Template:Did you know nominations/Honor McKellar

The following is an archived discussion of the DYK nomination of the article below. Please do not modify this page. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as this nomination's talk page, the article's talk page or Wikipedia talk:Did you know), unless there is consensus to re-open the discussion at this page. No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was: promoted by Desertarun (talk) 08:44, 8 June 2021 (UTC)

Honor McKellar

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~~... that Jonathan Lemalu calls Honor McKellar, his first singing teacher, his "musical mother"?~~ Source: "every singing teacher subsequently is and was compared to you, my musical mother" (Otago University article Honor McKellar QSM: It's all in the words)
- ALT1:... that Ralph Vaughan Williams called mezzo-soprano Honor McKellar "the girl who does things with the words"? Source: "The next day Vaughan Williams bumped into me in the corridor and said, ‘you’re the girl who does things with the words’." (Otago University article Honor McKellar QSM: It's all in the words)

Reviewed: ~~QPQ will be done in next few days~~ Reviewed Fanny Howie
Comment: Article was created in user space and moved into article space on 17 May. Happy to consider alternative hooks.

Created by DrThneed (talk). Self-nominated at 04:01, 21 May 2021 (UTC).

I corrected and linked the voice type in the hook. Planning to review later. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 15:20, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

Interesting life, on fine sourcs, no copyvio obvious. Striking the first hook as meaningless to people not knowing Lemalu. In ALT1, I think it would be more fascinating if we knew that she is from New Zealand, and that she's alive! Want to try? - In the article, I don't believe students are lead material. How do you feel about an infobox which could clarify the names? --Gerda Arendt (talk) 19:45, 1 June 2021 (UTC)

Thank you for the review @Gerda Arendt: Fair enough about Lemalu - in New Zealand at least I think he would have much better name recognition among the general public than Vaughan Williams, though!

I will put an infobox on the article, thank you for the suggestion. I don't agree about students not belonging in the lead, principally because what McKellar is really notable for is her teaching, and that is notable because of the quality of singers she turned out (Lemalu and Power are a pretty big deal here). I looked for other examples but it is hard to find good comparisons, many voice teachers were notable for their singing first before turning to teaching later. But maybe I'm out of step with the community - I didn't find a policy that covers it?

Re hook. Your comment made me smile because I always think I have to fight against my natural inclination to try to squish too much detail into a hook! So how about

ALT2:~~... that Ralph Vaughan Williams called centenarian New Zealand mezzo-soprano Honor McKellar "the girl who does things with the words"?~~

I don't love it because it sort of implies to me that Vaughan Williams's comment and her being a centenarian are contemporary, but can't think quite how else to put it. DrThneed (talk) 23:49, 2 June 2021 (UTC)

Thank you for making me smile ;) - and for all the rest. We don't need "all" in one hook, how is this:

ALT2a: ... that when Honor McKellar studied voice in England, Ralph Vaughan Williams called her "the girl who does things with the words"?

... or ALT3 saying that she became a centenarian, teaching NZ's leading singers, and not just their names. --Gerda Arendt (talk) 06:53, 3 June 2021 (UTC)

ALT2a is fine, thank you for your help. DrThneed (talk) 09:22, 7 June 2021 (UTC)

thank you --Gerda Arendt (talk) 14:16, 7 June 2021 (UTC)