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Mack Harrell

American opera singer (1909-1960)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 30, 2026
Entity authorityQ60263
Source-derived summary

Mack Kendree Harrell, Jr. (October 8, 1909 — January 29, 1960) was an American operatic and concert baritone vocalist who was regarded as one of the greatest American-born lieder singers of his generation.

Growing up

Harrell was born in Celeste, Texas, to Asbury Mack Kendree Harrell (1857–1915) and Mollie Harrell, (née Virginia Marr Kelly; 1863–1935). The youngest of two brothers and a sister, he was raised and educated in Greenville, Texas. He studied violin from the age of ten and continued for twelve years. One of his brothers, Lynn Mozart Harrell (1902–1987), had been a big band pianist with the Jimmy Joy Orchestra while a student at The University of Texas at Austin in the 1920s.

Post baccalaureate education

Harrell studied the violin at Oklahoma City University. Later, he was awarded a scholarship to attend Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music where he studied violin under Emanuel Zetlin. He met his wife, violinist Marjorie Fulton, while they were both students at the Curtis Institute. It was at the Curtis Institute that the quality of his bass voice was discovered, after which he left Curtis for The Juilliard School to study singing with Anna E. Schoen-René (1864–1942), who had been a pupil of Pauline Viardot-Garcia and Manuel Garcia.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Mack Harrell” as american opera singer (1909-1960). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Mack, Harrell and American.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1909, 1960, 1857, 1915—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1909-10-08. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Mack, Harrell and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Mack Harrell”, the useful work is to connect “american opera singer (1909-1960)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q60263. VIAF identifies the subject as 61743585. The Library of Congress control number is n85067607. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1909, 1960, 1857 and 1915.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Mack Harrell”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Mack Harrell primary sources, Mack Harrell archive and Mack research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Mack Harrell” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.