BIOGRAPHY OF RAY LAWRENCE ARBIZU by Annie Marion Albrecht Arbizu

BIOGRAPHY OF RAY LAWRENCE ARBIZU by Annie Marion Albrecht Arbizu

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BIOGRAPHY OF RAY LAWRENCE ARBIZU

By Annie Marion Albrecht Arbizu

Ray was born 10 August 1929 in Phoenix, Maricopa, Arizona. His parents were

Ray Cahill Arbizu and Margarita Vasquez Trujillo. The Cahill was his

father's mother's maiden name and Arbizu, his father's surname; the

Vasquez was Margarita's mother's maiden name and Trujillo, her father's

surname. This was common practice among the Spanish people. Consequently

he thought that his name was Ray Trujillo Arbizu until he applied for a

social security card at age 11 so he could work for Ophelia who owned the

neighborhood grocery store across the street from his house. He sent for

his birth certificate and learned his name was officially Ray Lawrence

Arbizu. Apparently, the doctor who attended his home birth wrote his name

as Ray (family told him to was to bear his father's name) and then because

they were Catholic and it was common to give the middle name of the saint

whose name graced that day and August the 10th was St. Lawrence Day, the

doctor wrote Lawrence as his middle name. So, he changed his signature! At

age 11!!

When he was very young, under 5, the family moved to 816 S. 5th Ave., in

Phoenix and he attended Grant Elementary school just 2 blocks from home.

His mother watched them all trek down there to the end of her life. Then,

after grammar school, he attended a technical school with the plan of

working as soon as he finished it, repairing radios. He was in his radio

repair class, 7th grade, 12 years old and heard the presidential announcement from the then, US President, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, that he had declared war on the Japanese after the attack on the Pearl Harbor Naval Yard, sinking several ships including the USS Arizona.

So, he notified his teacher who heard it repeated and notified the whole

school and the neighborhood heard the news from the local middle school

before they heard it on the evening radio news He entered in ROTC and

loved it and thought of a military career. Mexican-American boys were

taught that they should go to work as early as possible to help their

fathers support their, often, large families. But, with this interest in

ROTC, he asked his dad's permission to go to high school so his plan to

repair radios, later TVs, changed to a military dream where he found a

welcome prejudice-free atmosphere. Anyone could be an officer, not just

whites, unlike in middle school where he could only aspire to a

non-commissioned officer rating (which he achieved.) In high school, he

became a commissioned officer. But in class line-ups, the students were

segregated and for graduation, he was properly paired with a Hispanic girl.

Then, when a junior in high school, he learned he could sing and fell in

love with performing. His dad was an employee of the city garbage service

and, at one time, invented a mechanical street sweeper which the city used

for decades. Anyway, in his work, he brought home a stack of then antique

one-sided records. All of them featured Enrico Caruso, and Ray was

introduced to operatic music. That sealed his interest. Now, he aspired

to become an opera singer;

So, again, he petitioned his dad for permission to continue his education -

at Arizona State College (later Arizona State University) in Tempe. It took

him 5 years to complete his Bachelor's Degree in Music Education with a

minor in History because he had to work full-time, insisted on a full ROTC

program along with his other studies AND competing with students in his

music classes, some of whom had perfect pitch. He didn't! And didn't even

read music when he entered college. And the grading at ASC at that time

was on the curve meaning how well one did as related compared with peer

students in his classes. He graduated with his Bachelor's Degree in May,

1952. He had sung several leading roles in operas at ASC including the

premier of "Carmen," if I remember right. He told the story of being on

tour with the ASC opera group in Mexico and being awakened by his

colleagues after he startled them by singing a high C in his sleep!!

Let me back up and tell you exactly how he learned he could sing. In high

school, he had a crush on a young lady who was enamored with another boy.

He attended a try-out that young man was competing in, with the girl. She

was touting how well the other boy sang and Ray said he could do better.

So, she challenged him to just do it, then. So, he went to his friend's

mother, who taught music at Phoenix High School, where he was a student.

She taught him a well-known WWII song, "Kiss Me Once Then Kiss Me Twice,

Then Kiss Me Once Again," sung by a Hollywood idol, Frank Sinatra. She

taught him to sing it by rote, of course, as he had no knowledge about how

to read the music. Well, he sang it and got a prominent place in the music

program which included, the Boy's Follies, where they acted like chorus

girls. Pretty funny at the time.

