Alice Vassar LaCour
{{Short description|American educator and singer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Alice Vassar LaCour
| image = AliceVassarLaCour1924.jpg
| alt = Portrait of an African-American woman, wearing a dark dress with a white lace collar.
| caption = Alice Vassar LaCour, from a 1924 publication.
| other_names =
| birth_name = Alice Maud Vassar
| birth_date = 1870s
| birth_place = Athens, Alabama
| death_date = 1924
| death_place =
| nationality = American
| occupation = Educator, singer
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
}}
Alice Vassar LaCour (born 1870s – died 1924) was an American educator and singer.
Early life and education
Alice Maud Vassar was from Athens, Alabama, where she attended the Trinity School run by missionary Mary Fletcher Wells.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RFZ2AAAAMAAJ&q=Alice+Vassar+LaCour&pg=PA169|title=Who's who of the Colored Race: A General Biographical Dictionary of Men and Women of African Descent|date=1915|pages=169|language=en}}{{Cite web|url=http://library.csu.edu/collections/pincham/history/trinity.html|title=Trinity School, Athens, Alabama: Dare To Make a Difference|website=Chicago State University|access-date=2020-02-28|archive-date=2016-05-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160514080016/http://library.csu.edu/collections/pincham/history/trinity.html|url-status=dead}} She graduated from Fisk University's normal school in 1887.{{Cite book|last=University|first=Fisk|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GpdGAQAAMAAJ&q=Alice+Vassar+LaCour&pg=RA5-PA88|title=Catalog of the Officers, Students and Alumni of Fisk University|date=1900|publisher=The University|pages=88, 92, 101|language=en}}
Career
LaCour was a Fisk Jubilee Singer, touring with the company from 1890 to 1891.{{Cite book|last1=Abbot|first1=Lynn|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rQ5yQ2vZJrUC&q=%22Alice+Vassar%22+Fisk&pg=PA18|title=To Do This, You Must Know How: Music Pedagogy in the Black Gospel Quartet Tradition|last2=Seroff|first2=Doug|date=2013|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-61703-675-0|pages=18|language=en}}{{Cite book|last=Work|first=John Wesley|url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.213900|quote=Alice Vassar Fisk.|title=Folk Song of the American Negro|date=1915|publisher=Press of Fisk University|pages=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.213900/page/n111 108]|language=en}} For many years afterward, she was featured on concert programs and conducted choruses at festivals.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45851086/colored-people-will-have-music-festival/|title=Colored People Will Have Music Festival Tonight|date=1915-08-06|work=The Atlanta Constitution|access-date=2020-02-29|pages=8|via=Newspapers.com}}
LaCour and her husband taught at American Missionary Association (AMA) schools in Jonesborough, Tennessee, Augusta, Georgia, and in Chapel Hill and Lawndale, North Carolina.{{Cite book|last=American Missionary Association|url=http://archive.org/details/listofmissionsmi00amer|title=A list of missions and missionaries under the auspices of the American Missionary Association, 1910-1911|date=1911|publisher=New York, N.Y. : [American Missionary Association]|others=Columbia University Libraries|pages=17}} She was principal of the AMA school in Springfield, Tennessee.{{Cite book|url=http://archive.org/details/catalogueof189297fisk|title=Catalogue of the Fisk University|publisher=Nashville, Tenn. : The University : Press of folk-Keelin Print. Co|others=University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign|year=1892–1897}}
Personal life and legacy
Alice Vassar married fellow educator and Fisk Jubilee singer Paul Louis LaCour in 1893, in Nashville. Their wedding was attended by much of the faculty of Fisk University. The university's president, Erastus Milo Cravath, performed the ceremony.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/45850654/lacour-vassar-a-notable-wedding-in/|title=LaCour--Vassar, A Notable Wedding in Colored Circles|date=1893-06-16|work=Nashville Banner|access-date=2020-02-29|pages=5|via=Newspapers.com}} The LaCours had daughters Lucile, Marion, and Gretchen.{{Cite web|url=https://www.courant.com/news/connecticut/hc-xpm-1996-06-28-9606280776-story.html|title=MRS. LUCILE LACOUR HEACOCK|date=June 28, 1996|website=Hartford Courant|language=en-US|access-date=2020-02-28}} Alice Vassar LaCour died in 1924.{{Cite journal|date=December 1924|title=The Horizon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2VkEAAAAMBAJ&q=Alice&pg=PA75|journal=The Crisis|pages=75}}
LaCour was a character in Arise and Build (2016), a musical play about the history of Trinity School, performed for the school's 150th anniversary.{{Cite web|url=https://www.enewscourier.com/news/lifestyles/arise-build-trinity-play-opens-soon/article_df1e30e8-b669-11e5-b316-3f204ec3dad4.html|title=Arise & Build: Trinity play opens soon|last=Fulton|first=Charlotte|date=January 10, 2016|website=The News Courier|language=en|access-date=2020-02-28}}
References
{{reflist}}
{{Subject bar|portal1=Biography}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:LaCour, Alice Vassar}}
Category:Fisk University alumni
Category:Educators from Alabama