USA > Ohio > Women of Ohio; a record of their achievements in the history of the state, Volume III > Part 3
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Mrs. Kaiser was born June 10, 1881, and was married at West Carrollton, Ohio, June 4, 1902, to Oliver B. Kaiser, who is a patent attorney, and they have two children, Mrs. Olive Kaiser Hoover, now of New City, New York, and Ramona Eunice Kelvin Kaiser of Cincinnati. Mrs. Kaiser studied dramatic art under Mrs. Austin Carman. Mrs. Kaiser is active in political circles, being a member of the Hamilton County Republican Woman's Club. She is president of the Hobby Club of Cincinnati, and an adopted daughter of the Grand Army of the Republic. She is an honorary member of the Cincinnati Music and Poetry Club, and a member and former officer of the Norwood Musical Club, and was made the first associate member of Omega Chapter, Phi Beta Frater- nity of the College of Music. She is president of the Omega Mothers' Club of Epsilon Chapter, Omega Upsilon Sorority, is conservation chairman and his- torian of the Mariemont Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, belongs to the Madisonville W. C. T. U., is music chairman of the Greater Cincinnati Writers League and is third vice president and program chairman of the Woman's Guild, Methodist Home for the Aged. Mrs. Kaiser is an honorary member of the Presbyterian Brotherhood of Springfield, Ohio, and she belongs to the Madisonville Methodist Church, being a counselor for the Standard Bearers, a group leader for the Ladies' Aid, and member of the Home and Foreign Missionary Societies. Her name appears in "Authors and
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Writers Who's Who" and Reference Guide, published in London, England in 1936, and recently in the "American Women," The Standard Biographical Dictionary of Notable Women, Vol. II, 1939-40. She is thus constantly reach- ing out along the lines of benefit and assistance to her fellowmen, seeking to ameliorate the hard conditions of life for the unfortunate and adding the joy, beauty and culture of life through the use of the talents with which she was endowed.
LINA C. KEITH
There is perhaps no one in all Toledo who has done as much to stimulate and foster a love of music as LINA C. KEITH, but it is not merely by teaching the technique of her art but by direct appeal to the hearts and minds of her pupils. Her methods are peculiarly her own and that they are the correct methods is indicated in the results she has achieved. With a love of music deeply imbedded in her very soul, she has made it understandable to others, has taught them to feel its beauty, its pathos, its idealism and its inspirational qualities and there are scores, yes hundreds, whose lives have been enriched not merely by her instruction but by her development of their own powers.
Miss Keith is a native of Clayton, Michigan, and a daughter of Harland and Phebe (Aldrich) Keith, the former born in the State of New York and the latter in Michigan. Mr. Keith engaged in teaching school for a time in Michigan and then removed to Toledo, where he became associated with the Lake Shore Railroad, remaining with that corporation until his retirement from active business. He passed away in 1932 and his wife died in 1931.
Miss Keith began her education in the grade schools of Adrian, Michigan, and spent three years as a high school pupil there. When she was but twelve years of age she began the study of music but the love of the art was an inherent quality in her and when other little girls were "playing house" with their dolls she was propping hers up to the window sill teaching them thus to play the piano. It was always her desire to teach music, and the childhood dream became a reality for Miss Keith has for a long time been regarded as one of the outstanding teachers of Ohio. In this connection she once said: "Very early I became imbued with the idea that if we were to have good music for the many in this world, we must have good teachers- teachers who could explain the psychology of music as well as the art. I wanted to satisfy the universal want of music-real music-which every one has to a greater or lesser degree and as soon as I could I went to Cornell to learn how I could do this. I learned then from those who had the inestimable fortune to have learned from Liszt and other great musicians and teachers, that one must be saturated with the theory of music before one's dreams could be put into practice. Gradually my work narrowed-if one may say that-into teaching adults; into normal classes for those who wished to teach music to others." It was in 1908 that she established her school of music and in 1911 the name of the Lina C. Keith School of Music was assumed.
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She has taught a great many who have been outstanding students and graduates and in her instruction she has made appeal to the intelligence of her pupils, especially the young children by making them acquainted with the life story of the composers, the constructions of instruments and other facts that should supplement the response to rhythm and harmony which are inherent in almost every individual.
