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It took time for Mary Ramsour to follow her dreams.

Ramsour (BM ’94, MM ’97) earned degrees in voice performance and vocal pedagogy from CU Boulder and went on to found an opera company—Lyric Artists of the West—that produced performances of scenes from various operas, inclusive of non-traditional artists like herself; lead a church music program; and make creative expression a central pillar in her life.

The College of Music wasn’t her first academic destination, however, and the career she pursued so passionately�� from breast cancer in 2019 came after she’d already spent nearly a decade as a successful attorney. Music called to Ramsour from an early age, but she didn’t heed the message until later in life.

“Mary always had a gorgeous voice and she absolutely loved singing,” recalls Joanie Andrews, Ramsour’s sister. Andrews adds that Ramsour started singing in elementary school, but that their parents insisted she pursue a traditional career; so she earned a law degree from the University of Denver Sturm College of Law after she completed a bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern Colorado.

From there, Ramsour’s path seemed set. She started her own practice and specialized in family law. She drew clients with her kindness, determination and smarts, carving out a niche representing AIDS patients, a population still largely overlooked in the late 80s. She ultimately moved on to a large law firm in downtown Denver where she specialized in product liability defense.

But Ramsour wasn’t happy. The CU Boulder College of Music would offer her a gateway to a much more fulfilling life. “She called me up one day and said, ‘I have to talk to you—you can’t tell anyone, but I’m quitting my job,’” says John Patchett, Ramsour’s brother. “She said, ‘I’m going to do what I always should have done—I’m going back to school to study music.’

“We all thought it was wonderful,” Patchett adds. “The law was an occupation, but music was her passion and her love.”

Once Ramsour made that decision, she couldn’t be stopped. She commuted daily to the Boulder campus from Denver and faced the challenges of beginning a new academic path as a non-traditional student, refining her “big, Ethel Merman-like voice” into a finely honed instrument.

“She loved being at the College of Music,” says Patchett. “She made so many good friends—her peers adored her.”

As Director of Music and the Arts at St. James Presbyterian Church in Littleton, Colorado, Ramsour ultimately landed a position that fused her love of music with her deep faith. It was work she pursued passionately until her final days, her unflagging commitment inspiring those who knew and loved her best.

In 2019, David Andrews offered a very special gift to his wife, Joanie. On Christmas morning, she found an envelope under the tree with information inside about a new scholarship that he was establishing in her sister’s name.

“Mary was very special—she took the leap from an established career to pursuing her dream. That’s guts. That’s something that doesn’t happen very often,” says David Andrews, adding that the $5,000 scholarship is designed to encourage other non-traditional voice students to pursue their dreams, too.

Indeed, the Mary Catherine Ramsour Memorial Endowed Voice Scholarship Fund represents a way for Ramsour’s family, many of whom live outside of Colorado, to continue her legacy at the College of Music—one that reflects her passion, her kindness, her faith and her courage. For Ramsour’s husband, Bo, and their three daughters, the scholarship fund represents “how much she poured her heart and soul into the program, and often was a source of motherly and lawyerly support for the younger students.”����

Adds Joanie Andrews, “She was a wonderful woman and I think about her every day.”

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Mary Ramsour in her own words: “” (Modern Opera Music Magazine, Vol. IV, 2000)

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