Mrs. Bagnall studied piano and music education at Drake University, the University of Michigan and The Hartt College where she graduated in 1955. She served First Church of Christ, Simsbury as organist for twenty-five years, as well as serving as Assistant Director of Music and organizer and director of the Coral Bells, the First Church handbell choirs. While her primary training was in piano, Charlotte had received some early organ instruction when as a teenager she helped with services in her home church in Greenfield, Iowa.

When asked to serve as organist of First Church, she began serious studies in organ with Phillip Issacson and Larry Allen.. Over the years, she became recognized not only for her technical skills but for her sensitivity to the role of music within a religious service. Charlotte's dedication to her position as organist was an expression of her own deep faith and her belief in the importance of music as an expression of faith in worship.

From her own experience and as an active member of the American Guild of Organists, Charlotte was aware of the reducing numbers of college trained organists. She knew that churches were finding it increasingly difficult to recruit skilled trained organists for their music ministries and that they were turning to skilled pianists to fill this role. It seemed appropriate at her retirement in 1993 that a scholarship be established in her name to address this problem.