Opera Singer. A lyrico spinto soprano sometimes criticized for an over-calm stage manor, she sang the leading roles of her repertoire in the world's major venues, in the process building a reputation as the queen of emergency fill-ins for indisposed singers. Born Mary Curtis (she took her stage name from her first husband, vocal coach Ettore Verna, who died in 1962), she earned a degree from Hollins College in Roanoke, Virginia, studied at Juilliard, then began her career in Europe. After making her professional debut as Desdemona in Verdi's "Otello" at Milan in 1949, she toured Europe then returned home for her 1952 American bow as the title heroine of Giuseppe Verdi's "Aida" in Philadelphia. Mary first appeared at the New York City Opera as Donna Anna of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" in 1954 then made her Metropolitan Opera debut in February of 1957 as Leonora in Verdi's "Il Trovatore". In a Metropolitan career that was to contain roughly 100 performances thru 1966, she assumed the title roles in "Aida", Puccini's "Tosca" and "Turandot", and Francesco Cilea's "Adriana Lecouvreur", while also appearing as several of Verdi's other ladies including Amelia (both the "Un Ballo in Maschera" and "Simon Boccanegra" incarnations), Alice Ford in "Falstaff" and Violetta of "La Traviata". Early on she gained notice thru her ability to take over for such differing artists as Eleanor Steber, Renata Tebaldi, Victoria de los Angeles, and Zinka Milanov, often at literally the last moment; she had a superb memory, a wide knowledge, and she owned costumes for many of the roles that she had purchased during her time in Europe. Mary became professor of music and chairwoman of the voice department at the University of Washington in 1969 and retired to professor emerita status in 1991. At her death from complications of a hip fracture she left a number of recordings, made mostly for Cetra, including complete performances of "Aida" and Ponchielli's "La Gioconda" with Franco Corelli and a much praised reading of Umberto Giordano's "Andrea Chenier" with Richard Tucker; these were available on CD but were difficult to find. Perhaps reflecting back that in her own day she had been more acclaimed for good looks and professionalism than for vocal pyrotechnics, she said of her advice to her students: "You need to learn how to have strong shoulders. You cannot take anything personally. You need to have a flame in you that nothing can extinguish."