Luvena Wallace Dethridge

Mary Luvena Wallace Dethridge (March 22, 1894 – September 27, 1988) was an American concert singer based in Indiana.

Early life and education Dethridge was born in Richmond, Indiana, the daughter of Luther Wallace and Laura Wallace. Her mother died young, and Dethridge was raised by her paternal grandparents, Samuel and Mary J. Wallace. She studied with Samuel B. Garton of Earlham College, and traveled with Garton and his wife to Rome for further training in 1928 and 1930.

Career Dethridge, a lyric soprano, was a concert singer in the 1930s and 1940s, including appearances in Rome and at New York's Town Hall venue. "Incidentally, we have learned the secret of how to secure a large audience—take Mrs. Dethridge along to sing," wrote the program organizers in 1938. An Ohio newspaper in 1948 noted her ability to sing in a range of languages "with much feeling and clear enunciation and perfect diction", and that "her power of the pianissimo is extraordinary." She and her husband worked in a hospital. Her papers were collected during the Black Women in the Middle West Project, and are in the library of the Indiana Historical Society.