A glorious voice

WE read Diane Haithman’s “A Virtuoso Scarlet Woman” [July 17]. The story is beautifully detailed but lacks the start.

My wife and I were married in 1950 and moved into a ground-floor apartment in Queens, N.Y. Directly above us was another young couple. While he worked as an X-ray technician, she remained a homemaker, or so we thought. What we didn’t know was that she was an aspiring opera singer, who would sing her scales morning, noon and night.

After about a month of this, we introduced ourselves and commented on how perfectly the scales were done. But could she throw in a song or two? The floodgates opened, and our world was filled with one of the most magnificent voices we had ever heard -- Gloria Lane.

MARVIN AND FELICIA GRAFF

Palm Harbor, Fla.