The Baltimore Sun from Baltimore, Maryland • 8

AS" THE SUN, Tuesday, May 26, 1S81 Ralph Olin Dulany dies; headed family food firm Rosa Ponselle dies of heart failure at her Green Spring Valley estate Services for Rabh Olin Dulanv. an ac 'rah' i li k. RALPH OLIN DULANY IIINSKLLX from A I management groomed ber for the Bellini work, choosing operas for her that would lead ber step-by-step toward the part. It was to become ber favorite role and one in which she was considered unexcelled. Her success continued unabated until the mid-1930s, when her career sputtered out with a single failure, "Carmen." Though she bad spared nothing in preparing for this role, having'studied it with experts in France, critics and the public both branded her portrayal of the fiery heroine of Bizet's opera a mistake, both vocally and dramatically.

The setback need not have been more than temporary. Meanwhile, during an engagement of the opera company at the Lyric Theatre in Baltimore, the soprano had met Carle Andrew Jackson, son of the city's late Mayor Howard Jackson. She married Mr. Jackson in December, 1938, retired from opera In February, 1937 -after a performance of "Carmen" -stopped giving recitals shortly afterward and settled in Baltimore. Probably no one knows the whole truth of the motivations that led ber to abandon her career.

Reportedly, the immediate precipitant was the Met's refusal of her plea to produce an opera with a leading part that seemed to have been fashioned for her, Cllea's "Adriana Lecouvreur." But that alone would not explain her departure. The diva herself always said she had reached the point where she could no longer tolerate the anxiety that plagued her at every performance; a certain aria or even a single note could loom as a menace to her performance. Her fright was particularly unnerving at the very opening of "Norma," when, as the Druid priestess, she bad to stand on stage statue-like for half an hour before opening her mouth. Perhaps the desire to have a home and settle down also influenced her decision to give up ber public life. Once Miss Ponselle moved here she never lost her commitment to Baltimore, though ber marriage to Mr.

Jackson ended in divorce in 19S0. In 1949 Leigh Martinet, son of Eugene Martinet-founder of the Baltimore Civic Opera Company-invited Miss Ponselle to attend a rehearsal of Verdi's "La Travia-ta." Shortly afterward, she became artistic director of the company. Miss Ponselle resigned from her position with the opera company in 1979, a decision, she said, prompted by a "series of slights" suffered at the hands of the late Robert J. Collinge, general manager of the company. The diva had taken a less active role in the company during the 1970s as her health deteriorated.

One of the last performances she attended was a 1977 version of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" that featured James Morris, a protege of Miss Ponselle's who went on to sing at the Met, in the title role. In retirement she rarely practiced but frequently sang for friends, and her voice retained its luster and flexibility until she reached an advanced age. Having given up her career, though, she could never be induced to make another professional appearance. One of ber rare informal public performances took place at the 5th Regiment Armory before the 1952 election, when she sang at a giant rally for presidential candidate Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Sponsors had to agree, however, not to announce her appearance in advance. She wanted to be able to bow out at the last minute if it seemed too much for her, it was the very commitment to perform at a given time and place that Miss Ponselle grew unable to face. She ceased to travel except for occasional visits to friends in Washington, and retreated to an elaborately furnished white Mediterranean-style villa at the crest of a hill high above the Green Spring Valley in Stevenson, across the road from Villa Julie College. Built in 1940, it was tive member of his, community and former president of Dulany Foods, will be held at 2 p.m. tomorrow at St.

John's United Methodist Church, Fruitland. Mr. Dulany, 87, died Sunday after a brief illness. He was born in Fruitland in 1893, the son of John H. and Virginia C.

Dulany. He graduated from Wesleyan University, Phi Beta Kappa, in 1914. From 1915 to 1917, he taught Latin, German and French at Rutgers preparatory school and later was a teacher and principal at the school. In 1917. he married Alice Topley Reihl, of Youngstown, Ohio, who survives him.

Earner that year, he had entered officers' training school, and in 1918 he served in the Meuse-Argonne campaign. He was a general's aide, using his foreign language skills, and was discharged from the Army as a first lieutenant in 1919. In 1919, he joined John H. Dulany and Son, which later became Dulany Foods, a canning business in Salisbury and Virginia that was founded by his father. Mr.

Dulany was production manager until 1925 and general manager until 1946, when he became president of the company until retiring in 1961. The business was purchased by the Green Giant Company. Mr. Dulany was president of the Tri-State Packers Association in 1930 and came the youngest president ever of the National Canners Association in 1937. He served as the second president of the National Association of Frozen Food Packers in 1945 and 1946, and was chairman of the Code Authority for the Canning Industry in 1934 and 1935.

