CHURCH ORGANIST RETIRING TO START TRAINING.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

Being a deeply religious man, Bryce LaMotte figures God must have had other plans for him that day back in 1944 when he and his dad were on their way to a football game.

Why else would he have made it rain so hard?

World War II was winding down, and Bryce's father, Donald, who managed a Sears store in Pasadena, was taking his 10-year-old son to the Milk Bowl.

You have to go back a few years in this area to remember the old Milk Bowl held annually at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

It was a football game played by the best junior high school players around to help raise money for a milk fund used to make sure all elementary school kids had milk available to them at school.

``It was raining pretty hard as we were driving over to the Rose Bowl, and Dad decided we'd go to a movie instead,'' Bryce says. ``Esther Williams had a new movie out with Red Skelton so we went and saw that.

But it wasn't Esther Williams or Red Skelton who God wanted Bryce LaMotte to see that day. It was Ethel Smith.

She was sitting behind a big Hammond organ playing some of the most beautiful music Bryce and his dad had ever heard.

``Dad said if I agreed to take lessons when the war was over, he'd buy me an electric organ,'' Bryce said. ``I jumped at the chance.''

Somewhere up in heaven, God smiled. Mission accomplished.

The kid from Pasadena who loved trains and wanted to travel the country as a railroad engineer when he grew up wasn't so sure anymore. This organ music was awfully compelling, too.

And that's how God got Bryce LaMotte to work for him every Sunday for the past 38 years at one of his places in the Valley - First Presbyterian Church of Granada Hills.

Sitting behind a pipe organ playing some of the most beautiful music this side of heaven.

The kid's 69 now, and figures maybe it's time to hand over that organ to some younger hands so he can get back to that railroad dream that got sidetracked in a dark movie theater 59 years ago.

Bryce LaMotte - the quiet man in the background who makes the service go smoothly and the choir shine, say the people in this congregation - is retiring this month to go ride the rails.

Travel the country by train for weeks at a time, just like his daddy did for Sears all those years.

``He'd take me down to the station with him, and I'd see him leave and think that's what I want to do, too,'' Bryce said.

``Time's running out so I figure I have to do it now while I'm still healthy - take those long train trips I couldn't take all these years because I had to be back by Thursday night for choir practice.''

There's been no sign God's upset about the decision to retire. No rain or lightning. So Bryce figures it's okay. He's paid his dues. He's going.

And that, say the people who have come to rely on him every Sunday in this house of worship, is going to be a hard job to fill.

``Bryce has served four pastors here, a few interims, and countless choir directors over the years,'' says current pastor Jim Sillerud, who has been at the church for 10 years.

``He's the quiet man in the background making sure the service goes smoothly, always so supportive.''

Thelma Landon has known Bryce since the first day he came over to the Granada Hills church from his previous congregation, a Japanese Presbyterian church that closed its doors after the state took its land in the mid-'60s for the future 134 Freeway.

``There's always that space from one part of the worship service to the other that Bryce is so masterful at filling with quiet, beautiful music to make the service seamless,'' she says.

``He can make the congregation totally unaware a mistake has been made in the choir. If someone misses a beat, Bryce fixes it, adds something that makes it all fit together so beautifully that no one notices.''

Dick Lovelace, another choir member, agrees. He and Bryce were neighbors back when Bryce was working as a music teacher at Northridge Junior High School for 34 years.

``Bryce established the standard and quality for music around here,'' Lovelace said. ``He's been key to the singers and the choir directors over the years. We're all going to miss him not being behind the organ on Sundays.''

Bryce was a man ``perfectly happy in the role of accompanying the choir and making it shine,'' adds Diane Johnson, another choir member.

All these accolades and more make Bryce a little uncomfortable because he's basically a shy man who has enjoyed his role behind the organ in the background.

``It's nice to be appreciated, though,'' he says, on the eve of giving up his Sunday job for God.

He and his wife, Betty, will spend more time now visiting their four children, six grandchildren and other relatives scattered around the country. By train, of course.

Betty doesn't like to be gone too long, so Bryce will probably take a few long train trips alone. And if he gets bored, well, the new organist is going to need some time off during the year.

Bryce figures God might need him again for vacation fill-in.

Dennis McCarthy, [phone]

dennis.mccarthy(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

Bryce LaMotte, 69, is stepping down as organist at First Presbyterian Church of Granada Hills, where he has played for 38 years. LaMotte next plans to pursue a childhood dream and travel the country by railroad.

David Sprague/Staff Photographer