Thomas George Neadle, who played the pipe organ for worshipers and moviegoers, dies at 80

If you put Thomas George Neadle in front of the keyboard and pedals of a pipe organ, he'd play — hymns, show tunes and classical music.

Neadle, who taught himself as a teenager, played the "king of instruments" at churches, theaters and the grandest mansion in town.

He was a church organist for more than 60 years, but he also entertained moviegoers playing the WCCO Mighty Wurlitzer before Friday night shows at the historic Heights Theater in Columbia Heights. He also performed on the residential pipe organ in the James J. Hill House in St. Paul, demonstrating what home entertainment sounded like if you were part of the 1% during the Gilded Age.

Neadle, of Golden Valley, died Oct. 20. He was 80. He was born in Minneapolis and grew up in the Bryn Mawr neighborhood. His sister, Jeanette Rondestvedt, said her brother showed a talent for music at an early age.

While her parents made her take piano lessons, her brother could play by ear songs that she was struggling to learn, even though he was four years younger.

When Neadle was 17, he heard that a nearby church needed an organist. Even though he hadn't played the organ, he got the job after learning to play by watching others do it.

He played at services at the church, which later became the Plymouth Apostolic Lutheran Church, almost up to his death.

Neadle graduated from North High School and later received some formal organ instruction at the University of Minnesota. He learned how to play showbiz music on theater organs and was a member of the Land O'Lakes chapter of the American Theatre Organ Society.

With his death, there are now only a handful of people left in the state with experience playing theater organs, which can make sounds ranging from train whistles to marimbas, according to Ed Copeland, head organist at the Heights Theater.

People who knew Neadle said he was quiet and introverted until he got in front of a keyboard.

"There was always music if possible if he was around," said Stephen Rondestvedt. "He was up there playing because he loved it."

Neadle was employed for more than 40 years doing administrative work at the Minnesota Veterans Home in Minneapolis.

"When he would go to theater organ conventions, he took the train when he could," said Stephen Rondestvedt.

Barb Sheldon, office manager for the Minnesota Transportation Museum, believes Neadle was one of the museum's founding members when it was formed in 1962 to restore a trolley car, which became part of the streetcars now operated by the Minnesota Streetcar Museum in Minneapolis.

"He was a very active member here for as long as the museum was in existence," Sheldon said.

Neadle lived much of his life in his childhood home in Minneapolis, where he had an organ with more than 1,500 pipes installed. He later acquired a smaller organ when he moved to a condominium at the Calvary Center Cooperative in Golden Valley in 2008.

After a neighbor noticed Neadle hadn't picked up his newspaper or played his organ as usual, it was discovered that he had fallen. He later developed COVID and an infection and his health continued to decline until he died.