Opera Singer, Composer. Gretchen Hood was a Washington resident most of her life, who devoted much of her life to the study of music. Her father was Edwin Milton Hood, a founder of the National Press Club, diplomatic reporter and chief of the Washington bureau of The Associated Press. Study under the best private teachers in Washington, supplementing instruction received in the grade schools, was followed by a finishing course of several years in Europe. She spent most of her time in Europe in Paris, acquiring a knowledge of the scores of French composers, then in Brussels she studied the music of Germany, and also the old Italian masters. In New York she met Milton Aborn, who was so impressed by her talents that he offered her an engagement to appear as a prima donna with one of his companies that were producing grand opera in English in the larger Eastern cities. In the 1920's and 30's, she and the writer, H.L. Mencken, dated and were the hosts at gala parties. Gossip columnists in New York and Washington reported an impending marriage of the couple, but the courtship ended as abruptly as it began, with Mencken's marriage in 1930. Mencken attempted to resume the relationship with her in 1935, after the death of his wife, but she never wrote back. She danced with the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), sang for Calvin Coolidge and Mrs. Herbert Hoover, accompanied Pearl Bailey on a radio amateur hour in 1930, and conducted Margaret Truman when she sang in her Gunston Hall glee club. Until she was hospitalized shortly before her death, she lived for 73 years in a Washington home. The middle room of the house was her music room. It featured a grand piano on which she played, and until the riots of 1968 scared away most of her students, taught voice. She had composed so many scores and accompanied herself on so many arias that the pedals had worn dips in the hardwood floor. The walls were adorned with autographed pictures of many of her famous friends. She bequeathed much of the memorabilia in the house to the National Press Club, where she had been an honorary member and frequent visitor. She bequeathed money in her will to the Friday Morning Music Club, which was incorporated March 22, 1948, to help aspiring musical students, and included pianists, singers, organists, composers and others who met on a regular basis to study and to listen to their own performances.