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02/01/2012 01:20 PM

Opera Singer Camilla Williams Dies At 92

By: NY1 News

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Camilla Williams, the singer believed to be the first African-American woman to appear with a major U.S. opera company, has died at age 92.

Williams died Sunday at her home in Bloomington, Indiana of complications from cancer.

She debuted with the New York City Opera in in 1946, almost nine years before Marian Anderson became the first African-American singer to appear at the Metropolitan Opera.

In 1963, she sang at the civil rights movement's famed March on Washington.

Williams retired from opera in 1971 and went on to teach at several colleges in the city.