It sat inside the window of a store on Portsmouth’s High Street when Norma Jeannette first clapped adoring eyes on the Baldwin grand piano.

Almost 40 years ago now, estimates Suffolk’s Amy Jeannette, one of Norma Jeannette’s two daughters.

Norma Jeannette would venture out during her lunch break at the naval shipyard to watch the instrument being given a new lease on life.

“She watched them rebuild it,” the daughter said. “They got ready to put dark paint on it, and she said, ‘Please don’t put dark paint on it.’”

So smitten was she that Norma Jeannette cashed in her retirement to buy the Baldwin. It ended up with lighter paint.

“My daddy hit the roof,” Amy Jeannette recalled.

According to Amy Jeannette and the second daughter, Cathy Huband, the piano in ensuing years would bring countless hours of joy to Norma Jeannette and her family.

“She was very talented,” Cathy Huband said. “She not only could read music, but she played by ear.

“In her later years, she was also computer-savvy. She would hear a song she liked and go to the Internet and download the sheet music and learn it.”

Norma Jeannette died of cancer in November 2013 at 85. Her family wanted to find the Baldwin a new home where it would be appreciated and continue spreading the joy of music.

“I think she always wanted my sister to take it, but it was a six-foot-three grand, and my sister doesn’t have that much room. Neither do I,” Amy Jeannette reflected.

“We thought about selling it, but we just couldn’t do it. It appraised for $12,000.”

Norma Jeannette’s pride and joy has ended up in the Nancy Russell Auditorium at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy, after her daughters decided to donate it to the school from which her granddaughter, Jennifer Huband Coleman, graduated.

Also, Huband — Coleman’s mother — worked there, in a couple of different capacities, for five years.

And what’s more, the auditorium is named after the former Lower School headmaster who hired Huband.

Huband and an NSA student both performed on the piano during a Dec. 11 dedication ceremony, Amy Jeannette said.

“As it is played in the future it will fill the hearts of our Saints for generations to come,” NSA spokeswoman Karen Schompert stated.

“We are very grateful for the family’s generous support of the arts at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy.”

Norma Jeanette shared her love of music far beyond the family home and her Baldwin grand, Amy Jeannette says.

She played the organ at Portsmouth’s former First Congregational Christian Church and during ecumenical services at the Naval Medical Center.

“I took voice lessons, and I sang,” said Amy Jeannette, who often accompanied her mother.

Amy Jeannette said the family was too poor for dance lessons for her and her sister, but a studio agreed to provide them in return for Norma Jeannette’s services providing music during rehearsals and recitals.

Huband said her mother would be happy to see her piano somewhere it will be used and appreciated by young people.

“I think it would make her feel good that it’s in a good place,” she said.