Carol Lockwood

Carol Judge Day Lockwood (1928-2014), Opera Star of the Baltimore Stage in the Fifties, Sixties

Carol Judge was born in Mason City, Iowa, to Herbert L. and Bula Naomi Judge (nee Perkins), younger sister of Jacqueline Patricia Judge (later Fulcher) and Jean Naomi Judge (later Ingham).

Moving to Baltimore, Maryland, and struggling through the Depression, the family made sacrifices for their three daughters, including music lessons when young Carol displayed a musical talent singing to her teddy bear.

She studied and developed her talent, winning local notice as a dramatic soprano in light opera, while simultaneously beginning her career as a secretary for Baltimore Public Schools.

In 1956, she began appearing on national television on the Original Amateur Hour, winning four consecutive weeks singing “Vissi d’Arte” from Tosca, and coming back for the finals broadcast from Madison Square Garden.

After her television success, she moved to New York, continuing her study of opera before moving to Europe, where she settled in Salzburg, Austria, performing for the queen of Belgium, mastering her German, and expanding her range and developing her voice as a coloratura soprano.

Returning to Baltimore, she fell under the tutelage of the legendary Rosa Ponselle, who became her instructor, mentor, and champion.   This began the richest artistic period of Carol’s life, starring on the stage for the Baltimore Civic Opera under the name Carol Day, singing leads in La Boheme, Aida, and Rigoletto, among other great works.

During this time, Carol returned to work for the Baltimore Public Schools, becoming the secretary to the superintendent.  After a decade on the stage, she retired and began a family, marrying John O. Lockwood, a federal worker with the Department of Labor and the Environmental Protection Agency.  They raised two children, Charlene (of Baltimore, Maryland), and Jeffrey (of Falling Water, West Virginia), moving between Virginia and California, as she continued her administrative work in education.  Both of her children grew to become accomplished musicians like herself.

Moving to West Virginia after the death of husband, she taught voice at the Inwood School for the Performing Arts in Inwood, West Virgina for 10 years before she retired due to illness.   Besides her sisters and her daughter and son, she is survived by her loving son-in-law, Edward Hoyt of Baltimore, Maryland, and her loving daughter-in-law Annette Lockwood of Falling Waters, West Virginia.

After a memorial service at the Shrine of the Sacred Heart Church in Washington, DC, her remains will be interred beside those of her parents at Woodlawn Cemetery in Gwynn Oak, MD.