November 14 Illinois History Minute

It’s November 14th. And Illinois’ first governor, Shadrach Bond, was born on this day in 1773 near Baltimore Maryland.

Bond farmed near Kaskaskia when Illinois was a territory and served as its delegate to Congress. He was elected governor when Illinois became a state in 1818.

Operatic contralto Jean Madeira was born in Centralia on this day in 1918.

Madeira’s specialty was music from the German late Romantic period, by composers such as Wagner and Richard Strauss. She sang the role of the earth goddess Erda in the first stereo recording of Wagner’s “Das Rheingold”, which is still available. Madeira was a frequent performer in Metropolitan Opera productions of the 1950s and 60.

That’s Madeira as the earth goddess Erda in Wagner’s Das Rheingold. Madeira performed frequently with the Metropolitan opera in the 1950s and ’60s.