S. Marine lieutenant.
“I had teased her about it for years: ‘If we ever do “South Pacific” . . .’ because she is so not like that,” Stephens recalled.
Lil hadn’t performed on a stage for years, but she stepped up and played Bloody Mary for all she was worth.
“She is a fearless woman,” says Stephens.
Lil also relished her “South Pacific” role because it brought her into a show with her son-in-law, who played Luther Billis, and with her teenage grandson Robert Stephens, who played one of the Seabees.
Robert has since graduated from Port Angeles High School and enrolled in Western Washington University. Lil was right there helping him compile his scholarship notebook, Stephens adds.
Lil is a woman who practices her Christian faith in a real-world way, he says. And “when things go wrong, everybody wants to be with her.”
These days Lil is pouring her considerable energy into her new job at Laurel Park. There’s the luau to organize, the Sunday Sing and hand-knit hats to give away. For those, Lil and the Laurel Park crew are looking for yarn donations. They’ve benefited so far from contributions from the Serenity House Thrift Store in Port Angeles, which is managed by Stephens.
“I call Richard and ask, ‘You got yarn?’” Lil says. “And he says, ‘Yes, Mom.’”
Henderson, for her part, looks forward to producing plenty more. She started out knitting for an African charity, and has since ramped up her production, knitting dozens for newborn babes as well as needy teenagers in Port Angeles.
“Don’t count us out yet,” she said of the knitters at Laurel Park.
“I just love these people,” said Lil. “They’re so cool.”