In her school Miss Keith has always maintained a staff of teachers representing some exceptional talent and all are very accomplished, many having studied abroad. Miss Keith herself was graduated as a music student from Adrian College of Adrian, Michigan and spent several summers with William H. Sherwood at Chautauqua Lake, New York, was a pupil of Emil Liebling in Chicago and one summer studied with Ernest Kroeger and Hollis E. Dann at Cornell University, receiving a certificate for work accomplished there. She was also a student under Leopold Godowsky in Chicago and in 1933 she had a scholarship which made her a pupil of Cortot in Paris, France, where she first heard Ruth Slenczynski play, whom Cortot presented in a concert in Toledo when the pianist was but eight years of age. In Leipsic, Germany, she had a scholarship at the Mendelsohn Conservatory and she had class and private lessons with Robert Teichmuller in the Royal Con- servatory in Leipsic and played on the same piano as Madame Ninon Romaine. In Weimar she alone of a group was privileged to play on Liszt's piano and in Bayreuth she occupied a seat only a few feet away from the royal box occupied by Madame Wagner and Adolph Hitler and the former crown prince of Germany.
About thirty years ago Miss Keith was treasurer of the Ohio Music Teachers Association and she was one of the original members of the high school music credits committee, which made it possible for school pupils to take music and receive credits therefor. She is a charter member of the Zonta International, which has but one representative in each community from one walk of life, and she also belongs to the P.E.O. For thirty years she has been a member of the Ashland Avenue Baptist Church and she was appointed in charge of the music department and chairman of the Sunday afternoon concerts. She is doing notable work at the Toledo Library, where children selected from the sixth, seventh and eighth grades from the public. parochial and private schools for the "Music Hours" are being given special training in rudiments of music, ear training and interpretations, the class being under the instruction of Miss Keith. Writing of her, one of the Toledo papers said, "Lina Keith is one of Toledo's worthy ones who is doing her best-and her best means much-to make everyone around her happier. She gives her pupils in the musical school a deeped knowledge of her beloved art than they had ever dreamed. She gives the members of her church an example of daily Christian living and thinking that is inspiring. She fits into the place perfectly into which her lines are cast."
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EDITH MYRTLE KELLER
EDITH MYRTLE KELLER, superintendent of music for the Ohio State Department of Education, took her B.L., cum laude, at Ohio Wesleyan, her diploma in music in Cornell, her M.A. at Ohio State University and was awarded the Slocum prize by Ohio Wesleyan.
She was formerly supervisor of music at Fremont, O., also director of music at the State Teachers College, Fredericksburg, Va. Miss Keller is chairman for public school music of the Ohio Federation of Women's Clubs, also music chairman of the Ohio Congress of Parents and Teachers. Her home is at 75 Oak Hill Ave., Delaware, O.
MARIE SIMMELINK KRAFT
MARIE SIMMELINK KRAFT, distinguished concert and church singer and also known in the field of musical education, was born on College Street, on the west side of Cleveland and is a daughter of Frederick and Jennie (Barge) Simmelink, both of whom were natives of the Netherlands. Her father was about twelve years of age when he came with his parents to the United States, the family first settling in Cincinnati, Ohio, where they lived for about a year and then removed to the west side of Cleveland, where the grandfather engaged in the lumber business. Frederick Simmelink attended the grade schools of Cleveland, after which he entered the lumber business with the Potter Teane Lumber Company, now the Northern Ohio Lumber & Timber Company, of which his son is now vice president and treasurer. The father has always continued his connection with the lumber trade and is now with the Prosse Lumber Company at Rocky River. His wife's people also settled on the west side of Cleveland many years ago.
Their daughter, Marie Simmelink first attended the Gordon school and after passing through consecutive grades was graduated from the West High School with the class of 1918. Later in the same year she entered the Flora Stone Mather School, borrowing the tuition money from her eldest brother, which she was able to return after her graduation because of her continued success since that time. While in the Mather school she minored in English and majored in music. She appeared in all the operettas given there while she was in college and was soloist in the First Congregational Church on the west side, then later in the Windermere Methodist Church, after which she accepted a position in the First Baptist Church, where she sang for fourteen years. During the past four years, or since 1934, she has been soloist at The Temple on Ansel Road.
