342. Pensacola's Lost Vocalist 1911

Updated: Mar 24, 2022

At the turn of the last century, Pensacola toasted a talented young lady with a beautiful singing voice by the name of Emilia Montanari, many times spelled Amelia. She was the daughter of Angelo Montanari (1859-1927) and Mary Elizabeth Lewis (1866-1935). Her father was a mechanic who had immigrated to the U.S. from Italy in 1880. Her parents had married in Pensacola on March 13, 1885 and by 1910 they had settled the family in the Little Bayou area after Angelo became a millwright at a local sawmill. Her brother was Frank Aloysius Montanari who was shipwrecked in 1918 when his ship, the Remittant, hit a reef and sunk (see previous article).

But Emilia's life took a different turn than her siblings due to the blessing of an angelic voice. She was born in Pensacola on December 31, 1885, the first of eleven children born to her Italian father and American mother. She was described as a "timid girl and by nature a dreamer that loved the outdoors." She spoke fondly of walks in the woods as a child with her father as he spoke of flowers and birds." From childhood she worked hard to "reach the concert stage." She had worked at Clutter's music store and had been studying under Professor Henry Anthony Seel (1879-1951) who was a music teacher at 116 1/2 South Palafox Street. Then one day she was asked by Father Patrick Turner of the Sacred Heart parish to sing "Gounod's Ave Maria." Shockingly, her voice was so pure that she received encore after encore! In that audience was a Mrs. Doley O'Hara Turtle (1853-1934), wife of Captain James Edgar Turtle from Ft. Barrancas. She was a woman with some influence in the music field who offered that influence to Emilia. Ironically, Doley's daughter Miss Florence Turtle married William J. Davis Jr. whose mother had been none other than the famous Chicagoan singer Jessie Bartlett Davis (1860-1905). Thus, was born the dream of becoming a star with her voice, if only given the chance.

Once arrangements were made to study in Chicago, her family and friends arranged for a concert for Emilia at the Knights of Columbus Hall at #25 W. Garden Street on October 11, 1911. The proceeds were enough for her to pay for her travel to Chicago and room and board. Once in Chicago, she obtained a sales job at the Rudolph-Wurlitzer Company store. She stated that "it was a liberal musical education just to be in that record department, for I have the advantage of hearing the world's greatest singers." She rented a room at the Y.W.C.A. and signed up for voice lessons under Professor Frederic Woodman Root (1846-1916). He was the son of the famous composer George Frederick Root (1820-2895). Luckily, Root's studio, her job and the Y.W.C.A. were only several blocks apart from each other. She proudly stated in 1913 that "I take two or three lessons per week from Professor Root, and I have paid all my own expenses since I have been in Chicago!"

She traveled to Europe in 1913 to receive specialized instruction from a famous instructor for several months before returning to American to begin her career on the stage. In 1915, a story emerged that Emilia was scheduled to audition before a famous singer in her hotel. The young vocalist ahead of her finished her presentation then was curtly told to move on and then Emilia was called forth. But, when she finished her number the famed lady asked her to sing another. Upon finishing, the great star stated, "Child, you have a great future in store for you. You have a wonderful voice and you must study hard to cultivate it."

There is no record that Emilia ever married nor that she ever returned to permanently live in Pensacola. One record shows that she was still in Chicago as of 1927 and three years later was listed as a switchboard operator there for a jewelry house. In 1935 (the year of her mother's death), she was staying at her mother's home at 904 North 16th Avenue and unemployed, but was gone the next year. In 1936, she and her beautiful voice disappeared from the records only to reappear ten years later when she passed away. As her parent's first born, she was the first to go ahead of her siblings: Emilia (1885-1946), Anna (1887-1965), Mary E. (1889-1950), Olga (1891-1971), Victoria "Vic" (1893-1981), Angelo Jr. (1895-1898), Frank Aloysius (1897-1963), Ethel Angela (1899-1952), Lewis J. (1902-1965), Henry Vincent (1904-1979), and Charles D. Montanari (1908-1968). She passed away at the family home at 904 North 16th Avenue on March 12, 1946 at the age of 60-years old and was buried with her family in St. Michael's Cemetery. Sadly, history never recorded what happened to Emilia and her beautiful voice that had such promise!