Thoughts and stories, by Pal

Last Friday, July 22, 2016, I was privileged to play the piano for  Kiki Shakespeare Thompson, a talented soprano who has a degree in vocal performance, and is a beloved vocal teacher. and  Connor Lee, a very talented young tenor, who will be going to BYU this fall to be in their opera program. It was done at the Friday noon concert at Town and Country Bank here in St. George, and they  always put numbers there on youtube.com.   I'm sure you would enjoy listening to any or all of these.  I especially was thrilled to accompani Kiki on the aria from Madame Butterfly, by Puccini, which is # 7 on this list.  My mother, Ruth Allen Miles, was a gifted soprano in operas in the 1920s at Dixie College, and sang that same solo.  I had never accompanied anyone on that beautiful song.  My mother also sang with my father Orson Pratt Miles many times in duets.  She sang solos, and in a ladies trio throughout her life.  You can read about he...

I was privileged to be in the Hill Cumorah Pageant in 1955, just before I was married.  I had gone to BYU the winter before, and had been writing to Wayne in the army.  I signed up during the winter to go with the group from BYU to be among the group scenes.  We were joined by the missionaries who were then in the Rochester, New York, mission.  We spent one week on a bus driving back there, two weeks there, and one week driving back home.  We didn't fly at that time, as people do now. The Hill Cumorah as it probably was in 1800's.  Taken in 1910.      While there for 2 weeks, we learned missionary lessons so we could go among the crowds who came to the Pageant and talk as missionaries.  I was in a group that stayed at the Joseph Smith Farm Home.  The night before we left on June 28th, Wayne proposed to me, and gave me a diamond ring.  He had come home from the army on July 4th, and we had been writing for 14 months an...