Eleanor Steber was born 17 July 1916 in Wheeling, West Virginia. She made her premiere with the Metropolitan Opera in 1940 and remained with the company until 1963. She is noted for her work as the first Vanessa in Samuel Barber's opera of that name and she also commissioned the composer for his work, Knoxville: Summer of 1915. She performed the title role of Arabella in Richard Strauss's opera in the American premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in 1955 and sang the part of Marie in Alban Berg's Wozzeck in the first performance by the Metropolitan Opera in 1959. Steber devoted her later years to teaching, working at the Cleveland Institute, Juilliard, and her alma mater, New England Conservatory. She established the Eleanor Steber Music Foundation to assist young singers in the early stages of their careers. Steber died in Langhorne, Pennsylvania 3 October 1990. Barbara Ann Conlogue was a devoted fan of Eleanor Steber. She was born 23 April 1928 in New York, daughter of Donald and Mary T. (Durant) Conlogue. She grew up in Maine and Massachuesetts. She attended nursing school and was employed as a nurse by Dr. Harold A. Titus of Chelmsford, Massachusetts. It is possible that it was Dr. Titus who introduced Barbara Ann Conlogue to Eleanor Steber. Barbara Ann died 27 December 1995 in Lowell, Massachusetts.
From the description of Barbara Ann Conlogue Collection of Eleanor Steber Photographs and Clippings, circa 1935-1990. (SUNY at Buffalo). WorldCat record id: 505678067
