Grace Moore (Mary Willie Grace Moore), nicknamed the “Tennessee Nightingale,” was born December 5, 1898, in Slabtown (now Del Rio), Cocke County, Tennessee, to Colonel Richard Lawson Moore and Tessie Jane Stokely. Tessie Jane Stokely descends from the famed Stokely and Huff families of Cocke County, with her parents being William Russell Stokely and Emmaline N. Huff. Grace’s father, Richard Lawson Moore, a “foreigner” from North Carolina arrived in Del Rio to work as a commissary clerk in Nough, four miles west of Del Rio. Tessie and Richard’s marriage threw the Stokely-Huff dynasty into a “tizzy” as Tessie was expected to marry someone within the community as most of her relatives had. Moore had no interest in settling permanently in Del Rio, and when Grace was five, he moved the family to Florida Street in Knoxville to work as a traveling salesman. Tessie and Grace missed the farm life of Slabtown and despised urban living, especially since they were living in what was considered a red-light district. Grace was bullied and mocked at school for her country roots, and she describes these years as “traumatic” in her autobiography You’re Only Human Once (1944).

After a few years, Richard Moore moved the family to Jellico, a town bordering Kentucky, and he began planning to start a wholesale business of his own. Grace spent her adolescence here, attending high school and captaining the women’s basketball team. Her fierce attitude and stubbornness led to conflicts with authority, specifically her father. She often escaped into the nearby hills for solace after facing the consequences of her actions. Her family attended First Baptist Church where Grace joined the children’s choir and performed her first solo, “Rock of Ages.” One day, at a party in Williamsburg, Kentucky, Grace was dared to dance by one of her admirers, and, being herself, she immediately accepted the offer. As she was dancing around someone warned her about her father’s strict rules that forbid dancing, so she fled home. Her father’s reaction was violent, and he accused her of committing a mortal sin against God. She even had to give an apology for this incident at a Sunday service, prompted by her own father and Brother Martin, the leader of this congregation. This incident shaped her, not because of any guilt, but rather because of pure indignation towards the humiliation she experienced. She believed in a “joyous God” and disagreed with the church’s stern and disciplinary interpretation of him.

In 1916, Grace decided to attend Ward-Belmont School for Girls (now Belmont University) in Nashville to receive singing missionary training until she was expelled in January 1917 for “inappropriate conduct.” Grace then enrolled at the Wilson-Greene School of Music in Washington D.C. where she excelled up until she decided to move to New York City. She began performing in nightclubs like the Black Cat Café and on the vaudeville circuit, performing musical comedies by Irving Berlin and Jerome Kern. She met Dr. P. Mario Marafioti, a popular physician for Met singers, during this time; she sought him out for medical advice on her voice and how to improve it. She soon grew tired of musical comedy and sailed to Europe to train in operatic methods with various composers in France and Italy. After three auditions, Grace signed a contract with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City, and she debuted in 1928 as Mimi in La Bohème”; she went on to perform for sixteen seasons with the Met.

As movies became more popular, Grace was attracted to the success and landed her first on-screen musical role as Jenny Lind in A Lady’s Morals in 1930 for MGM Studios. She later had roles in New Moon (1930), One Night of Love (1934), Love Me Forever (1935), The King Steps Out (1936), When You’re In Love (1937), I’ll Take Romance (1937) and Louise (1939). After New Moon’s lukewarm success, Moore sailed to Europe for vacation in May 1931, and it was on this trip where met her husband, Valentin Parera, a Spanish movie actor. They met aboard the ship Ile de France and were married in Cannes just a few weeks later on July 15, 1931. Throughout the 1930s they maintained homes in Hollywood, Cannes, and Connecticut. Near the abrupt end of her life, Grace published an autobiography titled You’re Only Human Once (1944) which details much of her life and success. Moore continued to travel the world, touring and performing for wide audiences up until January 26, 1947, when she was tragically killed in a plane crash in Copenhagen, Denmark at the age of 48. Grace Moore is buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in Chattanooga, Tennessee alongside her family. In 1953, her autobiography was turned into a movie called So This Is Love, starring Kathryn Grayson as Grace. Author Rowena Rutherford Farrar published a biography, Grace Moore and Her Many Worlds (1982), providing even more information about Grace’s short, yet fascinating life.