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Wednesday, February 08, 2012

1948: JOYCE PRATT REMEMBERS LOUISE BAIRD

This is one of the many letters Louise "Ouise" Baird received from her students after graduation. In the letter, Joyce writes of the great influence Miss Baird had on her students. When you were in her music class, you learned the art of vocal harmony, you learned how to listen to the classics, and you came away knowing the militancy of Wagner, the beauty of Mendelssohn, Bach, Brahms, Beethoven, the lively music of Gilbert and Sullivan, and many others. When "Ouise" (pronounced "wheez") passed away, she left her high school memorabilia to me, along with her collection of scrapbooks which I treasure to this day. Joyce's beautiful tribute was included in those papers.