A standing-room-only crowd jammed into the Homer Council on the Arts last Friday to share music and appreciation of Mary Epperson on her 92nd birthday, June 6. Called “the creative heart of Homer,” Epperson is one of the founders of HCOA, a music teacher and musician, a longtime volunteer and a booster of the Kachemak Bay Campus. 

“If you had to summarize the arts in Homer, two words: Mary Epperson,” said Mark Robinson, a retired Homer High School music teacher and former Kenai Peninsula Orchestra conductor.

“Everybody here had something to do that was wonderful. I was just the pusher,” Epperson said. “You all have been my treasures. I didn’t do anything.”

Photo by Michael Armstrong, Homer News