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If you don’t fail it’s because you did not risk enough, and if you didn’t risk enough it’s because you didn’t put your whole self out there.

Carlos Barrabes, Entrepreneur (via forbes)

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Jane Little spent her long life making beautiful music, and she died this weekend doing just what she loved, onstage. Little played with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for more than 71 years. She joined the symphony in 1945, when she was just 16.

“My father took me down to the Southeastern Music Company in Atlanta to buy my first bass, and he had no idea what I was going to play,” she recalled. “So, I says, ‘Daddy, there it is in the window, I’m playing this bass. This is what I want.’ He says, 'I can’t believe you’re playing that big thing.’ ”

Little taught herself to play that bass, and never stopped. In an interview in February, she told member station WABE in Atlanta that she started playing at the symphony for free. Eventually, they did begin to pay her — $35 every other week. In those days, to make ends meet, Little traveled across the South, performing with other symphony orchestras in Augusta and Savannah, Ga., and in Chattanooga, Tenn. She also invested in real estate just in case her career with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra didn’t last. She need not have bothered. She was a well-loved orchestra member, and the feeling was mutual.

Jane Little, Atlanta’s Dainty Double-Bass Player For 71 Years, Dies Onstage

Photo: Dustin Chambers/Atlanta Symphony Orchestra