Johanna Dordick
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The Adventure Begins

In her junior year in high school, Elizabeth donned a daring two-piece bathing suit and was voted Miss Waycross (GA) Bear by the local baseball team. By her senior year, at Alexander Schools in Rutherford County, NC, she was voted president of her class. She began to sing for local clubs and churches.

The young woman won the Frankie Laine Recording Contest, was named Miss Rutherford County in the Miss America Contest (she sang an aria from Bizet's Carmen), graduated second in her class, and was awarded a full Rotary Club scholarship to attend Limestone College in Gaffney, South Carolina.

Thanks to another generous scholarship, she attended an important new North Carolina Music Program at Boone, NC. This provided Elizabeth with the opportunity to study with Metropolitan Opera Bass Norman Cordon and renowned vocal coach Walter Golde (who had accompanied Maria Jeritza and other distinguished operatic artists).

On many evenings, Elizabeth and a small select group of older singers were invited to Cordon's mountain retreat to listen to rare recordings of great artists and discuss what they had heard.

This was the world of music in which she wanted to live.

 

Elizabeth Robinson (Johanna Dordick)

Elizabeth Robinson (Johanna Dordick)

 
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