Roena Muckelroy Savage
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October 30, 1904
Rowena Muckelroy Savage | |
|---|---|
 Roena Muckelroy Savage, from a 1933 publication | |
| Born | Roena Muckelroy October 30, 1904 Henderson, Texas, U.S. |
| Died | October 29, 1991 (aged 86) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Rowene Muckelroy Savage |
| Education | University of Southern California |
| Occupation(s) | Singer, choir director, voice educator |
| Employer(s) | Lincoln University (Missouri) Jarvis Christian University |
| Spouse | W. Sherman Savage |
Roena Muckelroy Savage (October 30, 1904 – October 29, 1991) was an American concert soprano, voice educator, and choir director.
Roena Eloise Muckelroy was born in Henderson, Texas, and raised in San Bernardino, California,[1] the daughter of William Wainwright Muckelroy and Mary E. Muckelroy.[2][3] After graduating from San Bernardino High School in 1922,[4][5] she graduated in 1927 from the University of Southern California,[6][7] with further voice, piano, and organ studies in Chicago and Columbus, with Richard Hageman, Moissaye Boguslawski, Marcella Craft, and other musicians.[8][9]
Career
Savage performed as a concert soprano. In 1927, she won awards for singing at the Los Angeles District Eisteddfod, and the California Grand Finals Eisteddfod.[8][10] In Missouri, she was a soloist with the People's Symphony Orchestra in St. Louis, and she was director of music at Lincoln University,[11] where her husband was a professor of history.[6][12]
In 1939, she directed a "Yuletide pageant" of forty performers in San Bernardino, using traditional black spirituals.[13] She wrote and directed a musical play based on Spanish and Mexican folksongs in 1940.[14] In California during World War II, she organized and led a choir of war workers near San Bernardino, performing as the Legend A Cappella choir.[15] She toured the American South giving concerts in 1949.[16] In 1962, she joined the summer opera chorus of the Redlands Bowl.[17] Later in life, she was associate professor of voice and chair of the humanities department at Jarvis Christian College in Texas,[18] and wrote a musical pageant, Hearthstones.[9]
She was active in the Missouri State and Jefferson City branches of the NAACP,[19] and a charter member the Los Angeles alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta.[20][21]