His senior year of high school, Harry B. Harelson, from the ASC Music

Department went to PHS and heard him sing and they went to the music room

and Mr. Harelson took him up the scales to a high C and told him he had a

scholarship for free music lessons at ASC if he would come in the Fall. He

again asked his father if he could further his education and again, his

father gave permission. He moved in with his Aunt and Uncle Ralph & Nora

Arbizu, his dad's brother in Tempe where he completed his bachelor's

degree. He was known by ASC's President, Grady Gammage, as "Caruso" the

singing janitor. He continued as a janitor at the then ASU when he returned

home from his tour in the military during the Korean Conflict. Bess Barkley

was his voice teacher for all 5 years of his under graduate study, I think.

She taught him the Italian style of singing, like Caruso used. It's much

more forward and high in the head rather than back in the throat, and less

"chesty" than the Germanic approach. And it was absent the modern day art

form of beginning a tone without vibrato then moving into the vibrato after

the hard guttural attack of the first consonant. He sounded more like

Bjorling than Caruso as Caruso was a dramatic tenor and Bjorling, a Spinto.

That is somewhere between a dramatic and a a lyric tenor.

Ray's friends, with whom he naturally fit because they and he didn't drink

and "carouse," were mostly members of The Church of Jesus Christ of

Latter-Day-Saints. Many of them were returned missionaries and they all

told him about the Church. It took Ray three years to be sure he was

confident that it was really Christ's church on the Earth at this time but

as sure he had that confirmation, he was baptized. He remained a devoted,

active member the remainder of his life. He reared all his children in the

Church as well but never argued if/when some chose other beliefs.

Ray's mother, Margarita Vasquez Trujillo Arbizu, bore 10 children by the

age of 39. His baby sister, was just two and a half in June,1952, when his

mother died during an operation for a prolapsed diaphragm. Because Ray,

age 23, who had just graduated college (in those days, most folks did not

even complete high school, let alone college), he was allowed to watch the

operation from an observation room for doctors and medical students, so he

saw when they tried, unsuccessfully, to save her life. It was not considered a risky surgery. At her request, Ray gave her a blessing. He was asked to bless an elderly man in his ward and he, like his mother died. He gave only more blessing, that one to the severely mentally retarded son of his dear friend, Mary Black Sweat. When he died too, Ray refused for many years to give blessings because he said, "I have the kiss

of death." The month, following his mother's death, he left for active duty as a second lieutenant in the 201st Battalion of the 244th Field Artillery Division of the US Army.

So, in May, he graduated college, in June, his mother died, and in July, he

left home as an adult, now a soldier, never to return to his home as a

dependent child (or adult) again. While in the Army and stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington, he met, and nine days later, married Annie Marion Albrecht, right after he received his reassignment to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma. Somehow during his stay in Oklahoma, the Army lost his military records. (I think God hid them from them!) :) So, after, learning all about asmuths, base-point lines, etc. so he could call in US fire on the enemy as a forward observer, he was returned to Ft. Lewis, Washington.

But, our time in Oklahoma evoked its own stories. Example, Marion trying

to remember how to say the very strange new surname: Arbizu. Ray said,

"It's simple, Ar bi WHO? Arbizu!" And the 4-year-old in Marion's Sunday

School class confusing her again when the child exclaimed, "Here come the

Zoo Buh Arrs." So, she whispers, "Uh, how do we say our name again? Then,

the day, he jokingly comments about flirting with the blond neighbor newly

married wife of a Sergeant and I, also jokingly respond with a retort, which may have been seen as serious because I had picked up a long-bladed kitchen knife and GENTLY poked it at his stomach, saying, "Don't you ever let me catch you flirting with any little blond." He swallowed hard and gulped, and agreed that would never happen. He took it

seriously, though, rather than as a joke as I intended. I said, "I was just kidding." And he said, "But that point kept going deeper into my gut and you sure looked serious." Well, he wasn't just sure what kind of a maniac he had married. After all, he had only known me for about 2 weeks by then.

And one more: Ray's family used only a bottom sheet and mine

used both a top and bottom sheets. Often, Ray got into bed lying on the top

sheet and I'd awaken him to tell him he was on the top sheet again. On one

occasion,

he responded, "Oh, oh, oh yeah, I'm half-way between the sheet,"

and then drifting back to sleep, he ended, "and the base-point line." I

decided to lay on the top sheet with him and leave him comfortably right

where he was. There are others but let that suffice.

So, while back at Ft. Lewis, President Eisenhower, decided to cut down the

military force and sent Ray and many soldiers home 3 months early. About a

month before that, they found Ray's papers but, alas, too late to send him

to Korea, so he was discharged in April, if I remember right, and went

home, jobless, no income and baby #1 on his way in July. So, honorably

discharged, we left for Phoenix, Arizona and Ray introduced his wife to his

family. Our first child, Ray L Arbizu, Jr., was born in Phoenix, Arizona on

July 1, 1954.

