Casual scheduling rather than overt activism was the catalyst that made Bonnie Goodliffe the first female organist to accompany The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square on a broadcast.
Two male organists were out of the country during three weeks of 1988, and it was too much for the third man to do alone. So conductor Jerold Ottley simply announced to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints’ famed choir during a rehearsal that Goodliffe, who was a regular organist for Sunday recitals, would play for the middle broadcast in that sequence of the long-running “Music and the Spoken Word.