Nelle Richmond Eberhart

(1871-1944) lived at Atkinson and near York. Teacher, poet, lyricist, known for influencing composer Charles Wakefield Cadman with her interest in Native American culture and music, collaborating with him in writing about 200 songs, she is noted for words to "At Dawning" (1906) and "From the Land of Sky-Blue Waters" (1909); she wrote words for opera "Shanewis" which became in 1917-19 the first American composition to appear more than one season at the Metropolitan Opera and for the words to "The Willow Tree" (1932), the first opera commissioned for radio; her daughter Constance Eberhart was a professional opera singer for ten years. Consult Omaha World Herald, December 6, 1935, p. 8 and New York Times obituary, November 16, 1944, p. 23 and Who Was Who in America, Vol 2 (1950) 168 and "Ladies of the Libretto," Opera News, March 18, 1972, pp. 26-29 and American Women Songwriters: A Biographical Dictionary (Greenwood Press, 1993) 194. See also Arlouine G. Wu, Constance Eberhart: A Musical Career in the Age of Cadman (National Opera Association, 1983).

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