Today we celebrate Nelson Eddy, whose life influenced so many people in his generation and those that followed.
Here’s a quote taken from Maude Allison Lathem’s interview with Nelson, from March 1937, as published in Progress Magazine. It succinctly sums up Nelson’s philosophy of life:
“I want to live a good life gracefully, a life as nearly as possible in harmony with the universe, with life, with the Creator. I want to help others do the same.
I want always to seek and welcome the truth, no matter through whom it comes and how many times I am compelled to lay aside preconceived opinions.
I want to do what good I can as I go along. I want to bring cheer, comfort, or inspiration to someone every day.
I want to find my own soul and fulfill my own destiny by using the capabilities that I find within myself.”
– Nelson Eddy
This was published two months before Jeanette MacDonald’s marriage to someone else, which definitely changed the course of Nelson’s life. Despite heartache and tragedy that followed in the coming years, at heart he remained the caring, trusting, helping, hopeful man he was when he voiced the above.