Barbara Cecile Bone Biggs, a longtime piano teacher and choir director who introduced countless young pupils to the joys of music, died Thursday at her home at Rocky Mount. She was 75.

Ms. Biggs was surrounded by her family at the time of her passing. The cause of death was pancreatic cancer.

The daughter of Judge Walter J. and Claudilene Bone, Ms. Biggs was born in Raleigh and raised in Nashville, N.C., where her father was a judge on the Superior Court. She was a 1952 graduate of Meredith College where she pursued a double major in voice and public school music.

"For all her life, she loved singing and playing her piano," said her daughter, Alison Biggs of Milton, Mass., who recalled her mother's particular devotion to the choir at Lakeside Baptist Church in Rocky Mount. "They were like family to her," she recalled.

Dr. Gaylord Lehman, retired pastor at Lakeside, worked with Ms. Biggs for 32 years. She was "a consummate church musician who built the Lakeside adult choir and directed and assisted for more than 40 years," he said on Friday.

"She loved her family, friends, and church, music, words, and gardening. She had a unique spirit and wit," said her daughter. "She was the kindest, most loving person I have ever known."

She leaves her son, James Biggs and his wife Jaye of Rocky Mount; her daughter Alison Biggs and her husband Michael Larkin of Milton, Mass.; her sisters Shirley Beal of Albemarle, N.C., and Peggy Tousignant of Rocky Mount, and a grandson Alex of Rocky Mount.

A memorial piano concert and service will be held Sunday at Lakeside Baptist church with music beginning at 1:45 and the service at 2 p.m.

In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be sent to the Hospice at Nash General Hospital, 2460 Curtis Ellis Drive, Rocky Mount, NC 27804, or to The American Parkinson Disease Association, 135 Parkinson Avenue, Staten Island, NY 10305.

Arrangements by Wheeler and Woodlief Funeral Home, 1130 N. Winstead Ave. Rocky Mount, NC.

(Condolences: condolence@wheelerwoodlief.com)