Ramsdell taught voice lessons to about 60 students at her home on Central Avenue in Middletown for many years and at Miami University Middletown for 10 years after her husband, Robert, died in 1964.
She currently teaches private voice lessons — with the help of her piano — to four students from Hamilton, Middletown and Milford three days a week at her apartment.
“It’s so nice to take a voice and see it improve; get stronger and stronger, and work on the quality,” she said.
“Anybody can sing. If you can listen, you can sing.”
Ramsdell, the oldest of seven children, grew up on a farm in Collinsville with her parents and grandparents. She said she developed a love for music while singing with her mom, Mary, at church.
Ramsdell graduated from Middletown High School in 1925 and received a bachelor of arts degree with a certificate to teach voice from Western College for Women in Oxford (now known as Miami University). She also attended the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati and studied music at what is now The Juilliard School in New York.
During the summers, she sang throughout Ohio with the Cincinnati Symphony and with Frank Simon and the Armco Band in Middletown.
Ramsdell also traveled to Italy with her uncle from 1930-31 where she sang in the chorus at the famed La Scala opera house and soloed in numerous operas both in Italy and the United States.
In addition, Ramsdell served as a soloist and choral director at First Baptist Church of Middletown from 1933-1972.
Still today, she loves to teach her students to improve the volume and quality in their voices.
“I just like to teach people to sing. I just like to see the difference in their voices from the time they came, and how strong they get,” she said.
One of her current students, Tara Downie, a graduate from Edgewood High School, recently performed a vocal recital at First Presbyterian Church in Middletown.
“She did a fantastic job,” said Ramsdell, who attended the recital Dec. 13.
Ramsdell will celebrate her 103rd birthday on June 24, 2010. She said she plans to continuing teaching voice as long as she has students.
“I just don’t want to get too busy,” she said.
Ramsdell, who attributes her long life to good genes, said her new year’s resolution is to live to attend the Gerber family reunion next July in Collinsville.
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