The Orchard Keeper Who Never Stopped Singing

Every morning at 5:45, before the Texas sun crests the pecan groves outside Fredericksburg, 87-year-old Margaret Townsend steps onto her back porch with a cup of black coffee and sings a hymn. Not quietly. Not under her breath. She sings full-voiced into the dawn — the same practice she started as a young bride in 1962. Her neighbors know the routine.…