South Yorkshire times : Saturday, December 5th, 1970

A Singer from the Village Four

Young children would be enough for any woman to cope with, one would think, but Cadeby songbird Frances Kendrick also finds time to fit in a successful singing career as well. Frances, who lives with her solicitor – husband and her  family of four, in a converted farmhouse at Cadeby village, has been singing since she was a child. Surprisingly however, she only started taking lessons two years ago because, as she says, “before the children started growing up, I just could not think about lessons.”

A pupil of Miss Margaret Duckworth, of Swinton Frances, a soprano still finds her practising timetable extremely hectic. “Sometimes I do not do any work for days and then another day I go mad and practice very hard. This again depends on the children,” she laughed.

Despite this, Frances pulled off a wonderful victory a fortnight ago, when she beat off a strong challenge to take first place in Barnsley music festivals open operatic section. Her performance of “voi che sapete” drew a number of appreciative comments from the adjudicators. Her musical tastes include Mozart, Bach, and Puccini, and anything which I think will suit my voice”.

However, she has a dislike for the works of modern composers. Next on Frances’ busy diary is Doncaster thespians’ production of “the Mikado”, to which she is eagerly looking forward. She will begin rehearsals shortly, time and children permitting, of course.