Opera Singer. A mezzo soprano, she is remembered for her quarter century career at the Metropolitan Opera. The child of a musical family, she began performing radio jingles at four and paid her way thru the Birmingham Conservator by working as a swimming instructor. A busy recital singer throughout her time before the public, Nell made her professional debut at a 1947 Town Hall concert, then journeyed to Europe and joined Opera Zurich where she made her 1948 operatic bow as Ortrud from Wagner's "Lohengrin". Heard there in a number of roles, among them the jealous Princess Amneris, a piece destined to be one of her signatures, in Verdi's "Aida" and the title lead of Saint-Saens' "Samson et Dalila", in 1950 she became the first American to take a First Prize at Geneva's Concours de Musique. Nell bowed at the Metropolitan Opera on November 22, 1951 and also in 1951 was first heard at the Vienna State Opera and at La Scala Milano, on all three occasions using Amneris as her vehicle. The year 1951 also saw her record the part of Cio-Cio-San's maid Suzuki from Puccini's "Madame Butterfly" as well as the alto portion of Verdi's "Manzoni Requiem". She gave a private recital for Queen Elizabeth II and starred in a gala outdoor event honoring King Idris of Libya; first heard at Covent Garden in 1953, she made her 1955 San Francisco Opera bow as the title lead of Bizet's "Carmen", another signature. Singing a total of 157 times at the Met, her assignments included a number of Verdi's ladies, among them Amneris, Princess Eboli in "Don Carlos", the whore Maddalena from "Rigoletto", the witch Ulrica of "In Ballo in Maschera", and Azucena in "Il Trovatore", as well as Santuzza of Mascagni's "Cavalleria Rusticana", Madelon from Umberto Giordano's "Andrea Chenier", Marina in Modest Mussorgsky's "Boris Godunov", and Herodias of Riccard Strauss' "Salome". Her last years were primarily devoted to Wagner, her assignments including Brangaene in "Tristan und Isolde", both the Third Norn and Gutrune of "Gotterdammerung", and Fricka from "Die Walkure", though she made her April 16, 1976 farewell to the Met as Laura in Ponchielli's "La Gioconda". Inducted into the Alabama Academy of Honor in 1976, she taught at Philadelphia's Academy of Vocal Arts from 1977 thru 1984, then ran a private studio out of her New York home until her 1991 final retirement. Nell died of polycythemia vera, an indolent form of bone marrow cancer, leaving a rather thin 'official' legacy which includes, in addition to "Butterfly" and Verdi's "Requiem", a complete "Aida". There are, however, 'pirates', among them a well-noted 1958 Mexico City "Aida" which starred Anita Cerquetti, along with quite a few archived Met broadcasts.