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Fourteen years ago, on the eve of her retirement as a newspaper columnist, Nancy Beeghly of Youngstown, Ohio, decided to learn to play the cello. She adored the burnished sound the cello produces, when played properly. But she hadn’t the foggiest idea about bowing, plucking or tuning one.Taking the musical plunge “was the most humbling thing I have ever done,” the 72-year-old Ms. Beeghly says.Buoyed by enthusiasm, perseverance and the encouragement of teachers and fellow players with whom she has bonded, she says that learning to play the cello was the start of one of the most rewarding journe

Neither Gregg Allman nor Cher ever pretended that their turbulent 1970s romance made sense. He was a hard rocker from Georgia with a howl soaked in Jack Daniel’s. She was a glitzy variety-show hostess. Yet they knew their love was special, even if Allman tried to claim that “Cher and I are just two people from down the block. We go to the drive-in all the time.” It was one of those improbable tabloid-friendly affairs that captures fascination. But it was something deeper. When news broke that the leader of the legendary Allman Brothers Band had died of liver cancer at 69 at his home in Savann