| Notes |
- from "Massachusetts, Birth Records, 1840-1915" (ancestry.com)
Gertrude Walker was born 31 May 1872 in Salem MA to Albert J Walker, a tuner b. Salem & Annie B McIntyre b. Salem.
- from "The Boston Herald", 5 May 1943 (genealogybank.com)
SALEM, May 4 - Mrs. Gertrude Walker-Crowley, 61, singer and music teacher, died today at her home at 18 Mr. Vernon street here. As a lyric soprano, she appeared on the concert stage for many years, and she had voice studios in Salem and Boston. A 10th generation direct descendant of Roger Conant, founder of Salem, she was the daughter of the late Albert J. Walker, organist and musician. and Mrs. Anne B. Walker, who survives her. Mrs. Walker-Crowley organized and conducted the Choral Art Society of Salem, and was a sponsor and patron of the Men's Singing Club of Beverly. She was active in the campaigns for women's suffrage, was for several years vice president and secretary of the Young Womens' Association of Salem, and for 25 years was associated with her husband in the social activities of department of the Beverly YMCA. She was a member of the Boston Professional Women's Club, and a member of the First Parish Unitarian Church of Salem. She leaves her husband and mother. Funeral services will be at the First Parish Church, Friday at 2 P.M. Burial will be in Harmony Grove cemetery.
- from review of Stienert Hall Recital in "The Boston Herald", 10 Nov 1911 (genealogybank.com)
Gertrude Walker-Crowley soprano, give a recital last evening at Steinert Hall... It is the fashion of certain singers to rely chiefly upon their powers of imaginative interpretation; and when this reliance is based upon skillful management of a voice which may not in itself be of great beauty, the result is often effective. Others prefer to lay emphasis up the merely mechanical side of their art, and they are thus uninteresting as interpreters, although correct in execution. But when both execution and interpretation are lacking, it is reasonable to expect that there shall be some effort on the part of the singer toward even occasional correctness of intonation. Mrs. Walker-Crowley's voice is singularly unpleasant in quality. Last evening mismanagement of breath marred her technical proficiency in her singing and there was at all time a madding imperfection in intonation. Except for a few tones which were warm and sometimes brilliant, she filed to impart emotional color to her singing. Her interpretations were without the element of variety, and read laboriously from a book, the effect was that of a lesson being conned. The singer was at her best in "La Chanson der Patre," which gave excellent opportunity for her to show the attention to detail that marks her work. There was a small audience.
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1872 - 1943 (70 years)
Albert J Walker, b. 1 Feb 1850, Salem, Essex, MA