Cut Bank pioneer press. [volume] (Cut Bank, Mont.) 1909-current, 1914-05-15
MADAMNORD|CAD|ES
AMERICAS GREAT SINGER DIED
OF PNEUMONIA IN BATAVIA,
EAST INDIES.
MAKING FAREWELL TOUR OF WORLD
Purity of Her Voice in Many Lam
guages Has Delighted Thousands
for Past 40 Years-Buried in
Birth State, Maine.

Batavia, Netherlands Indies.-Mad.
anne Nordica, the singer, died here
Sunday night after a prolonged illness
caused by exposure when the vessel
on which she was returning from the
a%ntipodes ran ashore.
Lillian Nordica was an American
singer of worldwide fame. The purity
of her voice, employed in MANY Ian
guages, had delighted hundreds of
thousands since the day, 40 years ago,
she first appeared in public as soprano
soloist at Grace church in Boston.
Born in Maine.
Nordica and Eames-Although the
latter was born of American parents
in far off China-were of old New
England stock, both claimed by the
state of Maine, and they made up a
notable American contribution to the
operate world. A farmhouse built by
the prima donna's great-grandfather
on a hill just outside the village of
Pennington, Me-, was Nordica's birth
place, in 1859. Her true name was
Lillian Norton. She changed it to the
Italian, Nordica, 20 years later when
she began to study in Italy for an OBJ
cratic career.
After her graduation from the New
England Conservatory of Music at Bos-
ton, and successful singing of the lead
ing roles in several of the oratorios
piVnn NV tho HondoI onl IIox1a 30
ciety, she went to Europe, in 1878, as
a soloist with Gilmore's band. She
chung t~enaciously to classical music,
and was well received by great audi
ences in the Crystal Palace, London,
and the T~rocadero, Paris.
Her matrimonial ventures numbered
three. She was first married in 1882
to Frederic A. Cover, a wealthy cleo
tr1cian, and a native of her state of
Maine, whom she met in Paris. Short
ly after she had begun separation pro-
ceedings, in 1884, Cover disappeared.
He attempted a balloon trip across the
English channel. Although the balloon
was later found, nothing was ever
heard or seen of him.
In 1896 Nine. Nordica married Zal-
tan Doeme, a Hungarian army officer
and singer, from whom she secured a
divorce in 1905.
Her third marriage was in London,
in 1909, to George w. Young, a wealthy
New Yor kbanker. 1t was announced
at that time that Nordica would retire
from the stage, but after a honey
moon spent in part at the old Norton
homestead, in Maine, she decided upon
a farewell concert tour of the world.
1t was while making one leg of this
trip on the Deutch steamer Tasman
that the vessel ran ashore on Thurs
day island, in the a~ntipodes. The
shock of the accident and exposure
brought on pneumonia, Nine Nordica's
admirers felt it to be a particularly
tragic circumstances that the famous
singer should have fallen dangerously
i'll on the other side of the world.
Her body undoubtedly will be
brought directly to this country and
be buried near the old homestead, in
Maine.
The Nordica fortune must be large.
1t was published as a fact in 1909 that
she had made $3.50 during that
season alone. Much of her money
went toward realizing her dream of "a
Bayreuth in America" She bought a
large tract of land along the Hudson,
near Ossining, for that purpose.