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Bessie Juliet Kibbey decided in 1925 to leave a bequest for a carillon in memory of her grandparents, William B. Kibbey and Sarah A. Kibbey, to the Washington National Cathedral that was then under construction . The $130,000 bequest did not become available until after her death in 1949, and installation of the carillon had to wait for the completion of the “Gloria in Excelsis” central tower, which was dedicated on .May 7, 1964.
Kibbey's bequest had indicated a preference for sixty to seventy-one bells by the John Taylor Bell Foundry, but consulting carillonneurs felt that many bells could not be played efficiently.
The resulting 53-bell Kibbey Carillon was dedicated on September 22, 1963 with a recital played by Ronald Barnes, Cathedral Carillonneur.
References
1949 Bessie
Juliet Kibbey (19 Aug 1857 - 19 May 1949) grave
1962 "National
Cathedral Post to Barnes," The Lincoln Star, December 23,
1962, Page 26.
Former Lincoln Musician Will establish Carillon Program.
1963 "Cathedral Bells Arrive," Diocesan Press Service. June 5, 1963
2000 "A Carillon For The Cathedral," by Heather Ewing, Bulletin of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America 49:19-32 (2000)
2014 "Fifty Years Going Forward: The Golden Anniversary of the Kibbey Carillon at Washington National Cathedral," by Edward Nassor, Bulletin of the Guild of Carillonneurs in North America 63(2):20-25 (2014)
© 2023 Morris A. Pierce