He became a member of the Maryland Economic Development Commission 'in 1964 and was its chairman from 1967 to 1974. He also was active in his community: as a member of the Board of Commissioners of Wicomico county from 1941 to 1962; as president of the Rotary Club of Salisbury in 1944 and 1945; as president of the Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce in 1964; as chairman of the Wicomico County Housing Authority from 1965 to 1975; as chairman of the Eastern Shore Communi- ty Council, Wye Institute, from 1964 to 1969 and as a member of the Delmarva Advisory Council. He was a life member of the American Legion and a former trustee of the Assort- ation of Independent Colleges of Maryland from 1962 to 1970, of Washington College from 1964 to 1969 and of Wesley College, of Dover, Del. He was a lifelong member of St. John's United Methodist Church.

In 1969, he received the National Conference of Christians and Jews Award. He received the civic award of the Salisbury Chamber of Commerce in 1951, the Salisbury Award in 1958 and the canning industry's "Forty-niners Award" in 1964. He received an honorary doctor of law degree from Salisbury State College in 1974 and an honorary doctor of humane letters degree from Washington College in 1978. Mr. Dulany is survived by his wife, Alice; four children, David L.

Dulany, of Salisbury, Dr. Virginia D. Hofreuter, of Wheeling, W.Va., John H. Dulany II, of Fort Lauderdale, and Charles R. Dulany, of Rochester, N.Y.; eight grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

named Villa Pace (or the great aria, "Pace, pace, mio Dio," from "La Forza delDestino." There, the world came to her. Anything but a recluse, the singer welcomed all. Gregarious and hospitable, she did not like to sit down to dinner without others to share the meaL She declined to venture out of Baltimore even when RCA Victor sought to lure her to New York in the mid-1950s to record a program of songs. Finally, the company capitulated and sent its equipment to Baltimore, making the "takes" in the singer's own living room. Over the years, in a flamboyantly Italian-style setting, Miss Ponselle lived as a -grande dame, attended by poodles and cats, reclining by her swimming pool in the summer and, in all seasons, receiving an almost endless flow of guests.

Some formed a coterie that frequently gathered around her. There were hangers-on, neighbors, the curious, friends from many places, former operatic colleagues, young singers seeking her counsel or taking lessons from the great diva. On January 22, 1977, a group of stars, music critics and officials of the Met converged upon Villa Pace from New York, Philadelphia and Washington to surprise Rosa Ponselle with a party in honor of ber 80th birthday. Last year the Peabody Conservatory of Music established an annual 1,000 voice scholarship in Miss Ponselle's name. The diva herself provided the seed money to start the scholarship program.

Many a young singer profited from her advice and guidance, but teaching was not Miss Ponselle's forte chiefly because she had not undergone the conscious training required of most others. She had had a coach early in her career, Romano Romani-a New York voice instructor and composer who penned an opera for Miss Ponselle-who remained her devoted friend until his unexpected death at Villa Pace. But while Romani's guidance may have helped her to enhance her powers, no one taught Rosa Ponselle how to sing. She was born with whatever technique she needed. "She possesses a voice of natural beauty," wrote the music critic James Hunek-er.

"It may prove to be a gold mine; it is vocal gold anyway, with its luscious, lower and middle tones, dark, rich and ductile, and brilliant and flexible in the upper register." Miss Ponselle had not only a natural technique but also inborn musicianship. At her Metropolitan debut it was noted that she. was one of the few singers at that time-who could read music. Once she learned something it became a part of ber. In her living room, when recalling a role, she could go through whatever part of it she chose without a slip of memory, though she might not have touched it for years.

In ber home performances, as time went on, she ceased to attempt high notes she bad never liked them even when she could sing them superbly. Otherwise the voice remained unchanged except to become even richer and more burnished. Only during the last decade of her life did breaks occur in it, and when that happened Miss Ponselle stopped singing. A tall woman, the soprano gained much weight in her later years but, until she actually became feeble, she never lost the lightness of step and the regal carriage that had made her an imposing figure on stage. She bad only to walk across a room, adjusting a scarf and singing a snatch of "Carmen," to demonstrate unconsciously her theatrical instinct the "presence" Lewis B.

Patten, Western writer ROSA PONSELLE "a voice of natural beauty" true Italian "mamma," looked down from a portrait over a mantle at Villa Pace. It was equally clear, however, though she did not discuss it, that there was a gulf between herself and her father. In his attitude toward her career, he reflected the rigid traditions in which he bad grown up, regarding any woman who went on the stage as not quite respectable-indeed, morally suspect. Rosa's older sister Carmela, a fine mezzo-soprano, was the first to breach their father's resistance. She went to New York, got a job singing in vaudeville and sent for Rosa.

