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and it didn't fail at poor Bankhead's funeral - that there is a lady from the opera. Somebody who has been an opera star is invited to sing the “star spangled Banner.” If there is anything more ungainly, unseemly and unsuitable than a female singing at a funeral, I don't know what it is. If there is anything more inappropriate, it is a soprano voice singing at a funeral. There is nothing more unlikely to either comfort the bereaved or secure indulgences or absolution for the dead than the “Star Spangled Banner.” I have no objection to the “Star Spangled Banner.” In its place it's a good song, but it should always be sung by somebody with the voice of John Charles Thomas, if it's got to be sung, and oven he shouldn't sing it at funerals. That isn't where it belongs. There are plenty of perfectly good hymns that can be sung at funerals like “Oh God, our help in ages past, “which is pitched in a low key should be sung by a male voice. It always seemed so sissy for the Speaker of the House of Representatives to have a female in operatic attire, I may say, singing the “Star Spangled Banner.” I think it was Gladys Swarthout they always had - blonde, with a big pompadour, and a large hat with ribbons and feathers on it, and a very flossy dress. Being a star the soprano