Biggs, Llora Withers

Her parents, teachers, and neighbors afforded young Llora many opportunities to develop her voice through her adolescent years singing at local church and community activities. She also received training from some of the best local voice and music teachers such as Arthur Bassett (who had a music conservatory at 320 North Main Street in Bloomington), William Beard (who made periodic trips from Chicago to Bloomington) and finally Miss Lucile Stevenson who taught in both in Bloomington and Chicago.

From Lexington, Llora Withers went on to attend the University of Illinois in 1907, where she was a member of the Alpha Chi Omega sorority. At the end of her junior year, she was given the choice of finishing college or going abroad. In a 1948 Pantagraph interview, she stated “Needless to say I jumped on the chance to go to Paris!” She spent two years in Paris studying with Charles W. Clark. When she returned to the United States in 1913, she spent a summer as a soloist for the Evanston Congregational Church, and sang at the Sinai Temple, at the Chicago Sunday Evening Club with the Choral Society, with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and at St. James M.E. Church. She also continued to study with Lucile Stevenson who had accompanied her to Paris. The Musical Leader reported that “her rich voice and intelligent artistry fitted admirably into the service, and she carried her numbers with poise and authority.” It was also noted that her voice was “notable for clarity and loveliness of quality.”

On June 1, 1914, Llora surprised friends and family when she quietly married her childhood friend and neighbor, Charles Ervin Biggs in Chicago, Illinois. Charles had also grown up in Lexington, Illinois and, at that time of their marriage, was working at a banking job in Chicago.

With Charles by her side, Llora began traveling extensively around the U.S. and Europe doing concert work, appearing in larger cities, and performing with symphony orchestras for week-long engagements. Headlines across the nation touted her singing ability and musical success. And as her career grew, Charles eventually took on the position of being Llora’s agent and personal representative.

As Llora Wither’s voice carried her into a professional level career, advisors suggested that she should take a “stage name.” So, in the fall of 1916 she chose Llora “Hoffman,” which was her paternal grandmother’s maiden name and would remind her of loved ones at home.

“Llora Hoffman” made her American concert debut at the Aeolian Hall in New York City on October 18, in 1916. She sang a number of songs in French, German, and English, and received much praise for her “attractive personality” and voice that “had a rare sweetness.” The New York Evening Mail also proclaimed that while she came to the city mostly unheralded and presented a short program, “nothing further was needed to prove her a real artist, one whom it was a pleasure to welcome to the concert field.”

However, as concert performances lost popularity, Vaudeville work became Llora’s next opportunity. As a prima donna soprano soloist, Llora added her repertoire of classical pieces into the variety shows as a contrast to other performers – dancers, comedians, pet acts, jugglers, etc. Besides her Vaudeville performances in theaters around the U.S. during the years surrounding World War I, she gave many hours entertaining soldiers in training camps and hospitals during the war. 

On February 7, 1917, Llora performed with the Corsicana Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Four days later she performed works by Richard Wagner with the Indianapolis Orchestra at the Murat in Indianapolis, Indiana. The Indianapolis Star reported that “though much has been written concerning the ability of the artists, and much was naturally expected…she measured entirely up to a high standard of artistry and as a Wagnerian interpreter…proved that she knows exactly what she is about.” After her performance in Spokane, Washington in April 1918, The Spokane Review proclaimed that “the operatic stage and the concert platform seldom offer a soprano of the superb caliber of Llora Hoffman.” And in May 1918, after charming thousands of patrons during a week-long engagement at the Orpheum Theater in San Francisco, California, the theater engaged her for another week due to popular demand. Her audiences were appreciative of the well selected numbers and her flawless performances each and every time she was on stage.

Through all of their travels, Charles and Llora’s “home base” was New York City. They also had a country place on Long Island which they called “Pleasant Hill” after a fond memory of the nearby village of Pleasant Hill, which was located a few miles east of their childhood home of Lexington.

In 1919 came her first engagement in musical comedy and she began performing with Shuberts, a theatrical production company based in Manhattan, New York. Llora was featured in “The Gaieties of 1919,” “Cinderella on Broadway,” “The Midnight Rounders,” “The Spices of 1922,” “The Minic World,” and “The Dancing Girl” to name a few productions. In March 1920 when she was performing with “The Gaieties of 1919” in Chicago, a number of people from Lexington took the train to Chicago to see their hometown girl perform. During her eight years with Shuberts, Llora traveled for weeks across the nation performing at various venues. She spoke of one show, “Paris Edition of Artists and Models,” as a “career” because it lasted for 87 weeks! Llora’s work acquainted her with many well-known performers of the day including Charlie Chaplin, Al Jolson, Fred Allen and Sarah Bernhardt, who fondly called Llora “THE VOICE.”

Along with Llora’s busy schedule, Charles managed to plan time for trips back home to Lexington for visits with family and friends. Success made Llora a celebrity, but she loved to return home and chat happily with everyone just as she had as a child. She was once quoted as reminding her hometown friends, “I’m not a bit interesting. I have only one husband, and I don’t even smoke!”

Llora reflected on the many changes she experienced in music since her beginning with classical concerts that moved into high-class vaudeville popularity, and then into special performances. She was pleased that theaters had educated the audiences to expect a great show no matter what entertainment was presented. Acts could be vastly different and yet be equally popular with audiences. Llora said, “Those who last on the music stage are the ones with training. There are cute little girls who come in and sing and dance for a while, but they quickly fade away. Training,” she believed, “is the secret to continued success in the entertainment world.”

And for those people who could not see Llora perform in person, they could tune into hear her melodic voice over the radio airwaves. In 1935, Llora was broadcast on WHN out of New York City on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, with additional performances on Sundays.

After a long and successful career, Llora decided to retire from the stage in 1941. Upon her retirement, she and her husband Charles decided it was time to take some personal time and finally enjoy an extended time at home on Long Island. Sadly, not long after Llora’s retirement, Charles Ervin Biggs died suddenly on November 19, 1941. His body was brought back to Lexington for burial in their hometown cemetery.

Llora was lonesome and bored in New York without Charles. One day she spoke with a friend who was a member of the college faculty at Michigan State University who was looking for an emergency replacement housemother for the Alpha Chi Omega sorority. Llora, who had no experience being a housemother, jumped at the chance, especially because it meant helping out a friend and would be for the sorority she once belonged to. So, she found a new passion as housemother, first to the girls of Alpha Chi Omega for three years, then moving closer to home as the housemother at the Sigma Kappa sorority house at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois for a couple of years. In October 1948 she transferred to Illinois Wesleyan University to serve as housemother for the Kappa Delta sorority, where she also continued her musical activities in nearby communities.

Outside of all of these activities, Llora was a 50-year member of the Order of the Eastern Star, a charter member of the Lexington Genealogical and Historical Society (today known as The Fort), the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution, and belonged to the Amateur Musical Club of Bloomington.

By 1954, Llora was back in New York, helping administrate a new “senior living” facility on Hudson Parkway housing 120 older adults known as “the family.” In 1955 Llora came back to sing in the Lexington community’s Centennial production, and by the early 1960s she returned to Lexington to spend her final years with old friends in McLean County, continuing to entertain in church and community activities until her death on July 29, 1974, at Brokaw Hospital in Normal, Illinois. The prima donna singer from Lexington, Illinois certainly made her mark on the stage and in McLean County history.  

By: Jan Heuer and Candace Summers