Like Grandmother, Like Granddaughter: Three generations of family pursue music

Altha Robinson remembers the first time she thought her granddaughter Peighton Robinson should do something with music: She was trying to get Peighton, who was very young at the time, to go to sleep. With the song “(I’m a) Mean Ole Lion” from “The Wiz” playing on the television, Altha thought she had achieved her goal and that Peighton was asleep, and so Altha began to walk quietly out of the room. But she was wrong: When the dramatic end to the song came, Peighton burst into applause. That was when Altha knew Peighton had an interest in music that went beyond her years.

Peighton’s passion for music was instilled in her, in part, by Altha herself: Altha first became interested in music during elementary school. When she reached junior high, she says she chose to “stick with it,” and at the end of high school, decided to study music education in college.

She began her career teaching kindergarten through sixth grade music at Washington School in Cape Girardeau and moved to May Greene School before finishing her Cape Public Schools career at Alma Schrader Elementary School. She then moved to the Sikeston R-6 School District, teaching sixth and seventh graders music for six years. She retired in 2008, although she couldn’t quite give up teaching: When the school asked her to come back, she took a job teaching music to high school students at the Alternative Education Center, a position she continues today. She is also the organist at her church.

“Music is what I love,” Altha says. “I love to try to impart that love to other students so that they’ll gain an appreciation.”

Altha Robinson sits at the piano in her Sikeston, Mo., home as she plays and her granddaughter Peighton Robinson sings. Altha is a music educator, and Peighton is studying musical theater.Photo by Aaron Eisenhauer

Altha Robinson sits at the piano in her Sikeston, Mo., home as she plays and her granddaughter Peighton Robinson sings. Altha is a music educator, and Peighton is studying musical theater.Photo by Aaron Eisenhauer

While teaching at Cape Public Schools, Altha taught piano lessons from her home. Her daughter, Ramona Bailey, who was a child at the time, listened from around the corner as Altha taught. One day, she expressed interest in taking lessons from Altha, too, and Altha began to teach her how to play, passing down her love for the instrument to her daughter.

The two began performing together each year at Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations throughout Cape Girardeau. When Peighton was born, they took her to all of the events where they performed. The first time Peighton performed at a celebration dinner, she was six years old. It was her first public performance, and it ignited her love for performing.

Since, Altha, Ramona and Peighton have continued to perform at celebration dinners nearly every year. For the past three years since she has been a student at Southeast Missouri State University (SEMO), Peighton has sung at the university’s Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Dinner. She also performed in musicals and dinner theater shows throughout middle school and high school and was the first Black female lead at Cape Central High School, starring in “Mamma Mia!” in 2019.

Currently studying musical theater at SEMO, Peighton is working to diversify her skills, branching into playwriting, directing and voiceover work. She credits her love for the art to growing up in church “surrounded” by music, the musicals her mother and grandmother played on television and the songs from musicals they listened to in their home.

“I felt like it was just already supposed to happen, honestly,” Peighton says of her career in music. “I feel like it was kind of already just laid out there for me, and I just had to pick it up and just run with it.”

The same year Peighton graduated from high school, Ramona graduated from Southeast Missouri State University with a degree in music performance. She currently plays piano at her church.

“It just … seems to be in the blood, so to speak,” Altha says.

Altha Robinson plays the piano as her granddaughter Peighton Robinson sings. Altha says it is "gratifying" to see her daughter and granddaughter pursue music.Photo by Aaron Eisenhauer

Altha Robinson plays the piano as her granddaughter Peighton Robinson sings. Altha says it is "gratifying" to see her daughter and granddaughter pursue music.Photo by Aaron Eisenhauer

Peighton says one of the most important lessons her grandmother has taught her is to remain humble; she recalls a specific conversation her grandma had with her to impart this lesson while sitting on her couch when she was 10 years old. She says it is also important to her to “just realize that you’re living in this wonderful moment” as she performs; especially when she gets to perform with her grandmother, as she did at SEMO’s 2023 Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Dinner.

Memories like this are important to Altha, too: She remembers the specific moment at a past Martin Luther King Jr. event at the Osage Centre when she realized how talented her daughter was as she performed. She remembers seeing Ramona the way other people saw her and realizing she could “sit back now and push her forward to be seen in that light.” Her granddaughter following in her footsteps and pursuing music makes this experience even more “enlightened,” she says.

“It is so gratifying. … I just can’t really explain the feeling,” Altha says. “It’s kind of very emotional. … I [feel] like I had a small part in it, in their achievements. A lot of it they had to do on their own. But I feel good about the fact that I at least got them started. … Every time they sing or perform or whatever it is they do what they do, it just makes me feel really good on the inside. So, I hope that they’re feeling the same way.”