Sweet music: Indy musician Cathy Morris is reunited with lost electric violin

Indianapolis jazz musician Cathy Morris was almost trembling as she held her long-lost electric violin again Friday.

She'd given it up for stolen, probably about a year ago after one of her performances, when it disappeared from under a stage at Indianapolis International Airport.

But a friend saw a story Friday in The Indianapolis Star about an auction today, where about a year's worth of lost and found items recovered from the airport terminal are to be sold.

The auction is drawing attention because a crew from cable television's Travel Channel is scheduled to be there to record an episode of a new reality series, "Baggage Battles."

Key Auctioneers of Indianapolis expected the violin to be one of the most unusual items in the sale of unclaimed goods, set for 1 p.m. today at the airport.

Its description of the five-string Jensen electric violin with ebony finger board and blond maple wood neck piqued the interest of Jeanne Spellman, Indianapolis. She suspected she knew the owner of the violin: her friend Cathy Morris.

She called Morris, who contacted airport officials. They pulled the instrument from the auction and returned it to her.

"I feel like I've been reunited with a lost child," Morris said.

For a professional musician, she said, "your instrument is an extension of yourself. When you are playing it, it carries your personality."

"When I realized it was gone, possibly forever, I couldn't acknowledge that. I called the airport a couple of times to see if it had been recovered or turned in to lost-and-found. But they said they couldn't find it."

"When I got the call today, it was emotional for me," she said.

Morris owns several electric violins and often carries a spare, like the Jensen she carried that day in a metal case to the airport. The list of songs played during the sets that day was still in the case.

She has owned it more than 15 years and often played it at shows and parties in Indianapolis and other cities.

Now that the $1,800 instrument is back in her hands, Morris said, she'll play it at several Super Bowl private parties in the next week, including a dinner arranged by the NFL for all 32 team coaches.

Call Star reporter Bruce C. Smith at (317) 444-6081.

http://www.indystar.com/article/20120128/LOCAL/201280319/1001/news