Administrative/Biographical History
Lois Emily Blakely was born on January 29, 1902 to Ernest and Georgia Lattin Blakely in Cattaraugus, New York. She studied at Oberlin, attaining an AB in music in 1925, and a B.Mus. in 1926. From 1926 to 1929 she taught piano and music theory at Talledega College in Alabama (one year), and at Williamsport-Dickinson Seminary (now Lycoming College) in Williamsport, Pennsylvania (two years). She married Clifford Henry Orbell, whom she had met in Talledega, in 1929. From that point Lois listed her occupation as housewife, pianist and accompanist on the Oberlin College alumni form.
The Orbells lived in New York City for four years, then moved to New Milford, Connecticut where her husband spent ten years developing a paint manufacturing business. War necessities for materials forced Clifford to abandon that business, and they next moved to Schenectady, New York at the end of 1944. Clifford worked for the US Army as a microanalyst at the Schenectady General Depot, while also pursuing a correspondence course at McKinley-Roosevelt Correspondence College in Chicago, receiving a B.S. in 1947. As of 1948 he was a group leader for the Pilot Plant, Resins, of the Chemical Division of General Electric.
Lois Orbell was the organist at Emmanuel Friedens Evangelical Reformed Church in Schenectady from 1945 to 1952. During that time she was also an accompanist to various individuals and musical groups in her area, including a Town Hall recital by John Lloyd of Schenectady in October 1949. In 1951 she began working as a branch librarian at the Schenectady County Public Library, retiring from her work there nearly twenty years later in 1970.
Orbell continued performing music for many years. In 1973 she was the accompanist for a recital by Michael Butulinsky, a Welsh tenor, assisted by Gary Rea on piano. In retirement she as an active member of the Etude Club of Schenectady, founded in 1925.
Clifford Orbell died in 1977. Lois Orbell died in 1985 at the age of 83. They did not have children. After Lois’ death, her relatives donated items that dated back to 1798 to the Connecticut Valley Historical Museum in Springfield.
Sources
Lois Blakely Orbell student file, Alumni and Development Records (RG 28), Oberlin College Archives.
Joyce K. Lattin, letter to Roland M. Baumann, Oberlin College Archives, April 1991.
Forms of Material (links to similar genres) Administrative InformationThe Lois Blakely Orbell Papers is a small collection of correspondence, musical performance programs, a clipping, and two panorama photographs of students at Oberlin College. The letters from Lois to her family span 1904-1928, with the majority written from Oberlin. A few letters are from Lois’ parents to Lois. After Lois Orbell’s death in 1985, two friends sent letters to an Orbell relative about her.
The programs, with one exception, feature piano performances by Lois Blakely before and after her marriage. These include a high school program in 1921, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music Commencement program in 1926, for which she performed on with the Conservatory Orchestra, and two programs for a performance in New York City as accompanist on piano for John Lloyd, tenor, in 1949.
The clipping announces a New Milford Monday Club recital in New Milford, Connecticut in 1935, for which Lois Orbell performed two classical works for the piano. The folder also includes a business card for R. E. Blakely, and a wedding announcement for R. Ernest Blakely in 1900.
Photographs include unidentified women in their later years. Two panorama photographs of a large group of students were taken by the college photographer, one dated 1925; the other is undated. These are difficult to unroll without causing damage.
INVENTORY
Box 1
Letters from Louis Blakely Orbell
To family with drawings, 1904, 1910-13
To family from Oberlin, 1920-22, 1924, 1928
Letters from mother and father to Lois, 1931-32, 1942
Letters (2) from friends to Orbell relative after Lois’ death,
1985
Musical performance programs (Oberlin, OH; Cattaraugus and
New York City, NY), 1921, 1924, 1926, 1949
Miscellaneous
Business card for R. E. Blakely, n.d.
Clipping, The New Milford Times, April 18, 1935
(2 copies)
Wedding announcement for R. Ernest Blakely, 1900
Photographs
Panorama class photographs (2, rolled), 1925, n.d.
(Request handling assistance from
Archives staff)
Unidentified women and a cat, n.d.
