Madame Ellen Beach Yaw, Los Angeles most celebrated opera diva, lent her stage name to a Covina freeway exit and, in gratitude, the city keeps the legacy of Lark Ellen alive. Outside the east San Gabriel Valley city, whose historical society maintains a continuing exhibition of Yaws memorabilia, the artist once praised as the California Nightingale and Californias Queen of Song is seldom recalled. But in her day, Yaws beauty not only caught the eye of Los Angeles Times Publisher Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, her four-octave soprano voice got his ear. Together Otis and Yaw raised funds for the generals Newspaper Boys Home, an orphanage for paperboys in Sawtelle, now West Los Angeles. Later, he would change the orphanages name in her honor, calling it the Lark Ellen Boys Home. Bringing opera to an unrefined territory was her mission at a time when high culture was just beginning to emerge from the confines of local society ladies parlors. Later, early settlers turned out in the hundreds for benefit performances at her Covina homes. Born in upstate New York in 1869, Yaw learned to sing as a child. Her first taste of inspirational music came in Sunday school, when a revivalist asked the children to sing the hymn Jesus Loves Me. After listening to their voices, the preacher grabbed Yaw by the hand and led her to the platform, where he asked her to sing for the congregation. Yaw was soon in demand around the countryside, singing at weddings, concerts and church socials. Believing in her 14-year-old daughters talent, her mother accompanied her on a series of whistle-stop tours across the nation, making sure her talented daughter did not accept kisses on or off the stage. Lured by advertisements that said Yaw possessed the highest vocal range in history, curious audiences arrived at her concerts armed with pitch pipes and tuning forks. In 1890, Yaw and her mother moved to Covina to be close to her sister, Anna Yaw Thorpe. During a brief teaching stint at Throop University, later renamed Caltech, and while working for the Postal Telegraph firm, she and her sister began entertaining fellow workers with concerts at their homes.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 01:48:44 +0000
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