Mrs. Kraft has also been doing a great deal of concertizing and has sung with the Cleveland Orchestra under Nicolai Sokoloff and Arthur Rodzinski. She has also sung in the Severance Hall opera productions and in the last two years has been portraying the early American days in the songs of that
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period. This she does in the costumes of the time and she also gives French musical programs in costume. She sings freely in four languages and her programs are a model of musical arrangement as well as a source of delight and satisfaction. When she appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, New York, one of the leading metropolitan journals spoke of her as "a contralto of vocal richness and earnest feeling." When with the same organization in Cleveland, a leading musical critic of The Cleveland Press said she "delivered her solos with excellent interpretative comprehension and pleasing style" and in every part of the country where she has appeared, covering a wide territory, she has been greeted with words of high com- mendation and acclaim. She has appeared in such presentations as Bloch's Israel Symphony and Debussy's The Blessed Damozel, in song recital and oratorio and the Cleveland Times wrote: "Marie Simmelink Kraft's singing is authoritative and finished; she is at all times in full command of a rich, flexible voice." Among her more recent production is a unique and par- ticularly attractive entertainment, "Mr. Godey Presents," authentically por- traying scenes and music from Godey's Ladies Book from 1837 to 1879, "The Book of Books for Fashionable Ladies." Mrs. Kraft has also laid special emphasis on the presentation of the works of the great French Masters and her excellent French diction and her background which has endowed her with a sensitive understanding of the French idium have contributed to her eminence in the realm of French vocal literature. She is now teaching singing at the Cleveland Institute of Music, devoting two and a half days to this each week.
On the 12th of May, 1926, Marie Simmelink became the wife of Edwin Arthur Kraft, a distinguished organist, who has been the organist and choir master of Trinity Cathedral since 1907 and is director of music at Lake Erie College and Painesville, Ohio, and also director of music at Laurel School, a private school for girls at Shaker Heights. He has also given organ recitals throughout the country and is extremely well known in that connection. Whenever time permits he accompanies Mrs. Kraft on her concert tours and it has been said, "To bring Marie Simmelink Kraft, together with her husband, Edwin Arthur Kraft, at the piano, to a city means presenting to the com- munity a recital of the very greatest musical interest, heightened by distinction and delicate beauty." She has won rapid recognition as the outstanding interpreter of the modern spirit in song. Her fresh young voice is heightened by a powerful and arresting personality and pervaded by a contagious warmth and unaffected graciousness whose appeal is irresistible.
EMILY WOODALL LAFFOON
Inclusion in these biographies of EMILY WOODALL LAFFOON (Mrs. Polk Laffoon), although she is a Kentuckian by birth and residence, is in itself a tribute to her services in a cause unlimited by state or local boundary lines.
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As president of the Women's Committee of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Emily Laffoon has made contribution of time, energy and ability unexcelled in the history of this group, a contribution to which the record success of the 1938-39 Symphony season is said to be due in no small measure.
Tremendous increase in season subscriptions and seat sales and ever widening of public interest resulted largely from the spirit of enthusiastic co-operation infused by their president into the rank and file of the Women's Symphony Committee.
Emily Woodall was born in Covington, Ky., the daughter of Frank Frary and Matilda Brent Woodall. Her ancestry goes back on both sides to dis- tinguished families of the Blue Grass State.
She attended the Doherty School of Cincinnati, then Hollins College; married Polk Laffoon, vice president of the Cincinnati Gas & Electric Com- pany and has two children-Polk Laffoon, III, and Mrs. John Randolph. The Laffoon home is at Ft. Mitchell, Ky.
ORA DELPHA LANE
Among musicians of Muskingum County, ORA DELPHA LANE, violinist and virtuoso, a traveler throughout the United States and Europe, where she appeared in concert tours for many years, is perhaps the best known. She was at one time president of the State Association of Music Clubs. LOUISE MYLIUS PFIESTER has won more than local recognition as an accompanist and composer, as has also HARRIET RUSK QUINBY. Mrs. Quinby also writes many of her own lyrics for her songs.
CATHARINE ELIZABETH HEGELHEIMER LYDEN
The name of CATHARINE ELIZABETH HEGELHEIMER LYDEN is well known in musical, dramatic and literary circles in Youngstown, for along those lines she has been very active. Born in Columbus, Ohio, August 28, 1904, she is a daughter of Henry A. and Blanche (Mattox) Hegelheimer, the mother a native of Logan County, Ohio, while the father was born in Columbus and is now an official of the Gordon Oil Company.
