{"id":24659,"date":"2022-05-18T08:59:52","date_gmt":"2022-05-18T13:59:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/?p=24659"},"modified":"2022-05-18T08:59:52","modified_gmt":"2022-05-18T13:59:52","slug":"obit-watch-may-18-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sportsfirings.com\/?p=24659","title":{"rendered":"Obit watch: May 18, 2022."},"content":{"rendered":"

June Preston has passed away at 93<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Interesting career. She was a child actress: among her credits<\/a>, “Anne of Green Gables”, “Heaven Can Wait”, “It Happened One Night” (uncredited) and “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break” (uncredited).<\/p>\n

She also had considerable musical talent.<\/p>\n

A year after playing Ann Rutherford\u2018s daughter in Happy Land (1943), her final feature, Preston was discovered at age 16 by maestro Gustav Stern, a German conductor and vocal coach in Seattle.<\/a>
\nShe graduated from West Seattle High School in 1947 and began touring two years later. In 1952 at age 24, she debuted with a Metropolitan Opera company on a South American tour in the leading role of Mimi in La Boheme opposite Met standout Jan Peerce.<\/a>
\nDuring the next decade, Preston performed in the world\u2019s most prestigious opera houses and with symphony orchestras in the U.S., Europe and Central and South America. A soprano with a five-octave range, she was nicknamed the \u201cGolden Voice,\u201d and entertainment columnist Walter Winchell was an admirer.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She retired after her marriage in 1963.<\/p>\n

NYT<\/strong> obit for Maggie Peterson<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ricky Gardiner<\/a>, guitarist. He worked with David Bowie (“Visconti co-produced Bowie\u2019s \u201cLow\u201d album and brought Gardiner to play lead guitar on the first half of the iconic album.<\/a>“) and with Iggy Pop on “Lust for Life<\/a>“.<\/p>\n

Gardiner is credited with creating the three-note riff for \u201cThe Passenger,\u201d which was described as \u201cone of the greatest riffs of all time,\u201d by Bowie\u2019s biographer David Buckley.<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n