GCHS presents 'Mary Lewis: From Hot Springs to Metropolitan Opera'

Submitted photo Zeigfeld Follies: Hot Springs native Mary Lewis, shown performing with the Zeigfeld Follies 1921--1922, will be the subject of the Garland County Historical Society program "Mary Lewis: From Hot Springs to the Metropolitan Opera" at its meeting at noon Tuesday at the Garland County Library. The public is welcome to attend.
Submitted photo Zeigfeld Follies: Hot Springs native Mary Lewis, shown performing with the Zeigfeld Follies 1921--1922, will be the subject of the Garland County Historical Society program "Mary Lewis: From Hot Springs to the Metropolitan Opera" at its meeting at noon Tuesday at the Garland County Library. The public is welcome to attend.

The Garland County Historical Society will present "Mary Lewis: From Hot Springs to the Metropolitan Opera," a program by Michael B. Dougan, at noon Tuesday at the Garland County Library. The public is welcome to attend.

Born in Hot Springs in 1897, Lewis "went from poverty to stardom at the Metropolitan Opera, with many sidesteps along the way, including vaudeville, silent movies, and the Ziegfeld Follies," a news release said.

The program will cover her career from childhood until her premature death from radiation poisoning. Examples of her singing and stories of her life from Alice Fitch Zeman's book, "Mary Lewis; The Golden Haired Beauty with The Golden Voice," will be featured.

Dougan, professor emeritus of History at Arkansas State University, is a "highly respected teacher and author in the field of Arkansas history," the release said.

Holding degrees from Southwest Missouri State College and Emory University, Dougan taught at ASU from 1970 until 2006. His books include "Confederate Arkansas: The People and Policies of a Frontier State in Wartime," "By the Cypress Swamp: The Arkansas Stories of Octave Thanet," "Arkansas Odyssey: The Saga of Arkansas from Prehistoric Times to Present," "Arkansas History: An Annotated Bibliography" (with Tom Dillard and Timothy G. Nutt), "Arkansas Politics: A Reader" (with Richard P. Wang), and "Community Diaries: Arkansas Newspapering," 1819-2002.

He is the author of numerous articles related to Arkansas history on topics ranging from medical history to literature, music, law, drainage ditches, and green beans, "the latter, along with tomatoes, being a special interest," the release said. A past president of the Arkansas Historical Association, Dougan received its Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006.

Society on 09/15/2019

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