Mrs. Lyden attended the public schools of her native city and after completing her high school course entered Ohio State University, where she was a member of the class of 1926. During her college days she became a member of the Alpha Xi Delta sorority. On the 30th of July, 1925, she was married in Lakeside, Ohio, to John Anthony Lyden, head of the Lyden Oil Company of Youngstown. They now have a family of two sons and a daughter -Rosemary, John A. and Henry A. Lyden.
Mrs. Lyden's activities are of a most interesting nature. She is a member of the American Association of University Women, is a member of the board of the Monday Musical Club of Youngstown, in which she takes a leading part, and belongs to the Newman Club. a literary organiaztion. She has keen
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appreciation for music, the drama and literature and she frequently gives readings and recitals, possessing much ability along that line. She is also a member of the Panhellenic Club of Youngstown, the Federation of Women's Clubs and her religious views are expressed in her membership in St. Ed- ward's Catholic Church. She belongs to the League of Women Voters and her political allegiance and support is given the Republican party, is a member of the Rotary Association and her interest in humanitarian work is shown in her connection with St. Elizabeth's Hospital Auxiliary.
QUEENA MARIO 1386759
QUEENA MARIO, soprano, is a resident of New York City and a vocal teacher in the Curtis Institute of Music in that city.
Born at Akron, Ohio, the daughter of James and Rose (Carewe) Tillotson, she was educated in Ogontz, Pennsylvania, and in the high schools of Plain- field. New Jersey. On November 23, 1925, she became the wife of Wilfred Pelletier.
Queena Mario made her debut as Antonia in "Tales of Hoffman" with San Carlos Opera Company in 1918 and continued with that Company until 1921. She was with Scotti Opera Company in 1921-22 and with the Ravinia Opera Company in the summer of 1922, and later joined the Metropolitan Opera Company.
She sang with the Italian Opera Company in Paris in 1928, with the San Francisco Opera Company four seasons between 1923 and 1930 and again with the Ravinia Opera Company, 1928-1931.
She is an honorary member of Mu Phi Epsilon and Sigma Alpha Iota.
FAYE STROTHER MAUSER
Since the formation of the Federation of Music Clubs of Ohio, FAYE STROTHER MAUSER has been a member of its board-which fact is indi- cative of her high position in the musical circles of the state. She has also been state radio chairman of the federation and has done much to further and develop the interests of music and musicians in Ohio.
A native of Paulding, Ohio, she is a daughter of Clarence B. and Effie (Grummond) Strother, whose family numbered but two children, Faye and Dale Grummond Strother. The father engaged in the mercantile business and also carried on a real-estate agency. The daughter began her education in the grade schools of Latty, Paulding County, and after completing the high school course there, continued her studies in Beaver College for a year, before matriculating at Oberlin College, where she remained for two years, majoring in music. She also went abroad, studying for a time in France.
The recognition of her ability and her interest in musical progress in the state came in her election to the board of the Federation of Music Clubs on its organization and she has continuously served in that capacity. She
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has also been its state radio chairman, has been on the Bureau of Club Artists much of the time and has been state chairman of music for the Federation of Women's Clubs for four years. She is also a past president of the Ohio State Music Association and now one of its directors. That her activities are not limited to the art of music is shown in the fact that she is a member of the citizens committee of the Ohio Library Association.
Faye Strother was married to Dr. Harold Karl Mauser, formerly of La Rue, Ohio, who was graduated in medicine from Purdue University and began the general practice of his profession in Oakwood, this state, in 1910, there remaining until November, 1912, when he removed to Marion, where he still practices and where both he and Mrs. Mauser are widely and prominently known.
ELIZABETH LATTA MCHENRY
ELIZABETH LATTA MCHENRY (Mrs. J. Ray McHenry), of Zanesville, former president of the Pennsylvania Federation of Music Clubs, is a concert singer, grand opera and costume recitalist. She is now an active member of the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs.
MYRA MCKEOWN
MYRA McKEOWN, pianist and empressario, was born in Youngstown, April 11, 1862, the daughter of William W. and Adaline Powers Mckeown.
She studied piano and harmony as a child at home with Theodore Pinney and continued her training in New York, at various times with Mr. Pinney, Edward Bowman, William Mason and Edward MacDowell. For many years Myra Mckeown was the foremost teacher of piano and organ in Youngstown, serving as organist of the First Presbyterian Church from the late eighties until 1922.
