“I would have to say that my favorite of all is capturing children involved in the activities natural to them. They have an innocence and joy . . . and I try to bring out that sparkling moment in each child.” familial risk assessment, counseling, by music. Her father, Elijah “Shorty” and patient amenities are supported by Lewis, played the clarinet; her mother, donated funds, all of which goes locally Alda Mae Nixon Lewis, played piano. to SCI – SIU. “When I was 8 years old, a man from The fundraiser has “grown and grown, a music school knocked on our door and people look forward to it,” Hazen and explained that they were testing says. She reports that all the art pieces children who might have ability and for the art auction have been gathered interest in music. Around this time up and that the event is large enough to there was a neighbor who played require all the ballrooms at the Crowne accordion and I sat under a window and Plaza Hotel this year. listened to her practice. So I signed up to learn accordion and every week Dad For the past 8 years, Hazen herself has took me to lessons.” Three years later, been fighting the effects of multiple Hazen was accomplished and invited myeloma, a type of bone cancer. to play accordion regularly on a local Treatment has taken its toll and radio show. weakened bones have resulted in 9 operations in 6 years, including a recent Around this same time, she joined a operation on her back. Chronic pain church choir. She soloed publicly at the requires attention. But she says, “I’m age of 11. still here,” with a sweet, luminous smile. She describes her maternal grandmother, Interviewed in a room just off the Sudie Ivy Lewis Nixon, “as my favorite foyer, Hazen sat in a reclining armchair, person in all the world,” who worked nearly motionless for an hour. But the garden with Hazen and taught her her animated face and sparkling eyes canning, rug hooking, crocheting, and conveyed dignity while masking the quilting. These skills would come in illness’s toll on her body. Stories of handy much later after marrying Roland her youth and life as a young wife and “while he was in medical school and we mother of four lively children were didn’t have money.” With 4 children recounted in a gentle, well-modulated under the age of 6, “I taught the children voice that hinted at her musical training how to make things, for gifts.” and career as a soprano performer and voice teacher in past decades. Hazen sang in the high school choirs as well as giving solo performances. She was born in Judsonia, Arkansas, Having mastered piano, she also served delivered at home by her grandfather as accompanist to fellow singers. Nixon and his brother who were both doctors. “Doctors and farmers made Hazen met Roland at Southwestern up my family,” Hazen explains. Because University in Georgetown, Texas, where Hazen’s parents left the small town they happened to enroll in the same firstsoon after she was born, Hazen and year French class. Roland was attracted Roland (from Beaumont, Texas) refer to by her beauty and lively personality. themselves as native Texans. But it was when “I heard her sing, and that was it,” Roland declared. An only child nurtured by parents who encouraged and supported whatever she “I did classical soprano [in] operas, was interested in, Hazen was surrounded singing in various places,’’ she explains. 10 In turn, Hazen says “I thought he could do anything. I thought he would do something special in his lifetime and I wanted to help.” Music being so much in the fiber of her being, Roland recalls teasingly how she left him on her “wedding day to take one last voice lesson.” Having first met 65 years ago, the couple celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary this year. The couple was in Baltimore, Md. for 5 years; in Bethesda, Md., for 2 years; and Seattle, Washington for 10 years before being persuaded to relocate here by Dr. Richard Moy, late Dean of the SIU Medical School in Springfield. While her husband studied and worked at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in Baltimore, Hazen enrolled in the Peabody Conservatory to work toward a degree in Voice Performance. At the same time, she taught music at a junior high school. Her first child, Gwen, was 6 weeks old when Hazen gave her M.A. voice recital which consisted of 2 operatic pieces, and 8 classical 18th and 19th century songs in four different languages – French, German, Italian, and Spanish. She ended her recital with several contemporary “vivacious, fun” American songs, the last of which was Leonard Bernstein’s “I Hate Music, but I like to sing.” Hazen chuckled and said, “I rehearsed [for the recital] while I was nursing [infant Gwen].” Her written thesis was completed while she was pregnant with second child Jack. In later years, she taught voice at Blackburn College in Carlinville. “I was a musician until I was 50 [but] the soprano voice doesn’t hold up as well” over time. A realization that she always wanted to be in the visual arts led Hazen to enroll in art courses taught by Jack Madura and the late Jim Murray at Lincoln Land Community College. Springfield Scene Magazine Tenth Anniversary Issue/Nov/Dec 2014