1880-1966
L.J. Bacote, born Lucille Jeanette Bledsoe in Huntingdon, Tennessee, was a musician, teacher, and choir director. She spent over 50 years leading the senior choir at the Second Baptist Church and specialized in organ, piano, voice, and choral directing. She is credited for bringing renowned artists like basso-cantante Jules Bledsoe, the Fisk Jubilee Singer, and famed contralto Marian Anderson to Kansas City. Though she spent most of her adult life in Kansas City, she also performed and taught across the United States and even in Europe.
Lucille Bacote grew up in Topeka, Kansas, and began seriously pursuing music when she was about 11 years old, focusing on voice, piano, and organ. She played the organ at the B Street Baptist Church in Topeka where she first met Samuel W. Bacote, pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Kansas City.
After marrying Samuel in 1901, she reorganized the church’s music department and soon after became the music director and organist — a position she held until 1956.
She attended Washburn College, the New England Conservatory of Music, the Kansas City Conservatory of Music, and Kansas City University in Kansas City, Kansas where she received her bachelor’s of music degree in 1911. She also studied music under private teachers Mario Salvini in New York City and Isidor Philipp in Paris, France.
She expected high quality from her choir singers, requiring them to know how to read music to be members of the church’s senior choir. Their repertoire covered classical hymns and spirituals. The choir ranged from a dozen or so members to over 150 when revivals were organized by the church.
Her influence in the church extended to a club in her name which sought to beautify the Second Baptist Church and foster community among church members. She also cofounded a music study group called St. Cecelia Music Club.
As a teacher, Bacote gave private lessons in her home to vocalists and pianists who performed recitals locally and across the country. She further trained pupils in choir directing and organ playing. Bacote influenced her daughters Melba and Lucille to become talented musicians, too.