Betty Jo Miller, left, 85, and Carolyn Bailey Berneking, 92, share a love for classical piano. The two Lawrence Presbyterian Manor residents combine as The

From left, Carolyn Bailey Berneking and Betty Jo Miller practice the piano in Miller's room at Lawrence Presbyterian Manor. The two are neighbors.

Two different styles, two different backgrounds, 117 years between them.

One popular duo.

Carolyn Bailey Berneking and Betty Jo Miller are as different as can be, but the neighbors at Lawrence Presbyterian Manor have come together over their love of the piano.

“She’s a music teacher, and I’m a performer, and usually those two can’t get together very well,” says Berneking, 92, of the 85-year-old Miller. “I interpret it my way … she has to go by the book.”

Luckily for their fellow retirement community residents, Berneking and Miller have found a way to compromise and use their talents to entertain as The Joking Duo – a show that easily gets 35 or more people in the audience.

Every few months for the past four years, The Joking Duo – a play on Miller’s middle name (Jo) and Berneking’s last name – have entertained crowds and delighted their fellow manor residents. And now, they have a new production cooking: a CD.

Opposite musical lives

One was a trained musician who ended up teaching. The other was a trained teacher who ended up dedicated to music.

Berneking studied for a year at the Conservatory of Music of Kansas City with John St. Thompson, famous for his books of piano instruction. Then she moved on to get her bachelor’s degree in piano at Kansas University, where she was the president of the glee club.

Post-graduation, she used her musical training to play organ at churches all around the country, including Kansas, New Jersey and Minnesota. And somewhere during her 35 years of organ playing, she ended up as a music teacher during World War II.

“During the war, I taught public school music down in Alabama where we lived. I taught all ages, singing mostly. You had these books for each grade and I hauled them around in the back of my Jeep station wagon. Went to a different school every day,” Berneking says. “I didn’t have a degree in teaching, I didn’t take music ed, I wasn’t connected with the school of education in any way, I just had a bachelor’s of music from KU, but they hired me anyway. Because during the war they couldn’t get who they wanted.”

Miller, on the other hand, holds bachelor’s and a master’s degrees in home economics education but spent the majority of her teaching career as a private piano teacher out of her home.

“I’m a teacher, but not a musician,” Miller says. “I grew up in a home full of music – my qualifications are extremely different than Carolyn’s. She has been a performer all her life, but all I did was help little kids learn their basic scales.”

Forming the duo

Four years ago, Berneking came to Presbyterian Manor, moving in down the hall from Miller. It wasn’t long before Berneking learned her new neighbor had a small piano wedged in her two-bedroom apartment.

“We both had had big grand pianos that we had to give to our kids,” Miller says. “So, I just have a little piano because, of course, the apartments aren’t very big.”

Sitting side-by-side on Miller’s piano seat, the two tackled difficult pieces, playing with four hands to pass the time.

“We just picked songs that looked like what we could handle and picked pieces that were very listenable,” Miller says. “We didn’t go for the heavy Beethoven stuff. But still very listenable, classical pieces.”

Eventually, word got out that the neighbors were making beautiful music up on the second floor.

“We got brave enough, and they started asking us to play for the residents,” Berneking says. “And now we’re getting to the place where it is too stressful and nerve-wracking and we set this goal of putting it on a CD.”

The CD was recorded in two hours by Jeff “Chubby” Smith, who does work for KPR Public Radio, at the First Methodist Church downtown, where Miller is a member. For it, the women picked music by Dvorak, songs from the “Peer Gynt” suite, a Scott Joplin rag and “Nola” by Felix Arndt.

The recording was made for family – and friends, if some of their more ardent fans have their way.

“Those ladies are so good. I would not miss their performances,” says Carol Floersch, 82, who occasionally plays with the duo, and is a fan of their music. “I can hardly wait until the CD comes out. I can hardly wait.”