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100-year-old piano teacher still giving lessons

Olive Haffner started teaching piano during the depression and she's still going strong.

When it comes to music, Moscow Mills, Missouri is much more Chesney than Tchaikovsky. Unless you happen to be in Olive Haffner's neighborhood.

"Bach and Chopin are my favorites," she told us.

Several days a week, inside her home is a concerto of piano lessons and life lessons.

"I said it's like reading the Bible," said Haffner. "Every time you read the Bible you find something new."

And if experience really is the best teacher, then Ms. Hafnner may be the best piano teacher on earth.  She's been doing it for more than 80 years.

Photos: 100-year-old piano teacher still gives lessons

"She really loves what she does. She has a passion for it like nothing else," explained 20-year-old Stephanie Dwiggins, a former student.

And the passion is passed on.

"I just love playing, I love learning more about it," 12-year-old student Michael Fernau told us.

Ms. Haffner started teaching during the depression at 25 cents a lesson and she's been doing it so long now that her first students sent their children to her and they sent their children and they sent their children.

She says no two lessons are alike because no two students are alike, but they all have to have one thing in common.

"You have to go home and practice," laughs 17-year-old Helen Wilmes. "It was 30 minutes every day and I went home and practiced and went over and over and over it until I got it."

There won't be as many solos at Ms. Haffner's home this week because former students are stopping by to wish her a happy 100th birthday.

"I don't feel that old!" exclaimed Haffner.

Stephanie Dwiggins drove all the way from the University of Kansas where she's now a music major.

"I think it's important that she gets all the recognition and celebration that she deserves," said Dwiggins.

Ms. Haffner says it's the teaching that keeps her breathing.

Striking a chord with students for more than eight decades, and learning that she has no plans to retire is music to their ears.

"She's amazing," said Wilmes.

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