Jessye Norman 1945--2019 RIP

[Miningman]

http://cs.trains.com/trn/f/111/p/264664/3006845.aspx?page=4

Gospel Train 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3T4QIXpVvo 

 

Jessye talks about President Eisenhower and a train ride.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7747whiFrvQ&t=8m8s  

 

 

Excerpt from Stand Up Straight and Sing by Jessye Norman 

My father's involvement in and commitment to the betterment of our community dates to the time when, as a young family man, he worked as a master mechanic on the Georgia Railroad. This line provided a major passageway from Florida to the north and west. My father loved trains probably more than any other form of transportation in the world, and he especially loved being able to work on them. As in many other professions, making ends meet was especially challenging for him and his fellow African American mechanics, because they were paid much less than their white counterparts—a distinction that became even more stark after the railroad’s master mechanics unionized, but refused to allow African American mechanics of equal or greater experience and qualifications to join them. These were men who were so attuned to how a train worked, they were able to tell from the sound of it what precisely was in need of repair. Naturally, their being shut out of the union caused a great deal of friction, tension in the workplace, and my father and his colleagues were having none of it. Deciding to find other employment, my father looked to those within our church for support, and was steered toward the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company, then the largest African American–owned business in the country. The company proved a good fit for him, and he discovered that he was a born salesman. He climbed the ranks quickly to become the manager of the Augusta offices, which served the entire central Savannah River area.

[Flintlock76]

Looks like the railroad's (great) loss was the North Carolina Mutual's gain.  Mr. Norman did all right in the end.

So did his daughter Jessye.  

Ride easy on the "Night Train" with your dad, Maestra!  

[Jones1945]

Jessye Norman's thrilling voice reminds me of the Aria in Handel's oratorio Saul, "In sweetest harmony they liv'd". My favorite version was sung by Sheila Armstrong in 1972 during the Leeds Triennial Musical Festival.

Rest in peace in God's arm, Jessye.

[Flintlock76]

We lost another classy lady today.  RIP Diahann Carroll.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjHIL5Qx8tQ  

No railroad reference, just some great music.

Actually, there is a railroad reference!  Her father was a New York City subway conductor!  

[Miningman]

Thanks Wayne. She was an icon. 

[Miningman]

 

 

Diahann Carroll

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsRMeqACmAE&t=5m30s