Nelle Richmond Eberhart

Early life

Eberhart was born Ellen Loretta McCurdy in Detroit, Michigan, daughter of John Thomas and Cora Amelia Newton McCurdy. Her mother remarried, and at an early age Nelle, as she was known, took her stepfather's surname, Richmond. She was raised in Nebraska, where she taught school as a young woman.

Career

Beginning in 1902, Eberhart collaborated with Charles Wakefield Cadman on many operas and art songs, including "Four American Indian Songs Op. 45" (which included "From the Land of Sky-Blue Water"), and Shanewis (1918), which made Eberhart the first woman librettist to have her work performed at the Metropolitan Opera. Later, she wrote The Willow Tree (music by Cadman), one of the first operas commissioned for radio, certainly the first for American radio.

In addition to her emphasis on Native American themes, Eberhart also showed interest in Asian and Pacific Island themes, writing lyrics for "Sayonara: A Japanese Romance for One or Two Voices, op. 49," and "Idyls of the South Seas" (music by Cadman), and historical drama (A Witch of Salem: An American Opera [1926], music by Cadman). She also wrote several Christian hymns ("The Dawn of Peace Resplendent Breaks," "Give Praise," "O Come and Adore Him"), and general sentimental songs ("I Hear a Thrush at Eve," "Lilacs," "Memories," "The Moon Behind the Cottonwood").

Eberhart also published poetry in literary reviews and general interest publications, such as Granite Monthly and Munsey's Magazine.

Personal life

Eberhart's marriage in 1894 to Oscar Eberhart produced a daughter, Constance Richmond Eberhart, who became an opera singer and teacher of voice, and a member of the Chicago Civic Opera and the American Opera Company. Oscar's nephew, Alanson Eberhart, was married to Mignon G. Eberhart, a prolific mystery writer. Mignon dedicated her seventh novel (The White Cockatoo, 1933) to Charles Wakefield Cadman and Nelle Richmond Eberhart.

Nelle Richmond Eberhart died in 1944, in Kansas City, Missouri.