Author: Mrs Walley

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Where Opera Began for Me

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My first-born, Reid, asked me if I knew how I’d heard Opera for the first time: radio broadcast, 78-RPM record played by my Mother at home, or a live performance? After much thinking, I’m pretty sure it was in 1949, when I was 10, while watching a film with my Mother, Dr. Pearl Marie Sampson. […]

Politics

Hillary Schieve – Mayor Now, Maybe President In The Future

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“I think that’s very appropriate for her. I think she’d be a good [mayor]. And someday, she just might be President. She’s the type.” “I would totally endorse Hillary to become a political leader. She has the aspect of the head in heaven and the feet on the ground. She listens very well. She has […]

Family

My Mother Sang The Role of Micaela in Carmen

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My mother, Dr. Pearl M. Sampson, sang the role of Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen with the Chicago Lyric Opera in the mid-1920s. This was during the time she was attending medical school in Chicago. My son, Reid, found this on the Internet: Dame Joan Sutherland “Je dis que rien ne m’épouvante” Micaëla’s aria in Bizet’s […]

Family

Grandmother Eldora Thankful Sampson

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My maternal grandmother, Eldora Thankful Sampson (nee: Hill; b 1866, d 1953) loved to go and watch race cars race and horses race. This was probably in the 1920s, in either Creston or Monroe, Iowa. I’m still surprised that my grandmother so enjoyed watching race cars. She was so dignified and quite. It didn’t seem like […]