Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1963-09-22
BY JOY MILLER


Clasping her hands, almost
prayerfully, as she does often
while she's singing spirituals,
she goes on:
We've had letters. One
spoke Of others who should
have been on the list. We
wrote this young man that
If anyone had asked us If
we belonged with this group
we'd have said absolutely
never"
It is, after all, not a very
long reply. But its humility,
It's almost painful searching
for the precisely honest
word, have become identified
with the great contralto who
started life as the daughter
of an ice and coal dealer in
Philadelphia's Negro district.
She uses the impersonal
"one" or plural I'VE" in re-
ferring to herself, she says,
because:
THE older one gets, the
longer one lives, the more
one realizes one can do
nothing without someone else
having helped make 1t pos
sible. It's in consideration Of
those who helped - even
those we don't know"
Stately and Tall
Miss Anderson is q tall,
stately woman In her mid
die SOS. With her smooth.
unlined face, she looks much
younger, and her sudden
bursts Of exuberance- espe-
cially when she's talking
about her husband or her
beloved pets-make her seem
almost girlish.
With her husband Of 20
years, Architect Orpheus H.
Fisher, she spends g great
deal Of time when not on
concert tour on their farm,
Mariana, near Danbury,
Conn. They have two riding
horses, two Kerry blue dogs
and a couple Of cats. "It's
one Of those lovely, nom
paying affairs that city peo-
pie have" she describes the
farm.
She frequently amuses
herself: "One has q tree
mendous amount Of paper
work at home. and We do
anything rather than the
paper work."
Choir Singer
They have no children.
AS a child Miss Anderson
sang in choirs, and after her
father died when she was
IL, she was able to help out
the family budget with oc-
casional church concerts. A
church benefit raised money
for her voice lessons. In 1925
she won first prize In COM
petition with 800 others In
New York, but her career got
nowhere until she won ac-
claim in Europe.
Even after she was an in
ternational celebrity, she
often couldn't stay in no.
tells in the American cities
where she was singing.
The most famous episode
came in 1899 when the
Daughters of the American
Revolution CDAR) refused to
let her sing in Constitution
Hall. (She has since.) Mrs.
Franklin D. Roosevelt re-
signed from the OAR In pro-
test, and the Government set
up for her an Easter Sum
day concert at Lincoln Me-
mortal that attracted $1,000.
Goodwill symbol
Since then, she has sung
all over the world at the
invitation Of the State De-
partment, and has been
called a symbol OF Ameri-
can goodwill. She became the
first Negro to sing at the
Metropolitan Opera House In
1855. In 1858 she was a mem
Der of the United States
delegation to the United Ma
lions. Her honorary doc
torates number at least "a.
But although she has al
ways refused to sing In
segregated halls and has
worked quietly to bring
whites and Negroes together.
she has never worked
militantly for Negro rights.
This has occasioned criti-
cism from some Negro quar-
tiers and hurts her deeply.
In carefully measured
words she explains:
Our contention is that
with any great belief one has
to be true TO oneself in re-
gard to ones contribution