Billed as "those Italian girls" at a time when sister acts were in vogue, they offered a potpourri of popular, musical comedy and operatic numbers. Word of the extraordinary voice of the young soprano began to spread, and among those who went to hear for themselves were stars of the Met, including Caruso. That warmhearted man was ebullient on first meeting Rosa and exclaimed, "Eh, scunizza" a Neapolitan word for urchin look just like me." "If only I could sing like you!" she replied. It was Caruso who induced Gatti-Ca-sazza to listen to the vaudeville performer. She never forgot the great tenor's kindness and consideration during her debut performance.

She used to say that only because he whispered "coraggio! coraggiol" to her at crucial moments was she able to get through the opera: When she moved from vaudeville to the Met, she changed her last name to Ponselle. During the little time left to Caruso-he died three yean after her debut-Miss Ponselle appeared with him in several leading roles. It was one of her major regrets that her contract with a rival recording company prevented her from making any discs with the tenor. The soprano appeared all over the United States, not only in opera houses visited on tour by the Met but also in countless recitals. Though she feared to face foreign audiences, she sang at London's Covent Garden in 1929, 1930 and 1931, and was rapturously received, and she took part in a festival in Florence, Italy, in 1933.

She was one of the few female members of Italy's Order of the Commendato-ri. While she was a woman who enjoyed life and loved singing, Miss Ponselle nonetheless had an ambivalent attitude toward her own career, as she indicated when trying to help a young singer understand what a professional's life was like: "It's an endless job," she said. "I'd never do it again. You give up too many pleasures. Don't mistake me, I'm happy I did it But I wouldn't do it again.

I'd have a family and children." Rug Upholstery Cleaning 20 Off Ammmmmk itniiMiwiii mmmmm SHAMPOO THEN STEAM CLEAN WITH POWERFUl IN-TRUCK STEAM UNITS, WASHING OUT ALL CHEMICALS AND DIRT WHY OUR 2 STEP PROCESS INSTEAD OF 1 STEP PROCESSES (SHAMPOO OR STEAM) OFFERED BY Catherine; two Lewis B. Patten and Clifford L. Patten, both of Denver, a daughter, Frances Henry of Parker, a sister, Pauline Lyday of Margaret Imbesi A Mass of Christian Burial for Margaret Maria Castellano Imbesi, who was an active volunteer for handicapped children, will be held at 10 a.m. tomorrow at St. Leo's Roman Catholic Church in Little Italy.

Burial will be in Woodlawn Cemetery. Mrs. Imbesi, formerly of Ellicott City, suffered a heart attack Saturday and died Sunday at Union Memorial Hospital. She was 69. In recent years, Mrs.

Imbesi bad traveled to live with her children and a sister in Baltimore, in Florida and in Branford, Conn. She was born in Philadelphia and moved to Baltimore in 1936 with her husband, Thomas, an executive with a local bottling company. She had been active in charity work with the Variety Guild, at the William S. Baer School for Handicapped Children and at the Sacred Heart Mission Center's programs for deaf children in Catonsville. She is survived by her husband; a daughter, Claire Morrison, of Branford, two sons, Joseph A.

Imbesi, of Baltimore, and Dennis Michael Imbesi, of Ellicott City, a'sister, Rose LaManna, of Hoi-lywoood, two brothers, John and Joseph Castellano, both of New Jersey, and two grandchildren. Denver (AP) -Lewis B. Patten, considered by his peers to have been one of America's best Western writers, has died at his home here. He was 66 years old. Private funeral services for Mr.

Patten, who died Friday, were held here yesterday. Awarded the prestigious Golden Sad-dleman's Award by the Western Writers of America in 1979 for his collected work. Mr. Patten wrote more than 100 Western novels. Several of his novels and short stories were made into full-length movies and television films.

The best-known of these was the 1969 film "Death of a Gunfighter," starring Richard Widmark and Lena Home. Born in Denver on January 13, 1915, Mr. Patten graduated from South High School and joined the Navy in 1933, serving aboard a destroyer in the Far East until 1937. He attended the University of Denver from 1940 to 1942, then went to work for the Colorado Department of Revenue, where he became senior auditor. He left the agency in 1944 to take up ranching, and in 1949 began his writing career, coauthoring three novels Sabbath," "A Killing at Kiowa" and "The Meeker Wayne D.

Over-holser, a Boulder (Colo.) Western writer. AH three books won awards from the Western Writers of America. Other well-known novels by Mr. Patten include "Gunsmoke Empire," "White Warrior." "Guns at Gray Butte," "Track of the Hunter" and "Trail of the Apache Kid." Mr. Patten is survived by his wife, OTHER COMPANIES? IT'S SIMPLE CARPET GETS MUCH JT 1 VJ SATISFACTION I 1 GUARANTEED II CLEANER STAYS CLEAN LONGER BECAUSE NO SOAP OR CHEMICALS ARE LEFT IN 995-0033 Liv.

