SINGER'S TRAGIC END

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 22256, 2 November 1935, Page 3 (Supplement)

SINGER'S TRAGIC END

FROM WEALTH TO POVERTY

Several' months ago a woman patient in the Charing Cross General Hospital, London, suddenly began to sing. Patients, nurses and doctors paused, astonished, as the rich golden notes flooded the ward. Then the " houseman" walked to the patient's bed, lifted down her chart, and looked at it —" Amy Sherwin." He turned to the ward-sister and whispered: "Used to be a Covent Garden opera singer." And he looked down with pity at the old face, with its clear white skin, its wideBet, bright blue eyes, and the mouth of a girl., It was her swan-sang. For now Amy Sherwin is dead. She died forgotten, lonely, arid,penniless, in an Essex cottage. At one time the wholo world knew her. She earned from £3OOO to£sooo a year long before the war; before the days, of Hollywood. She wa3 feted, she, packed opera houses, she was the friend of kings and counsellors . . . and now this 1 Her early days were a struggle. Her parents were Tasmanian pioneers. Seven times before she was twelve their homestead was destroyed by firo or flood. Her early efforts to gain a name as a singer were as desperate. Then one day she gate-crashed into the manager's office at Covent Garden. And, as he yelled: "Get Out!" she sang. So ho said " Shut the door, while 1 make out your contract. After that she captured the world. Mr. L. G. Sharpe, who used to bo her concert agent, says: " Her's was a marvellous career. Sho used to live in Hampstead in a largo house with a splendid music room. There she gave concerts. After she gave up singing sho did a lot of teaching." In fact, Mme. Amy Sherwin's school was fam<}us. She was an inspired teacher, and her pupils' concerts at the Aeolian Hall drew all the agents as well as all the critics. If, toward the end she was asked how she had come to be in the general ward of a largo London hospital, sho would smile bravely ai(d say: " I was never a good manager." The fact is_that, like many great artists, money meant little to her. She was generous to a fault. And so she died penniless. At the end she was left alone. Mr. Sharpe was almost her only visitor. The Musicians' Benevolent I' und kept herefrom sheer destitution. A sad end to a great career? Amy would never admit it. She had sung. Sho had helped others to sing. And her voice waft still sweet and pure. When Bho died there was a smile on her lips.