Dawson, Mary Cardwell, 1894-2001.

Mary Cardwell Dawson was a talented opera singer and impresario active in the Pittsburgh and Washington D.C. area. She was born on February 14, 1894 in Madison, North Carolina, to Abraham and Elizabeth Cardwell. She set up the Cardwell School of Music in Homewood, a neighborhood of Pittsburgh. She also established the Cardwell Dawson Choir, which performed at both the Chicago and New York Worlds Fairs. In 1941, Dawson created the National Negro Opera Company (NNOC), developed to inspire and motivate young artists. When Dawson moved to Washington D.C. with her husband in 1943, she established another guild of the NNOC. Soon there were guilds in New York City, Baltimore, Chicago, Cleveland, and Red Bank, New Jersey.