Eunice W. Price; Retired Violinist

Eunice Wennermark Price, a violinist who worked as a recording studio musician for more than 45 years, has died in North Hollywood. She was 78.

A longtime North Hollywood resident, Mrs. Price died Saturday of a heart attack, said her husband, Charles M. Price.

Born Eunice Wennermark in Pueblo, Colo., she began playing violin as a child and came to California in 1935. Throughout her career as a violinist, she worked for Paramount Pictures, RKO, Republic Pictures, Walt Disney Studios and was a member of MGM’s contract orchestra and NBC-TV’s staff orchestra. During the 1940s and ‘50s, she toured the Western states with her string group called the Symphonettes, which appeared on KMPC from the mid- to late-1940s.

Mrs. Price also worked with composer David Rose on “Bonanza,” “Little House on the Prairie” and “Highway to Heaven.” Her last work was on a re-orchestrated version of “Fantasia” in 1982 for its re-release.

A music teacher for many years, Mrs. Price was a member of the California Music Teachers Assn. and the American String Teachers Assn., in addition to the American Federation of Musicians.

She is survived by her husband of 41 years; a daughter, Debra Price Todd of Burbank, and a sister, Helene Miller of Paradise Valley, Ariz.

A funeral, with burial to follow, is scheduled at 12:30 p.m. today at the Old North Church at Forest Lawn Mortuary, 6300 Forest Lawn Drive, Hollywood Hills.

Forest Lawn Mortuary, Hollywood Hills, is handling the arrangements.