Bertha Cushing Child
Bertha May Cushing Child (September 11, 1871 – February 9, 1933) was an American singer and clubwoman, based in Boston, Massachusetts. She was the mother of diplomat Paul Cushing Child.
Early life
[edit]Bertha May Cushing was born in Stamford, Connecticut, the daughter of a Methodist minister, John Russell Cushing, and his wife, Mary Hebard Cushing. Her great-uncle was diplomat Caleb Cushing. She attended Wesleyan Academy in Wilbraham, Massachusetts, and studied voice with Clara Munger in Boston, with further vocal training in Paris.[1][2]
Career
[edit]Bertha May Cushing was noted as a "true contralto"[2] concert singer in Boston.[3] Child's voice was described as "luscious" by a New York critic.[4] She gave recitals, sang with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and was a soloist in the King's Chapel Choir. She also sang at Synagogue Ardath Israel in Boston, and with the city's Handel and Haydn Society, Cecilia Society, and Browning Society.[5] She was a soloist at the White House in a 1917 concert for President Woodrow Wilson.[6] She also taught singing, and gave musical performances with her children, billed as "Mrs. Child and the Children".[7]
She performed at a benefit concert for the Eudowood Consumption Hospital Fund in Baltimore in 1908,[8] and at a Boston concert raising funds for war relief causes in 1916.[9] Child was a charter member of the Professional Woman's Club,[10] and was a member of the Equal Suffrage Association, the Woman's City Club, and the Copley Society.[1]
Personal life
[edit]In 1899 Bertha Cushing married Charles Tripler Child, an electrical engineer who worked for the Smithsonian Institution. She was widowed with three very young children when Charles died suddenly in 1902.[11] Son Paul Cushing Child (1902-1994) became a diplomat, and in 1946 the husband of chef Julia Child.[12][13]
Bertha Cushing Child followed the teachings of Theosophy and was a vegetarian.[14] She died from meningitis or a heart attack in 1933, aged 61 years, in Paris.[15][1] She is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Mrs. Bertha Cushing Child Dies in Paris" Boston Globe (February 9, 1933): 5. via Newspapers.com
- ^ a b "Great Contralto Will Sing at Wednesday Club's Festival" The Times (April 6, 1902): 18. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Our Illustrations" Photo-era Magazine (March 1909): 156.
- ^ "Mrs. Bertha Cushing Child" The Times Dispatch (April 3, 1904): 6. via Newspapers.com
- ^ "Bertha Cushing Child, Contralto" Musical Courier (February 12, 1908): 35.
- ^ "Sings Before President" Musical America (January 20, 1917): 12.
- ^ Laura Shapiro, Julia Child (Penguin 2007): 13. ISBN 9780670038398
- ^ "Later Baltimore News" Musical Courier (April 15, 1908): 37.
- ^ "Two Boston Clubs Resume Concerts" Musical America (December 2, 1916): 42.
- ^ "Bertha Cushing Child" Marsh's Magazine (October 1908): 29.
- ^ "Mother Love Expressed in Song" Boston Globe (April 7, 1907): 55. via Newspapers.com
- ^ Alex Prud'homme, The French Chef in America (Random House, 2016), excerpted in Town and Country (October 20, 2016).
- ^ Papers of Julia Child, 1925-1993: A Finding Aid Archived 2018-07-03 at the Wayback Machine, Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University.
- ^ Julia Child, My Life in France (Gerald Duckworth & Company 2009). ISBN 9780715639924
- ^ "Mrs. Bertha Cushing Child" New York Times (February 10, 1933): 18. via ProQuest
