Elizabeth Lennox (March 16, 1894 – May 3, 1992), also known as Louise Terrell, was an American
contralto
A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type.
The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typically b ...
singer. She made over 150 musical recordings in the 1920s, on the
Brunswick,
Edison,
Victor
The name Victor or Viktor may refer to:
* Victor (name), including a list of people with the given name, mononym, or surname
Arts and entertainment
Film
* ''Victor'' (1951 film), a French drama film
* ''Victor'' (1993 film), a French shor ...
, and
Columbia labels.
Early life
Elizabeth Lennox was born in
Ionia, Michigan
Ionia is the largest city in, and the county seat of, Ionia County, Michigan, United States. The population was 13,378 at the 2020 census. Every July it hosts what is said to be the world's largest free-admission fair. The city is mostly within ...
the daughter of Lambert E. Lennox and Hester Anna Tyrell Lennox. Her parents were from Canada. Her father was a Methodist clergyman,
and her older sister Olive Lennox was a pianist who sometimes accompanied her.
She graduated from the Cosmopolitan School of Music in Chicago.
Her father's work meant that she lived in various towns as a child; she counted
Benton Harbor, Michigan
Benton Harbor is a city in Berrien County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is 46 miles southwest of Kalamazoo and 71 miles southwest of Grand Rapids. According to the 2020 census, its population was 9,103. It is the smaller, by population, of ...
as one of her hometowns.
Career
Lennox began her professional singing career as a church soloist in Chicago, and in New York.
She sang mainly in concert and oratorio programs, and made over 150 recordings in the 1920s, on the Brunswick, Edison, Victor, and Columbia labels. Some of her recordings were made under the name "Louise Terrell" (using a variation on her mother's maiden name). She explained that making recordings helped her hear her own voice and find where improvements were needed. "People may try to flatter you by saying you are singing perfectly," she said, "but the record certainly shows up every little imperfection in a wonderful way."
Lennox also taught voice in Michigan, as a young woman.
She and accompanist Ann Straton Miller made a national concert tour during the 1921–1922 season. In the 1930s she often performed on radio programs, including on the ''American Album of Popular Music'', and in a regular weekly slot on
CBS Radio
CBS Radio was a radio broadcasting company and radio network operator owned by CBS Corporation and founded in 1928, with consolidated radio station groups owned by CBS and Westinghouse Broadcasting/Group W since the 1920s, and Infinity Broadc ...
's "Broadway Varieties" show.
After she retired from professional performance in the 1940s, she was program committee chair of the South Shore Music Club, a women's club in Connecticut, and was executive vice-president of the Connecticut Symphony Orchestra.
Personal life
Lennox was tall, "distinctly the type for whom tailored clothes were made," according to a 1937 profile.
She married George Percival Hughes, an advertising executive, in 1922. Their son David Gratton Hughes was born in 1926. Her husband died in 1967, and she died in 1992, aged 98 years, in
Fairfield, Connecticut
Fairfield is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. It borders the city of Bridgeport and towns of Trumbull, Easton, Weston, and Westport along the Gold Coast of Connecticut. Located within the New York metropolitan area ...
. Her son became a musicologist on the faculty at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
. Her granddaughter Catherine E. C. Hughes was a television news reporter and an Emmy-nominated filmmaker.
References
External links
*
Elizabeth Lennox singing "Abide with Me" with
Marie Tiffany
Marie Berg Tiffany (July 8, 1881 - April 12, 1948) was an American operatic soprano. She was a member of the Metropolitan Opera in Manhattan, New York City from 1916 to 1928; making a total of 208 appearances at the Met during her career. She cre ...
in 1920, on Internet Archive
*
Louise Terrell singing "Don't You Remember the Time?" with Charles Hart in 1920, on Internet Archive
*
Elizabeth Lennox singing "I Cannot Sing the Old Songs" in 1924, on Internet Archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lennox, Elizabeth
1894 births
1992 deaths
People from Ionia, Michigan
American contraltos
20th-century American singers
20th-century American women singers
American people of Canadian descent