Then, he set out to find a job, get himself back in school at ASU (now

officially a university). He went to Bill Henry, his former boss in

custodial care who said, "Ray, we're not hiring anyone who is not a

student." So, Ray walked off rather downtrodden, praying quietly, when he

met Grady Gammage who hailed him with, "Caruso! Great to see to see you

home from the army. How are you doing?" Ray told him he couldn't get into

the master's program because he had no job and he couldn't get his old job

back because he wasn't a student. Grady Gammage made a call and Ray was

back to school the next day.

One year later, he finished his master's degree and we left for Los Angeles

for him to continue his education at USC where he studied with a world

renowned voice teacher, and opera coach, Walter DuCloux; he also studied with William Vennard. At USC There, he added fencing, make-up courses, and dancing to his curriculum. Some pretty scary make-up sometimes!!!

Ray sang lead tenor roles in several operas while there, among them "Man

Lescaut," and the west coast premiere of "Othello." He was awarded a

Fulbright Grant and left Los Angeles for Vienna, Austria. But before he

left the states we had two more children, Kathleen De Ette, born February

13, 1958, and Marcus Adrian, born November 16, 1959. It was only possible

with the financial help of two sets of friends, Ginny and Trini Aceves, and

Mary Sweat, (later Marietta.) It took us a few years to repay them. While

in Vienna, Ray got to sing with singers from the Vienna Stats Oper along

with other Fulbright students. What a wonderful privilege. We were there

just a year and returned to the states.

We bought our second house at 415 S.5th Avenue in Tempe. Our first had also been in Tempe, on land later bought by the expanding ASC campus. We bought this second home from Ray’s cousin Virginia Morales. It was a cement block little building, no bathroom, but a front room, kitchen, and one bedroom. Ray, Jr. had loved

that place and hugged the walls when we returned after a brief stint living

with Ray's family of origin in Phoenix so his younger sister, Alice, could

finish high school. She was 'tending the children and wanted to finish her

schooling. Her older sister, Tina, had 'tended them after their mother

died but she had a family of her own at that time. It was there, that Ray,

Jr. told me that the big Tamarack tree didn't like him so he wouldn't play

in it's shade. He taught me something I'd never considered before: plants

had feelings. That made the story of Christ cursing the Fig tree make more

sense.

After returning to the states from Vienna, Ray worked in the hot sun in

Phoenix changing car batteries for George Dana of Dana Brothers Auto. He

sang a benefit concert at Gordon Holmes' insistence and earned enough money

for him to return to Europe to audition for a singing contract with various

municipal opera companies. Germany was much friendlier to foreign singers

than other nations at that time. While he was in Germany auditioning, Ann

Amelia was born on October 25, 1961. Ray returned successfully with his

first contract with the Bonn Opera Company when Ann was 2 days away from 2

months old, December 23rd..We celebrated Christmas the day he got home.

While we had been in California with Ray doing his graduate work, we first

lived in El Monte, renting from dear friends of Ray's, Merwin and Gladys

Biggs. However, after falling asleep at the wheel one night returning from

school, we moved to Los Angeles. We lived in 3 different houses there. We

knew work would pay better in California so we moved to a place near to his

friend, Mary Marietta, her daughter, Cynthia, and husband, George Marietta.

Ray worked days and I worked nights to earn enough to return to Bonn,

Germany to take that contract there. His first opera there was "Othello."

When he did it in Los Angeles, the newspapers said that it was one of the

top 5 top musical performances done in LA in 1959. He had sung it in

English and in Italian but now he had to learn it in German.

At first he hated singing in German. He called German "the language of the

dogs, auf, auf, auf." But after reading Heinrich Heinie's "Beatrice," he

learned to love the language, although he always preferred singing in

Italian because of the pure vowels. Heinie touched Ray's heart with the

phrase, "ein kuss ouf Deutsch." This means a kiss in German to which Ray

could most ardently relate, as hearing someone from "home' speak American

English was such a deep pleasure. He expanded his deep love for Arizona

even more deeply for the whole US. Of course, he felt that before or he

wouldn't have been so eager to be in the military. While in Bonn, we had

baby number five, Linda Fe, born June 25, 1963, in the town where the Snow

White story was placed.

