The two pictured here are Madame Inez McCune Williamson and her daughter, Virginia Lee (LaVanna Lee) Williamson. Upon Madame's retirement from vocal instruction, they moved to 3658 Monroe St. in Riverside, where they resided for well over 20 years. Madame admits to purchasing the home at first glance -- the paperwork took about 30 minutes to complete!

This photo (published in The Desert Sun of Palm Springs, California, on Friday, February 5, 1943) expresses the closeness of their relationship perfectly, I think. It has an endearing quality. From what I've gleaned from their scrapbooks and letters to one another, they were good friends.

Madame Inez McCune Williamson (born in Virginia around 1880) was an accomplished pianist at the age of 16, when it was discovered that she had a voice of "exceptional quality." In the June 1933 issue of Musical West, a journal edited by Frederick Shippman, Madame shares that upon discovering that she had a gifted voice, she began studying with prominent local voice teachers. She later studied with Francis Fisher Powers in New York, finally moving to Europe to study for three years with the great Mathilde Marchesi. She also assisted Marchesi in her studio.

Madame returned to the states and became a respected voice teacher. Indeed, two of her students were selected (from hundreds who auditioned) to sing before the Crown Prince and Princess of Sweden when they visited Utah in 1926. She is pictured here giving vocal instruction to a group of students -- perhaps in preparation for a recital. If you enlarge this image, you can easily identify the photo of Mathilde Marchesi on her piano.

Perhaps the greatest endorsement of Madame's gift for building voices was her daughter, Virginia. Madame and her daughter were living in Salt Lake City when it was learned that the famous opera singer, Madame Galli-Curci, would appear on tour in Salt Lake City. It was widely understood that Madame Galli-Curci never granted auditions while she was on tour, but Utah Governor George H. Dern, who was a friend of Madame and Virginia, asked Madame Galli-Curci to grant Virginia an audition. (Governor Dern would later become Franklin D. Roosevelt's War Secretary.)

Galli-Curci was clearly impressed with Virginia. Shortly after the audition, she wrote a letter to her that reads in part, "With your many fine qualities your voice would fit perfectly into light opera and I wish you all kinds of luck in it." In another letter, Galli-Curci promised to "personally assist Virginia in New York."

Estelle Liebling, a noted New York vocal authority (later to become Beverly Sills' voice coach), wrote to Virginia Lee as well: "Since Mme. Galli-Curci was so enthusiastic about your voice, then your voice must be an excellent one, because she is always very sincere and very honest in her criticism and advice -- I shall do everything in my power to help you when you arrive here if you can manage to come."

Virginia chose not to go to New York after all -- partly because Hollywood made promises to her (promises they didn't keep).

My interest in the lives of these two beautiful and accomplished women has grown markedly. I plan to work on this collection every chance I get, and promise to share more in the near future.


















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In closing, an essay by Madame Inez McCune Williamson which was published in The Salt Lake Tribune [no date]: "Voice Beautiful: A Few Don'ts for the Cultivation of Sweet Tone."

The voices of the American people, both speaking and singing, have been a standing joke among Europeans for years. The fact of the Yankee nasal twang was laid to the climate, our diet, and a score of other things.

Don't neglect the cultivation of the voice. The charm of a beautiful voice lingers in the mind forever. It stirs the heart; a beautiful face strikes only the eye.

Don't think it is a national inheritance -- this mixture of twang whine, affectation, and acridness -- that it is impossible to remedy this one defect of the American woman.

Don't lay the fault of dull habits of speech at the door of our language, nor charge it against our climate, that helpless scapegoat of countless iniquities. Harsh tones are mainly caused by defective methods of breathing.

Don't neglect daily breathing exercises. Only the woman who knows how to breathe properly is going to get the most out of her voice. Deep breathing clears the voice and gives it fullness and softness.

Don't breathe through the mouth, but through the nose; and inhale as deeply as possible.

Don't push the sound out with the throat. Enunciate clearly with the lips. Sustain tone with the diaphragm. The temper controls you so that you speak in a dull, thick tone at the back of the throat, which is most trying of all voices to understand.

Don't take life too seriously if you want a melodious voice. Relax the strained muscles of the face and neck and look and be happy and contented. Think of pleasant things.

Don't whine and don't become hypocritical, or you will probably have a harsh, rasping voice.

Don't tire the voice. If the throat is sore, keep the tongue. Common sense is as important a quality in training the voice as it is in everything else.

Don't have a company voice, to be put on with your best dresses. Treat your family to your best modulated tones.

Don't expect to have any status in the social world if you have an uncultured, indistinct utterance. A person is given her place by the manner of her speech.

Don't despair, even if your voice is rasping, drawling, hard, thin, nasal, with piercing head tones or loose and fluffy. With care, time, and patience it may become harmonious, crystalline, caressing, with a variety of inflection.

Don't think lemon juice a panacea for harshness of voice. While it affords temporary relief, the strong acid is extreme -- soothe the congestion that produces the hoarseness, nothing is better than the white of an egg whipped to a stiff froth.

