MR. R. S. PARRY, COLUMBUS, COLUMBIA COUNTY, WISCONSIN.

MAN PROMINENT AT WELSH SONGFESTS CALLED BY DEATH.

R. S. Parry, who was known as "professor" to all who attended his singing schools held in the Welsh settlement near here over a period of 20 to 25 years, passed away Monday at Columbus Wisconsin.

The brief telegram, telling of his death, said that the funeral will be held at Columbus on Thursday. Further details were not given, but friends have recalled that Mr. Parry had been in failing health for a couple of years.

At the 1935 music festival held by Welsh people of this locality at Peniel church, last August, Mr. Parry was present, but he relinquished his role as conductor of the choral singing. This was the first time in many years that he had surrendered the baton to another.

He was born at Bethesda, in North Wales, where in his early manhood he was a schoolmaster. He came to the United State in 1893, as a member of the Penrhyn male chorus of North Wales, to compete in the chorus contest at the world's fair in Chicago.

Nine world famous singing groups competed, the Penrhyn group winning second place. Singers from South Wales won first in the contest. Mr. Parry sang tenor in the Penrhyn organization, and gained a wide reputation in his later years in this country as a tenor soloist and in quartet.

Once in the United States, Mr. Parry never went back to Wales. Through friends he secured his first job as a railway clerk at Chicago, but his interest was along musical lines. He came to Columbus and organized a circuit of singing schools in neighbouring area, visiting each school on schedule. He was married there to Miss Mamie Evans.

He went to Harmony and Preston, Minnesota, for similar work, and from there to Lake Crystal, Minnesota, where he had charge of the music department in the high school. He returned to Coulmbus several years ago, partly retiring from active work, but nevertheless remaining in music as director at the German church there.

Mr. Parry came to Oshkosh often, especially for the Welsh music festivals usually held at Peniel church the fourth Sunday in August each year. Welsh people came for miles around to meet and sing under Mr. Parry's direction, and the occasion developed to be a reunion greatly anticipated by the Welsh people here.

The deceased is survived by his widow and one son, Spencer Parry, both of Columbus.

Newspaper Obituary.