After three years in Bonn, singing many roles, some out of his register,

lyric roles which brought in extra money, and singing in several

surrounding cities in Germany and Belgium, he took a contract with the

Essen Opera Company where he sang for three years, the last year without

his family with him. It was while still in Bonn that he received the

review which said he had "Italian gold in his throat." There, too, the

family was interviewed and the article was titled, "Ein Tenor Mit Funf

Bambini", "A tenor with five Bambini." And the 5 children we had at the

time had their picture in the newspaper. Fun, fun, fun! In Essen we had

#6, Blaine Thomas, who later assumed the stage name, Rowan Morrison as his

legal name, born August 3, 1965.

After 2 years in Essen, Ray brought his family home so his oldest could

begin Jr. High in the US. Ray returned to Essen to finish his contract.

Then signed a contract with the new (and short-lived) America National

Opera Company for whom he sang for one year before he came home and took

the job with Northern Arizona University. Ray, Jr. was then 12 and in the 7th grade. Kathleen was 8 1/2, in third grade, Marcus, in first grade, Ann in Kindergarten, and Linda and Blaine/Rowan at home with mom. Ray was home only a few hours when he was called by Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, AZ, and the next he was

hired and worked as an in-house performing artist and assistant professor

for two years. He performed far and wide during that time as well as right

there in Flagstaff. Then, he was called by Brigham Young University for an

interview and began teaching in Provo, Utah, for 15 years. His second career was as successful as his first. Students scattered across the States and Europe and would come back for master's classes with Ray. Our 7th, Beth Eileen, was born in Flagstaff on August 15, 1969. Our 8th child, David Lloyd Carlos was born in Provo on November 22, 1971.

At age 56, he had his first heart attack. After 3 of those, he was urged

to go on disability. they feared he might die on the job. We determined

to return to his beloved Arizona and moved into our retirement home at 1853

N. Wilbur Circle, Mesa, AZ. His life expectancy at that point was only a

couple of years but he lived 18 more years. There, he regained his

confidence and gave many blessings to his now large posterity. Students

still came for master classes and enjoyed his disabled and retirement

years. He vowed when he was put on disability, that he would do at least

one useful thing each day. His first "thing" was to replace a car motor!!

But he loved cooking so made our dinner meals as long as he could and did

other household tasks. Our 9th child was born there in Provo, making that

two born in the same place. All the others had the distinction of being

born in different places.

One time, he had mopped the kitchen and then went into our bedroom, removed

his shoes and was planning to lie down when he remembered he'd told me he

would put a bill in the mail so sans shoes, he headed out to the mailbox in his bare feet (in July in the heat? In Arizona?) Returning, he went into the kitchen for a glass of water and was upset that "someone' had spilled ketchup on the kitchen floor which he had just mopped. But he soon discovered it was blood, HIS blood. His feet were bleeding, the skin in shreds, burned on the scorching sidewalk. But, they didn't hurt so he went to bed. When I got home and saw his feet, I gasped and decided we needed to get to a doctor NOW. But, he refused. He had an appointment with his

podiatrist the next morning and that would be soon enough. He was too tired to go. Luckily, he didn't lose his feet. They healed in due time.

We celebrated our 25th anniversary on January 26th, a Sunday. The next day

was the anniversary but Sunday was an more convenient day for the family to

come celebrate with us. It was a lovely time, and he stayed up about 3

hours, I think, and excused himself and went to bed and slept soundly. On

February 2 or 3, he entered the hospital and after that followed several

hospital stays, finally going home to continue his outpatient dialysis

which he'd been on for 3 years by then. The last 4 months, he was

transported in our make-shift "ambulance" van by Gene Anderson, our

son-in-law and Marcus three times a week.

On May 10th, 2003, a pair of missionaries came by the house and visited

with Ray. While there, he was given a blessing which said that in the next

few days he had to live, he need have no fear and that the Lord loved him.

Ray had been fearful of death, worrying about whether he had been forgiven

of all his sins. This put his heart and mind at ease and he was, at last, unafraid, thus ready to go. We were told that the dialysis was no longer doing any good and was very distressful for him so we stopped that after his treatment on May 22nd. Hospice came the next afternoon, Thursday, and on Saturday, May 24, at 9:10 a. m., he passed peacefully away/ I had a few moments alone with him after he began chain-stoking, then Ann rushed to him and he took one more breath for her and right behind her was Heidi, and he gave her a last breath, too. Ten minutes later, I thought to call Marcus

who lived just one block away and when he got there, he rushed in and put his arms under his dad's back and lifted him up a bit, and a huge exhalation of air allowed him to give Marcus his last breath also. A performer to the last, having given his "last" breath to the four of us who were there. We have all felt his presence at many family gatherings since that time so we know he is still watching over us. "Til We Meet Again."