NAME(S) ON TILE:                 FLORENCE INGHRAM CARLISLE

DONOR NAME(S):                   RONALD C. CARLISLE, Ph.D.

Florence Olive Inghram Carlisle was born April 29, 1915, the second oldest in the family of five children of Hysee and Sara Jane (Cooper) Inghram.  She began violin lessons early in life and was selected for the first violin section of the National High School Orchestra in Cleveland Ohio.  She later attended Carnegie Institute of Technology as a student in the music education department.  At Tech she studied violin with Karl Malcherek a member of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra during its early years under Victor Herbert.  In 1936 she became concertmaster and assistant conductor of the Women’s Symphony Orchestra of Pittsburgh a unique group for its day that was made up entirely of women players.  Florence was also concertmaster of the Tech orchestra (the forerunner of today’s Carnegie Mellon Philharmonic) in 1937 and 1938 played numerous recitals and church performances accompanied other area instrumentalists and singers and appeared on Pittsburgh radio station WWSW’s Sunday Symphony Concert.  She also found the time to form the Inghram Trio, a chamber music group composed of violin cello and piano and was the first violinist of the local NBC String Quartet at this time.  From 1945 to 1985 Florence was concertmaster of numerous civic and community orchestras in Pittsburgh including the McKeesport Symphony Orchestra from 1958-1985.  Florence Carlisle was also a composer of secular and sacred musical works and a teacher of instrumental music in the Pittsburgh Public Schools from 1967-1983.  A longer resume of her career has been donated to the Historical Society’s Archives.