What:   Induction Ceremonies of the St. Louis Walk of Fame

Ceremonies are about 15 minutes.   A four-piece ragtime band will play prior.

Who:     Christine Brewer – in person!  Apr. 29, 2015

6134 Delmar in The Loop

Who:     Frankie Muse Freeman – in person! April 16, 2015

6138 Delmar in The Loop

Who:     Lee Falk – widow+daughter flying in to accept! Apr. 28, 2015

6142 Delmar in The Loop

Where: see above three addresses

When:  11:30 am      Free to the public!

CHRISTINE BREWER

BORN:  OCTOBER 26, 1955

Soprano Christine Brewer began her career singing in the choruses of the St. Louis Symphony and Opera Theatre of St. Louis.  After winning the Metropolitan Opera Auditions and the Richard Tucker Award in 1989, 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 down-to-earth artist blessed with a golden voice, Christine Brewer was named one of the 20 greatest sopranos of all time by BBC Music Magazine in 2007.

FRANKIE MUSE FREEMAN

BORN:  November 24, 1916

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.

Lee Falk

Born:  April 28, 1911

Died:  March 13, 1999 

Writer and cartoonist Lee Falk, originally named Leon Harrison Gross, was born and raised in St. Louis.   Falk 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.  Falk also wrote novels and plays, and he directed or produced over 300 stage productions.  One of the greats of the Golden Age of Comics, Lee Falk thrilled readers with daily doses of mystery and adventure until his death in 1999.