Louise Hunter

Louise Hunter, born Anna Louise Todhunter in Middletown, Ohio, was an operatic soprano who performed on Broadway between 1922 and 1927. She died on September 13, 1981, in Denver, Colorado.

Hunter's musical training began at age ten, when she started taking vocal lessons from B. W. Foley of the Cincinnati Conservatory while attending public school. Her talent attracted the attention of Mrs. George M. Verity of Dayton, Ohio, who arranged for her to study at the Schuster-Martin School of Drama in Cincinnati. By 1923, now performing under the name Louise Hunter, she had joined the De Feo Opera Company, where she sang Musetta in La bohème, Nedda in Pagliacci, and Micaela in Carmen.

In October 1923, Hunter signed a four-year contract with the Metropolitan Opera. Her first appearance with the company came on November 11, 1923, when she sang Act II of Lucia di Lammermoor at a Sunday evening concert. Her first staged role followed on November 17, 1923, as one of the three orphans in Der Rosenkavalier. Though her assignments at the Met were largely small parts, her more notable roles included Musetta in La bohème, Feodor in Boris Godunov, Yniold in Pelléas et Mélisande, and Papagena in Die Zauberflöte. On April 25, 1925, while the company was on tour in Atlanta, she sang Olympia in The Tales of Hoffmann for a single performance and received a favorable critical response. Her final appearance with the Metropolitan Opera took place on April 30, 1927, also in Atlanta, where she performed the role of Stephano in Roméo et Juliette. Over the course of her contract, she gave 139 performances with the company.

During summers throughout her Metropolitan Opera years, Hunter performed with the Municipal Light Opera in Atlanta, appearing in operettas including The Firefly, The Chocolate Soldier, Naughty Marietta, Robin Hood, The Pirates of Penzance, and Katinka. A 1926 production of Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow drew a review noting her youth, beauty, acting ability, and voice.

In January 1927, Hunter departed the Metropolitan Opera and signed a five-year contract with producer Arthur Hammerstein to appear in operettas. She appeared in only one of Hammerstein's productions: the Broadway musical Golden Dawn, in which she created the title role. The show opened on November 30, 1927. Her final performance in the role was at the matinee of February 18, 1927, during which she became seriously ill and was taken to the hospital for an appendectomy. Hunter also appeared on Broadway in the musical The Love Girl. During her recovery from surgery, she negotiated her release from Hammerstein's contract and announced her intention to marry.

On January 22, 1928, Hunter married Henry Haven Windsor, Jr., son of Henry Haven Windsor, the founder of Popular Mechanics. The couple had two sons, Henry Haven Windsor III, born in 1929, and William Todhunter Windsor, born in 1930. Although Hunter was considered officially retired after 1928, she continued to sing informally; a 1934 notice recorded her singing in a Palm Beach chapel. She and Windsor divorced in Chicago on February 15, 1943. Hunter later moved to Denver in 1962, where she lived until her death on September 13, 1981. She was survived by six grandchildren, among them songwriter Willie Windsor of Nashville and actor John Windsor.