Clara Louise Kellogg

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Clara Louise Kellogg (July 9, 1842 – May 13, 1916) was an American singer.

She was a daughter of George Kellogg and Jane Elizabeth (Crosby), born at Sumterville, South Carolina, and was educated in New York for the musical profession, singing first in opera there in 1861. Her fine soprano voice and artistic gifts soon made her famous. She appeared as prima donna in Italian opera in London and at concerts in 1867 and 1868, and from that time till 1887 was one of the leading public singers. She appeared at intervals in London, but was principally engaged in America.

In 1874 Kellogg organized an opera company widely known in the United States, and her enterprise and energy in directing it were remarkable. The company weathered a tragedy on May 26, 1882, when two members drowned while on tour. During a break in the company's schedule, the recently-signed 19-year-old virtuoso pianist Herman Rietzel and bass singer George Conly took a pleasure outing in a rowboat on Lake Spofford near Chesterfield, New Hampshire; later that day, the boat was found capsized, but Rietzel's body was not recovered until the following June 7, and Conly's not until a week later still.

Kellogg retired after marrying Carl Strakosch in Elkhart, Indiana on November 6, 1886. In 1913 she published her memoirs under the title Memoirs of an American Primadonna (New York). She died in New Hartford, Connecticut.

[edit] References

• "George Conly's Sad Fate: Drowned in a New Hampshire Lake with Young Herman Rietzel, the Pianist," The New York Times, May 28, 1882.[1]
• "Herman Rietzel's Body Found," The New York Times, June 8, 1882.
• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.