Mary Violet Leontyne Price turns 88 years old today. She was born and raised in Laurel, Mississippi on February 10, 1927.
Price rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s. She was one of the first African Americans to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera.
Among her many honors are the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964), the Spingarn Medal (1965),[7] the Kennedy Center Honors (1980), the National Medal of Arts (1985), numerous honorary degrees, and nineteen Grammy Awards, 13 for operatic or song recitals, five for full operas, and a special Lifetime Achievement Award in 1989, more than any other classical singer.
In October of 2008, she was one of the recipients of the first Opera Honors given by the National Endowment for the Arts.
