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A photo of Betty Allen

Betty Allen 1927 - 2009

Betty Allen of Bronxville, Westchester County, NY was born on March 17, 1927, and died at age 82 years old in 2009.

Betty Allen
Betty Lee (Allen)
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Bronxville, Westchester County, NY 10708
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March 17, 1927
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2009
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Female
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Betty Allen Betty Allen (1927 - 2009)
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    Betty Allen dies at 82; mezzo-soprano and music teacher By BY EMILY LANGER JUL 27, 2009 | Betty Allen, one of the first African American singers to reach prominence on the international opera stage, died June 22 of complications from kidney disease at a hospital in Valhalla, N.Y. She was 82. If contralto Marian Anderson in the 1930s and 1940s represented the first generation of black opera stars, then Allen belonged to the second, along with Leontyne Price and Shirley Verrett and Grace Bumbry. At the height of her vocal power from the 1950s through the 1970s, Allen "sang with a glory of sound that would honor any performance," wrote Washington Post critic Paul Hume. Even as a performer in her 20s, she earned the respect of conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, who invited her to sing in his "Jeremiah" symphony. Allen was a mezzo-soprano, meaning that her voice was lower than that of a soprano. While sopranos tend to play glamorous or delicate women, mezzos are often cast as evil or brooding ones, and Allen played those roles to their fullest. She made her formal operatic debut in 1964 at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires as Jocasta in Stravinsky's "Oedipus Rex"; Jocasta hangs herself at the end. She said Azucena, the raving gypsy in Giuseppe Verdi's "Il Trovatore," was her favorite role because "she's absolutely nuts." With the Metropolitan Opera, she sang in "Four Saints in Three Acts," an opera by Virgil Thomson and Gertrude Stein. Thomson, the highly respected composer and music critic, would later write music specifically for her. Off stage, Allen distinguished herself as a teacher and mentor. She was the executive director of the Harlem School of the Arts and taught at the Manhattan School of Music, among other places. She was particularly devoted to introducing classical music to children who, like her, had grown up in poverty. Elizabeth Louise Allen was born in Campbell, a steel boomtown in northeastern Ohio, on March 17, 1927. Her father worked in the steel mills, her mother as a laundress with the two Maytag machines the family owned. Allen first heard opera arias as they floated from neighbors' windows during the Met's radio broadcasts. "The families on my street were mostly Sicilian and Greek," she told the New York Times. "On Saturday, walking down the street, you could hear the . . . broadcasts coming from the windows of everybody's house. No one told them that opera and the arts were not for them, not for poor people, just for rich snobs." As an adolescent, Allen lost her mother to cancer, and her father began drinking heavily. She left home one day, caught a bus to nearby Youngstown and put herself up for adoption. "That judge didn't know what to do with me," she told the New York Times. "In those days, there was no orphanage for black children. You either had to be put in a detention home or you were put in a foster home. I chose to be put in foster homes." A scholarship took her to Wilberforce College in Ohio, a historically black school. She had planned to study languages and become a translator, but that changed when a professor who had been an opera performer urged her to join the college chorus. There she became convinced that she could have a career as a singer. She later attended the Hartford School of Music in Connecticut and what is now the Tanglewood Music Center in Massachusetts. Survivors include her husband, Ritten Edward Lee II of Bronxville, N.Y.; two children, Anthony Lee of Bronxville and Juliana Lee of the Bronx; and three grandchildren.
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    Betty Allen lived 9 years longer than the average family member when died at the age of 81.
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7 Memories, Stories & Photos about Betty

Betty Allen
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
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06/01/2019
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Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
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Betty Allen
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.8k+ favorites
05/30/2019
Betty Allen
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Betty Allen
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.8k+ favorites
05/30/2019
Betty Allen
A photo of Betty Allen
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Betty Allen
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.8k+ favorites
05/30/2019
Betty Allen
A photo of Betty Allen
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Betty Allen
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.8k+ favorites
05/30/2019
Betty Allen
A photo of Betty Allen
Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Betty Allen
Photo of Amanda S. Stevenson Amanda S. Stevenson
17.8k+ favorites
05/30/2019
Betty Allen
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Date & Place: Not specified or unknown.
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Betty Allen Mar 17, 1927 - 2009
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Other Biographies

Other Betty Allen Biographies

Allen, Betty Allen, Betty Allen, Betty (Aug 3, 1929 - Feb 2, 2013) Allen, Betty (Oct 2, 1920 - Nov 26, 2010) Allen, Betty (Dec 16, 1934 - Aug 30, 2005) Allen, Betty (Jan 11, 1929 - Sep 4, 2003) Allen, Betty (Apr 20, 1922 - Feb 10, 1973) Allen, Betty (Jun 26, 1953 - Jul 1975) Allen, Betty (Apr 19, 1943 - Oct 30, 2008) Allen, Betty (May 23, 1948 - Sep 25, 1993)
Allen, Betty (Dec 22, 1902 - Feb 4, 1990) Allen, Betty (Aug 28, 1930 - Jan 28, 2005) Allen, Betty (Apr 1, 1927 - Jan 15, 2009) Allen, Betty (Jun 13, 1945 - Sep 17, 1993) Allen, Betty (Mar 16, 1910 - Jul 13, 1995) Allen, Betty (Jan 9, 1923 - Aug 1980) Allen, Betty (Oct 7, 1917 - Apr 8, 2008) Allen, Betty (May 28, 1943 - Mar 30, 1998) Allen, Betty (Jul 24, 1926 - Oct 10, 2003) Allen, Betty (Apr 1, 1939 - Sep 7, 2004)

Other Allen Family Biographies

Allen, Thomas (Jun 23, 1909 - 1980) Allen), Emma Elizabeth (Born 1855) Allen, Pinkney (Born 1857) Allen, Larkin (Born 1846) Allen, George (Feb 14, 1864 - 1905) Allen, Rosie (Born Nov 6, 1896) Allen, Frank (Born 1853) Gove, Laura (Born May 23, 1860) Hannah, Addie (Born Oct 28, 1878) Wright, Addie (Oct 19, 1886 - Nov 7, 1941)
Allen, Lucretia (Born Mar 3, 1811) Allen, Thomas (Born Jun 23, 1905) Allen, James (Born 1905) Allen, Edward (Born 1918) Allen, Willard (Born 1918) Allen, Martha (Born Nov 19, 1860) Allen, Benjamin (Born 1828) Allen, Carrie (Born 1893) Allen, Carolyn (Born 1923) Allen, Billy (Born 1921)

Other people named Beltie Allen - Canal Allen

Beltie  -  Benjaman Allen Benjamin  -  Berderick Allen Berdetta  -  Bernardene Allen Bernardine  -  Berta Allen Bertamae  -  Berwin Allen Beryl  -  Bettyann Allen Bettye  -  Billee Allen Billey  -  Birta Allen Birtha  -  Blanchie Allen Blandford  -  Bluitt Allen Blumer  -  Bonna Allen
Bonnette  -  Brad Allen Bradford  -  Brentis Allen Brenton  -  Brinkley Allen Brinley  -  Bror Allen Brother  -  Buck Allen Buckley  -  Bunyon Allen Bura  -  Burlin Allen Burlyn  -  Burritt Allen Burrus  -  Byrniece Allen Byron  -  Calissa Allen Calista  -  Canal Allen
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