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Click here for article PDF from IUMusic Magazine
Belles of Indiana Celebrate At 50th Anniversary Reunion
by Melissa Korzec
Click here to read Belles Memories including Lorna Dallas-Brown’s account, from her sister’s diaries, of the 1955 Belles of Indiana USO tour.
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The Belles in 1955, at the 38th Parallel in Korea:
Back Row: Doris Day, Linda Foncannon, Joyce Lancaster (hidden partially),Mary St. Clair, Sally Graham, Barbara
Lockard, Ellen Dallas,Mary Jane Musgrave,Annabelle Baldridge, Joan Drew, Sondra Gauthier, Sandra Pawol, Sue Ann
Unger, Irma Bartley,Mary Maurer, Keitha Bayless, Eugene Bayless,Vera Scammon, Cynthia Findley. Front Row: Dennis
Escol,Helen Rapp, Joyce Harrod,Nancy Speed, Carolyn Hill, Sharlie Shull, Robert Bluemle, Roberta Ratliff.
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“It’s a grand night for singing
The moon is flying high
And somewhere a bird
who is bound to be heard
Is throwing his heart at
the sky…”
From 1952 through 1976,
the Belles of Indiana greeted
each audience with
those lyrics from Rodgers
and Hammerstein’s “It’s a
Grand Night for Singing.”
The group was organized
by the late Professor of
Music Eugene Bayless,
and later conducted by
Professor David Greenlee
and then Dr. Roy
Samuelsen. The Belles were
important musical ambassadors
for the university,
sharing their jazz vocal
stylings in performances all
over the world. In fact, this
group was the first ensemble
from the university to
perform overseas with the
USO when they traveled in
the Far East for 11 weeks in
1955. The trip was more
than just a chance to sing
and to travel: It was an opportunity to
spread hope and peace to soldiers stationed
overseas. Their country had called
on these women, and they answered
the call.
Fifty years after that momentous
trip, a group of those women gathered
in Bloomington on the weekend
of July 28–31, 2005, to reminisce and
reconnect with one another. The
weekend began with a gathering at
the DeVault Alumni Center.“We all had pieces of memorabilia to share
with each other,” commented Roberta
Ratliff Graham,BM’60. That evening,
in appropriate fashion, the Belles
joined in singing some of the songs
that had united them some 50 years
earlier. They opened with “It’s a
Grand Night for Singing” and
“Somewhere,Over the Rainbow.”
“It was wonderful that we could bridge all those years through song,” says Graham. The group was accompanied
by IU School of Music graduate
Kim Carballo, BA’97,MM’99.
Carballo recalls,“I enjoyed getting to
know the group a little bit, particularly
as they all seem to share a great
love for the music they made and still
make. It was very encouraging to see
that last over so many years. In fact,
it was like eavesdropping on a family
reunion—except that they all got
along!”
They do get along! In fact,
Graham says that the group does an
excellent job of staying in touch.“We
get together every five years.”
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Dean Gwyn Richards celebrates with Belles (left to right) Carolyn Hill Pain, Foncannon Tucker, Barbara Lockard Zimmerman,Mary Jane Musgrave Wirts, Sondra Gauthier Harroff, Roberta Ratliff Graham, Helen Rapp Nefkens, and Sharlie Shull Stuart at their 50th anniversary reunion, July 30, 2005.
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On Saturday night the group
dined together, then headed to the
Musical Arts Center, where they
enjoyed that evening’s performance of
Gilbert and Sullivan’s HMS Pinafore.
At intermission, they gathered on the
mezzanine, where they met Dean Gwyn Richards and were presented
with long-stemmed roses.“We just
couldn’t get enough of that reunion
weekend!” says Graham.
Joining the group that weekend
was the sister of one of their fellow
travelers. Lorna Dallas-Brown, herself
a Belle during the 1960s, is the sister
of Ellen Dallas Wiggins, a member of
the group that went to the Far East.
Ellen died a few months before the
reunion.
Lorna said,“Their stories
touched off many memories that I
could then relate to my sister, and the
laughs and tears flowed plentifully
from this wonderful reminiscing.
Sharlie, Joyce, Denny, Carolyn,Helen,
Linda, Sandy, Bobbi,Mussie, and
Barbara…those Belles attending this
reunion made me feel so very special
and welcome, just as they had all
those servicemen whom they had
sung for and talked with in 1955.”
“It’s a Grand Night for Singing”
ends with:
the earth is aglow
and to add to the show
I think I am falling in love!
Falling, falling in love!
Click here to read Belles Memories including Lorna Dallas-Brown’s account, from her sister’s diaries, of the 1955 Belles of Indiana USO tour.
Were you a Belle of Indiana? We’d love
to hear from you, to learn more about
the Belles, and to connect Belles with
one another. Please contact Melissa
Korzec at the Indiana University
Jacobs School of Music Development
Office with your contact information
and stories, and please let us know
what years you sang with the group.
You can reach Melissa at
mkorzec@indiana.edu, by phone at
(812) 855-4656, or by letter to the
Indiana University School of Music,
1201 E. 3rd Street, Bloomington, IN
47405.
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