Historical Summer 2015 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
Mayor Francis Slay, other elected officials, former WU chancellor Bill Danforth, and many more, attended the Walk of Fame induction of an important St. Louisan, Frankie Muse Freeman. Frankie Muse Freeman began a celebrated legal career that spanned 60 years when she opened a private practice in St. Louis in 1949. Freeman was lead counsel in the 1954 landmark NAACP suit against the St. Louis Housing Authority, which ended legal segregation of public housing.
In 1964 Freeman became the first woman appointed to the US Commission on Civil Rights and contributed to the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Inducted into the National Bar Association’s Hall of Fame in 1990, the Civil Rights Walk of Fame in 2007 and the recipient of the NAACP’s prestigious Spingarn Medal in 2011, Frankie Muse Freeman courageously fought for justice her entire career. Soprano Christine Brewer began her career singing in the choruses of the St. Louis Symphony and Opera Theatre of St. Louis. Brewer performed with top symphonies and operas around the world, including debuts with the Royal Opera in 1993 and Metropolitan Opera in 2003.
A preeminent interpreter of Wagner and Strauss, Brewer showed her versatility with a 2006 Grammy Award for Songs of Innocence and Experience, a recording of contemporary material.
A meticulous yet downto-earth artist blessed with a golden voice, Christine Brewer was named one of the 20 greatest sopranos of all time by BBC Music Magazine.
Finally, a third star was unveiled in May for writer and cartoonist Lee Falk who created and wrote the comic strip Mandrake the Magician, which debuted in 1934 and featured a stage magician who used hypnosis and magic to fight evildoers.
In 1936 Falk premiered The Phantom, the first masked, costumed superhero of the comics, pre-dating both Superman and Batman. Syndicated worldwide, at their height the strips boasted over 100 million readers per day.
The St. Louis Walk of Fame is a non-profit organization founded in 1988 to provide a showcase for the cultural heritage of St. Louis and to advance the knowledge, awareness and appreciation of creative St. Louisans and their achievements and contributions. Set in the sidewalks of The Loop, it is open 24 hours a day and is free.
The most recent stars are located near the Regional Arts Commission building on the 6100 block of Delmar.
Original photograph caption
Frankie Muse Freeman with Mayor Slay.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, Summer 2015.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times2015_06.pdf, printed page(s) 6; PDF page(s) 6.
