Dorothy Maynor began teaching 12 students in a church basement in 1963. Sixteen years later, her Harlem School of the Arts would boast a 37,000-square-foot facility and enroll more than 1,000 students annually in preparatory programs in the performing arts.

Were it simply for this achievement, the petite Norfolk native would be one of Virginia’s great musical exports. But Dame Maynor was also one of the most highly touted singers of the 20th century, a Hampton Institute (now University) graduate who debuted to raves at the 1939 Berkshire Festival in Tanglewood, Mass. Her "soaring, bell-like soprano" greatly impressed Boston Symphony conductor Serge Koussevitzky and The New York Times. Maynor would become among the first African-Americans to join the board of directors at the New York Metropolitan Opera.

The singer’s subsequent live appearances throughout the ‘40s and ‘50s — a rendition of "Depuis le jour," from Charpentier’s Louise was her showstopper — made Maynor one of the most highly-paid concert performers of the day, even as her race and diminutive physical stature kept her out of many major productions. After retiring to found her school, the little woman with the huge voice died in 1996.

— Don Harrison