Don't pin your faith on the saving virtues of strong black coffee. If you have to speak of sing for any length of time, a tablespoonful of glycerine in twice the quantity of brandy relieves the voice.

Don't fasten a bunch of flowers on your corsage if you are going to read or sing in public. Some flowers, violets particularly, have a curious effect on the voice, often causing hoarseness.

Don't imagine that beauty, dress, manner, vivacity, style or wit can compensate for a poor voice.

Cupid has not in all his quiver choice--
An arrow for the heart like a sweet voice.

What Librarians Stand For

Believe it or not, I don't like every book we have here in our library. In fact, the contents of some of the books make me downright furious. But I buy them anyway, and I make sure they are available for our patrons to read. I believe that is my responsibility as a professional librarian.

That's just what Jeanne Layton did as well. Ms. Layton passed away this week, but in 1979 she was willing to lose her job to stand up for one certain book to be in the library, Don DeLillo's Americana. She believed that members of the community should have access to a broad range of books, even a book that some might deem obscene.

As a veteran myself, I fully appreciate the sacrifices made by our troops in uniform. But we should also recognize the sacrifices made by those in communities across the country who defend our civil rights, and so often receive little notice. Ms. Layton eventually got her job back, but it came at a great price. And I wonder, how many of us would be willing to risk our livelihood so that a single book could remain on a library shelf? I publicly admire her strength but secretly wonder if I could be so strong if I was placed in the same situation.

Well, my fellow blogger, Shannon, finally admitted to me that he didn't like the sunflower blogger template (courtesy of finalsense.com) I'd chosen. I told him it was the closest I was able to get to the orange grove look: "You might still consider sunflowers to be a far cry from orange groves, but there are no orange grove templates to be found!"

"I don't know what it is about the flowers," he said. "It's just not me."

So... we're going to try the coffee and cookies template for awhile!

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The next step, then, is to put yourself in the position of imagining those things you'd like to see happen. (I think Anne Shirley would heartily agree.) I'll try to imagine myself sitting at my kitchen table, sipping coffee and nibbling on a cranberry scone, say -- and occasionally looking out the window at a lush orange grove.

We are the champions.......

OK, I know most people probably don't envision librarians as world class athletes. And truth be told, probably most of us did spend our school day afternoons reading a book rather than sweating it out on the old sports field. (Though I'll admit I did receive a Varsity Letter in school.) However, Manhattan Librarian Stan Friedman (that's him, second from left) has just won one of the most coveted sports championships of our time, and has made librarians the globe over proud to call him one of our own.

Mr. Friedman won the prestigious ESPN Zone Ultimate Couch Potato Competition. That's right, he sat for 29 straight hours in a recliner watching a 42-inch plasma TV. Now that takes training and discipline. One does not decide on a whim to get into this extreme sport. Oh no, I can imagine the nights he had to forgo going out for a walk or playing catch with his kid and instead stayed home suffering in front of the TV. Or how about the weekends, when friends would suggest going to the beach for a swim, Mr. Friedman would instead spend his time figuring out what was the most comfortable position that can be achieved in a La-Z-Boy. His dedication brings tears to this librarian's eyes.

And of course, when I am stuffing my face with potato chips and a few adult beverages on Monday night watching Ohio State battle it out with LSU for the BCS championship, I will turn calmly to my wife and explain, "I'm in training."

My dear friend and fellow co-worker Ivorie Franks and I have been reading Don Quixote (trans. Edith Grossman) for a little over a year. We reasoned that spending fifteen minutes per day with the text would eventually bring us to the end of the 940 page novel. (In any case, the great books aren't meant to be read in a hurry. You miss a good deal trying to race through them.)

Well, it's January of 2008, and we're two hundred pages away from the end. Such a feeling of accomplishment!


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I don't like to think of Don Quixote as a big joke book: "Ha! Look at Don Quixote and Sancho go after those windmills. What fools we mortals be!" Parts of it are funny, but as a whole, I take the book very seriously. As for those sections that are amusing, bear in mind that the truth is often said in jest -- so the saying goes.

Ivorie and I agree that Don Quixote is a virtuous man. He may not always see the way clearly, but nevertheless he has a strong moral compass. Recently she said, "This book could also be titled Don Quixote's Book of Proverbs."

"Don Quixote's Book of Proverbs -- you're absolutely right!" I said.

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I love Book 2, Chapter 42, and I'm beginning to think it will be one of my favorites. In this particular chapter, Don Quixote gives Sancho some advice about governing (his island) righteously:

"Let the tears of the poor find in you more compassion, but not more justice, than the briefs of the wealthy. Try to discover the truth in all the promises and gifts of the rich man, as well as in the poor man's sobs and entreaties. When there can and should be a place for impartiality, do not bring the entire rigor of the law to bear on the offender, for the reputation of the harsh judge is not better than that of the compassionate one. If you happen to bend the staff of justice, let it be with the weight not of a gift, but of mercy. If you judge the case of one of your enemies, put your injury out of your mind and turn your thoughts to the truth of the question."

The chapter goes on this way -- and the book, as a whole, offers passages equal to this if you'll stay with it.

*Addendum: could also be titled, "Don Quixote's Book of Etiquette."