My grandfather Charles Morefield, a stone mason, was the choir director for a country church in Bristol, Virginia. Although the congregation was small and did not have use of a piano, my grandfather was able to use the tuning fork to start the choir on the proper note. He would then sing the tones (do-me-so) to give the bass, tenor, alto their proper notes. My mother, Charles' daughter had a beautiful contralto voice. In fact, a gentleman from the East Coast wanted to support her and provide for additional musical training; she could have been in the opera. She was fifteen. Instead of accepting, she ran away and married my father. Word traveled in the surrounding communities that Moreland's choir was very good with talented members.
As it happened, the President's Inauguration was in the planning stages. Someone contacted my grandfather to bring this choir to Washington DC and sing for President Franklin Roosevelt's inaugural celebration. They gathered the Bristol choir and off they went. Charles Morefield's wife Easter did not attend. She said, "I'm from this town and I'm not going to leave this town." She stayed home. Her family told her that she could hear the choir on the radio. Easter was a skeptic and actually did not believe in the radio's capabilities. The family gathered for the event. When Charles' voice came through the radio, and Easter heard him speak to the choir, using his tuning fork and singing the musical tones for base, tenor, alto she declared, "That's my Charlie!"
From Wikipedia March 1933
The inauguration took place in the wake of Democrat Roosevelt's landslide victory over Republican incumbent Herbert Hoover in the 1932 presidential
election. With the nation in the grips of the Great Depression, the new president's
inaugural speech was awaited with great anticipation. Broadcast nationwide on
several radio networks, the speech was heard by tens of millions of Americans,
and set the stage for Roosevelt's urgent efforts to respond to the crisis.
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