In Memory

Connie Stavenau **



 
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05/09/19 01:16 PM #1    

Wynn Fischer

Although we not close friends, Connie and I were together in choir for 3 years. She had the most magnificent and powerful soprano  voice I have ever heard outside of the Metropolitan Opera. I don't know what she did for a career,but I hope she continued to sing,and awe others like me with her wonderful voice.


08/19/19 12:48 PM #2    

Janet Phillips (McKensey)

I was hoping to find some information on the Web about Connie's singing career.  Many of us remember her operatic voice.  What I did find was this brief obituary, indicating that she passed away on August 20, 2016 (rather than December 2018 as shown on the "In Memory" list):  https://www.newcomerdayton.com/Obituary/124267/Connie-Jamieson/Dayton-Ohio

Janet


08/20/19 10:23 AM #3    

Kathleen Dodson (Kaad)

I have personal and 12 year professional relationship with Connie's niece, Nicole Stavenau. I will ask her for more details.

08/27/19 07:48 PM #4    

Peter Eberhardt

Written by Nicole Stavenau:    "My friend Kathleen Louise Kaad asked if there was anything I could share regarding your classmate, my Aunt, Connie Jamieson-Stavenau. She was an amazing woman, one that is missed everyday by her friends and family. In recent years before her passing, she and I became very close - I continue to cherish the memories of our frequent late-night conversations. She also introduced my parents back in 1979, so thank you Aunt Connie! Below is a summary of her life written by my Uncle, Jamie Jamieson, with the first photo taken at the height of her Operatic career and the second was weeks before her passing. 

After Connie’s graduation from Corvallis High School in 1969 she attended Oregon State, graduating with a degree in Music Performance in 1975. She then added a Teaching Certificate in the following year. 

In 1977 she married Jamie Jamieson, an Air Force pilot stationed at Travis Air Force Base in Northern California. Connie immediately got involved in the Bay Area music scene, continuing her studies with Edwin Barlow and winning a national talent search which resulted in her singing two operatic roles at the Blossom Festival in Kent, Ohio; those being Fiordiligi in Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutti and Lady Billows in Barber’s Albert Herring. She also gave birth to the couple’s first son, Alex, in 1978.

When Jamie was transferred to Hill AFB, Utah in 1982, Connie took her career with them. She worked extensively with the Utah Opera Company in Salt Lake City and its director Glade Peterson from 1983 through 1985, singing in the chorus for several operas, then graduating to the High Priestess in Verdi’s Aida, Marta in Gounod’s Faust, and the lead female role of Donna Anna in Mozart’s Don Giovanni. 

When the Jamiesons went on to Dover AFB, Delaware in 1985, Connie’s opera career was hampered by the lack of operatic outlets in the local area. However, she sang at a number of extremely high-visibility events while at Dover, including the memorial for the members of the 101st Airborne Division killed in an aircraft crash at Gander, Newfoundland in 1985 and another for the 47 sailors killed in a main battery explosion in the U.S.S. Iowa in 1989. Jamie used to say quite seriously that he probably owed at least one of his promotions to the visibility he received due to Connie’s singing. 

While at Dover, the Jamiesons adopted the second of their children, a girl named Chandra who was born in India. When Jamie retired in 1990, the family “followed the job” to Southern Ohio, where he flew for an overnight freight company. They bought a house in the Dayton area, where Connie remained active in singing in churches and Community Theater until abdominal surgery in 1997 resulted in some restriction of her diaphragm support. In the same year they adopted two more children (Stacey and Nick), this time from Russia, completing their family. Thereafter Connie was a fulltime Mom to their four children and (for five unofficial years) a neighborhood girl who needed a mother; she enjoyed taking each of the kids to Disney World and later to Cancun. 

In her last few years Connie’s health began to deteriorate, and in August of 2016 she died of complications from breast cancer. She is survived by Jamie, all four children, and seven grandchildren.

Image may contain: 1 person, smiling, closeup

Image may contain: 1 person, smiling, sitting and closeup

 

08/27/19 08:39 PM #5    

Janet Phillips (McKensey)

Thank you so much Kathy Dodson Kaad for asking Nicole Stavenau to provide us with Connie's history.

 


09/03/19 01:05 PM #6    

Wynn Fischer

I am so glad I returned to this page and was able to have answered my question,(and confirm my thoughts ) of  the incredible history of Connie’s singing career. Thank you Kathy Dodson Kaad for persuing this with your relationship with Nicole Stavenau,and please thank Nicole for the detailed history.

Wynn

 

 


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