When attorney Ammon G. Dunton Jr. of White Stone received his monthly copy of “Opera,” a London, England, publication, he noticed the village of Saluda was mentioned.
“Among the obituaries was a Middlesex native, Margaret Tynes, who was born in Saluda,” he wrote in a letter to Sentinel Editor Don Richeson. “I thought your readers might be interested in knowing more about this international known opera star, who was an African-American.”
According to Tyler Radabaugh at the Middlesex County Museum and Historical Society, Margaret Tynes was the daughter of the Rev. Joseph Walter Tynes, who was pastor of Antioch Baptist Church in Saluda for five years, which encompassed two stints. The Rev. Tynes, his wife, Lucy Jane Rich Tynes, and family were at Antioch from 1912-1913 and again from 1915-1920.
Margaret was born in Saluda on Sept. 11, 1919. The family moved away in 1920 and eventually settled in Greensboro, N.C., where the Rev. Tynes pastored Providence Baptist Church for many years.
Career
David Shengold’s obituary on Tynes in the magazine spoke to an amazing singing career. Tynes studied at North A&T State University, Columbia University and The Juilliard School of music in New York City before appearing on broadway in “Lysistrata” with Sidney Poitier in 1946. She joined the New York City opera chorus in 1949 before taking numerous solo roles on Broadway (1952-1954) — including a starring role off Broadway opposite Harry Belafonte in “Sing, Man, Sing!” (1956).
Tynes sang Richard Strauss’ “Salome,” directed by Luchino Visconti at Spoleto, Italy, in 1961 and in Vienna, Austria, in 1962. She was invited to the Met Opera House in New York to appear in “Jennifa” in 1974 when she was already 55 years old. She also appeared on stage in Baltimore, Toronto, Canada; Bologna, Italy; (notably as Lady Macbeth, a frequent role), Naples, Italy; Turin, Lyon, Barcelona, Zurich, Prague and Budapest.
Her recordings included working with Duke Ellington’s jazz suite. She also recorded “A Drum is a Woman,” highlights of “Porgy and Bess” with Brock Peters, the “Pergolesi Stabat Mater” and fine discs of arias for mezzo-soprano and spirituals.
With a career that took her all over the world and to opera fame, the obit did not leave out that she was born in Saluda, Virginia.