In 1915 she presented in this city, for the first time, concert courses with attractions of the first class. These included Fritz Kreisler, Olive Fremstad, Julia Culp, Alma Gluck, Efram Zimbalist, Galli-Curci, John McCormack, Paderewski, Martinelli, the Minneapolis, Cincinnati and New York Sym- phonies and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. She was the first to bring the San Carlos Grand Opera Company to Youngstown and she presented the Cleveland Orchestra four consecutive seasons in series of three concerts each.
When Miss Mckeown died, October 27, 1937, she was still a leading spirit in the musical progress of her home city.
ELEANOR PATTERSON
ELEANOR PATTERSON, nationally known concert and radio singer, was born near Ada in 1874. She was educated in the Ada Public Schools,
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and in Ohio Northern University and graduated in the School of Music under Prof. Hugh Owens. She continued her voice lessons in Dayton, Chicago and New York under private teachers and was for several years dean of the School of Music of Taylor University in Indiana.
Miss Patterson had a perfect contralto voice of unusual range; reaching three complete octaves in full voice. She was well known on the concert stage, singing in every state, before she made the radio her medium. She made her home in New York where she had a wide circle of musical and literary friends. Ella Wheeler Wilcox was an intimate friend and wrote lyrics for several of her songs. Her specialty was new arrangements of old English songs.
Eleanor Patterson died in Florida in 1931.
CORINNE RIDER REED
CORINNE RIDER REED, well known on the concert stage throughout the United States and now largely devoting her time to teaching voice in Toledo, was born near Leroy, New York and is a daughter of Ebenezer and Fannie (Hovey) Rider. Her father, who followed farming in the Empire State, died when she was but three years of age. She was a little maiden of eight when the family removed to Rockford, Illinois, where she attended the public schools. She began her musical studies at the age of sixteen, spend- ing a year at Oberlin College and then returning to Rockford, where she was engaged as soloist in the Court Street Methodist Church, filling that position for four years. She then married George Kelsey and in 1900 they removed to Toledo.
About three years later she was prevailed upon by friends to go to New York City where she again took up the study of voice under the direction of Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Toedt, both talented singers and instructors. After three months she decided to remain in New York and became soloist at the First Presbyterian Church in Brooklyn, of which Huntington Woodman, well known composer, was organist. Mrs. Reed there remained for nearly two years, when she was obliged to give up her church position because of the increasing demands made upon her time for concert work. She was offered two other important church positions but could not accept them as her concertizing claimed her attention exclusively.
In 1907 Mrs. Reed went to Europe for rest. One day a friend asked her to sing at a Sunday evening musicale, which she consented to do, and as a result she was asked to sing by others. For a time she demurred, but finally consented when a friend told her she wanted her to sing for Colonel Higgins of London, England, who wanted to hear her in opera. She sang an oratorio number and a concert number after which Colonel Higgins offered her three opera roles. Finally she signed a contract with him, and as a result she sang in eighty concerts and learned three opera roles, traveling twenty
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thousand miles through the United States to meet these engagements. She continued in this country however for only one season and then made her debut abroad with the Royal Opera Company. After touring Europe for a short time Mrs. Reed returned to this country and again took up concert work in New York City.
In 1926 she returned to Toledo, where she met and married L. L. Reed, a well known violinist who had studied in Belgium and who now teaches violin in Toledo, while Mrs. Reed began teaching voice here, having several years ago planned to devote a part of her time to teaching. Of her it was written when she returned to the concert stage: "This popular soprano has been a familiar and beloved figure ever since she made her debut, as a very young artist, and won instantly a place with the great singers of our time. There is hardly a musical center in America or Europe in which she has not sung repeatedly. She made a brief and highly successful excursion into the field of opera when she appeared in leading roles in Covent Garden, London, being the only American singer, trained solely in America, who ever was honored with a prima donna role in that famous institution. Nevertheless, she holds the opinion that the concert stage holds greater possibilities for the singer and she is known to American audiences chiefly as a recital artist." The press in New York and throughout the country has been strong in its praise of the richness, beauty and quality of her voice and of her highly developed artistry, while others have termed her "the superlative artist, a star of the first magnitude."
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