Right: Hostesses serving the Afternoon Music Club a Valentine’s luncheon at the home of Betsy Mashburn are Nola Covington, Jackie McNeill, Helen Brabham, and Betsy Mashburn.

To celebrate its centennial, the Afternoon Music Club is going back through its own history, one–quarter century at a time.

Club members revisited the years between 1930 and 1955 at a Valentine’s luncheon held at the Spring Valley home of pianist Betsy Mashburn. Pianist and piano teacher Anna Marian Stanley Tucker, once president of the club, presented highlights from the group’s second 25 years. She told of club meetings held in stately Columbia homes, hosted by the town’s musical royalty.

Below: Lanny Palmer, soprano; Richard Veale, tenor; and Robyn Gibson, accompanist; entertain the Afternoon Music Club members. For example, Perla Sumner, daughter of a famous Italian conductor, often performed with Mary Fishburne Phillips. “She had two Steinway grand pianos in her living room as well as many antique oil paintings,” Tucker said.

Madame Tremblay Baker, a beloved French pianist who taught at USC, was noted for her improvised piano works and interesting lectures. Tucker’s own piano teacher, Mrs. Eschelman, persuaded Madame Baker to coach her for a Converse College scholarship audition.

Anna Marion Tucker Frances Carlisle Hester sang for the club frequently after returning to Columbia from a prestigious career in New York.

The history notes Tucker had compiled for the program referenced a silver tea given at the Heathwood Hall home of Katherine Heath Manning. She also recalled a yellow brocade dress Mrs. Asher Brown made for Dottie Bratton to wear in her portrayal of Suzannah in The Marriage of Figaro. Cornelia Freeman remembered the Mozart opera had run for eight straight nights at Town Theatre in the early ’50s.

Instruments available to the club during their meetings also made it into the annals of the club’s history. Among those noted were the pipe organ in the Gibbes Court home of Mrs. J.W. Haltiwanger, and Mrs. Valree Evans’s Baldwin grand piano.

Later in the program, the featured years were commemorated by love songs from the era. Solos and duets from musicals and Broadway shows were performed by Lanny Palmer, soprano; Richard Veale, tenor; and Robyn Gibson, accompanist. The three are Columbia College faculty members.