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that bad held ber audiences. Simple and direct in conversation, Miss Ponselle never, in ber social relationships, wore the mantle of the prima donna. Nor did her temperament become distorted into the temperamental. No one at the Met during her tenure there ever reported a tantrum from Miss Ponselle or a complaint that someone else was receiving more favored treatment. There was one point, however, on which the soprano remained unyielding.

She could not stand much heat, and in rehearsal and at performance she insisted on keeping the temperature down to a level that turned many of her colleagues blue. There was another side of Rosa Pon Like 'a week hurricanes' Flash floods kill 10 in Texas city vt I '-4 (WW A JJODIE SJULIL if v-o J. Joe Sill serves the Morning Sun to his 44 customers in the Northwest Baltimore area. He has had his route for two years and has saved over one hundred fifty dollars from his route earnings. This 1980 Honor Carrier is 15 years old, and a 9th grader at Milford Mill High.

His favorite subject is Social Studies and he is planning a career in politics. In addition to being on his school's golf team, Joe enjoys drawing in his spare time. are very proud to feature him as our Carrier of the Week. Austin. Texas (AP) Flash floods turned usually placid streams into torrents that swept through the Texas capital early yesterday, killing 10 persons, leaving 8 others missing and carving a path of destruction that looked like "a week of hurricanes." "I think we are fortunate we didn't lose more lives, when you look at the devastation," Mayor Carole McClellan said as Austin began drying out from the overnight flood.

Austin Police Lt. R. R. Roundtree said there were eight confirmed deaths. Later, he said two more bodies had been found.

Four of the victims died in or near Shoal Creek, which cuts through a residential section of Austin and empties into Town Lake, near the central business district. Most of the other deaths involved motorists who got stranded in rising water and drowned. Police said one unidentified woman's body was found in the back seat Of a Cadillac 12 feet above the ground in a tree. Another eight persons were reported missing, four of them last seen in a canoe on Town Lake, said Curtis Weeks, public 'information officer for the Travis County Sheriff's Department. L'p to 7 inches of rain sent Shoal Creek roaring out of its banks and into homes where walls were torn out and floors and furniture were soaked.

"It looks like we had a week of hurricanes," Cam O'Keefe said as she looked at the damage. Mike Sheridan, a hotel night auditor, said he watched as a "whirlpool" in a drainage ditch swallowed a pickup truck, killing one man and injuring another. "I fear there are still people unaccounted for. out there." he said, gazing at the ditch, which usually carries no more than a trickle of water. Police cadets combed Sboal Creek for more bodies.

Motorcycle police roamed the damaged areas, and two arrests on looting charges were reported. selle that went almost unnoticed-her business acumen. Someone once said that if Rosa had been a man she probably would have become president of General Motors. She lived affluently on income from the investment of her earnings. Whatever she had came from ber own efforts and ber astuteness in managing her income.

And while she entertained on a scale that showed no compromise with cost, in many other ways she demonstrated the frugality of a housewife with little money and a large family. During the years of her growing up, she had had to be concerned about every penny, and it was a habit she never completely lost Her parents had come to the United States from Caserta in southern Italy, and they settled in Meriden, where her father operated a grocery store. Miss Ponselle born Rosa Melba Pon-zillo-began to sing as a child in school and church. At 13, it bocame necessary for her to add to the meager family income, and she applied to a local motion picture theater for a singing job. "The only things 1 knew to sing to the manager were hymns." she wrote years later in recalling that period.

"I sang them, one after the other, shutting my eyes as I did it When I opened them, I taw that his were full of tears." Rosa had conquered ber first audience. The manager engaged ber to sing between film showings-not hymns bnt secular songs. "I started borne at once to learn some." she recalled. The pay represented "untold wealth'-HSaweek. Poverty was not the only obstacle to Rosa's career.

She had to contend also with opposition from ber father. It was obvious in ber later years that the sieger remained wholeheartedly devoted to her mother, whose face, that of a a Aa Aastia (Texas) woman washes mad from a chair in an attempt to salvage it. Carrier off the Week Want to enjoy the many benefits of being a Sun-papers carrier? Call 539-1280 and we will have a representative contact you with more information. tied their homes early yesterday, lining their yards with wet furniture. Doors and windows in many homes were washed away.

"The woman in this house and her son were holding onto a tree on the front lawn." said Kayo O'Keefe. Cam's husband, as he looked at house with a gaping hole in the garage wall. The O'Keefes helped throw a rope to the woman. Mrs. O'Keefe said water crashed off structures like waves breaking on the shore.

"People were carrying stuff out of some of the flooded, businesses," one resident said. "I saw them carrying some barbecue grills and other stuff." The floodwater, reportedly as deep as 20 to 30 feet in some places, caused widespread damage in the business district. It receded quickly, however, and schools opened on time yesterday. The rainfall total at Austin Municipal Airport was only 4.13 inches, but there were unofficial reports of 6 7 inches of rain at various locations. Many residents near Shoal Proek Tie Momnin gSmua.