The following is just a few of the references in local and national newspapers toMargaret Howden. In the days when radio was king, her name could be seen often in radio programming announced in the papers, contributing her voice to live programmes of music and song.
RESULTS OF EVENTS AT DUNEDIN FESTIVAL.
(Special to the “Star.”) DUNEDIN. October 4. At the competitions, in the vocal solo, own selection, Miss Margaret Howden was first with 183 points, and Miss Kathleen Bond (Christchurch) third with 181 points. In the Burns song, own selection Miss Evelyn Sheppard was again successful with 187 points. -Star, 4/10/1930.
Miss Meda Paine gave a forceful and authoritative interpretation of the ‘Jewel Song,’ the brightest and most sparkling air of ‘Faust.’ It was a striking performance, the recitative being especially well sung. Miss Margaret Howden, a young contralto with an excellent quality and a fine sense of conception, was heard in Sullivan’s ‘Will He Come?’ -Evening Star, 20/11/1930.
SOCIAL AND PERSONAL
Mrs O. Bowker, Timaru, is the guest of her daughter, Mrs A. C. Stephens, Hawthorn avenue, Mornington.
Mrs M. Taylor, Mosgicl, is at present visiting Christchurch.
Miss Fan Peake travelled to Wellington on Saturday last en route to Waikato, where she will spend the vacation.
Mrs W. Vivian is paying a visit to Christchurch.
Mrs Easther and Mrs H. A. Le Cren have gone to Karitane for a short holiday.
Mrs S. K. Sleigh has returned from a visit to Invercargill.
Miss Margaret Howden left on Tuesday for the north to fulfil a musical engagement. -Evening Star, 28/8/1931.
At the Ashburton Competition Society's annual festival, which was concluded last Tuesday, Miss Margaret Howden, of Dunedin, gained first prize for the sacred solo, second for the test piece, the national song and own selection, and was highly commended in three other classes. Miss Howden is a pupil of Mr Ernest Drake. -Otago Daily Times, 5/9/1931.
PERSONAL ITEMS
Miss Joan Gardner, Cashel Street West, has returned home from a visit to Wellington.
Mrs Laurie Fahey, Coach Road, Little River, is visiting friends in Christchurch.
Miss D. Leonardo, Taranaki, is the guest of Miss Dalglish, Jolie Street South, Akaroa.
Miss I. Brash, B.A., left by the Ionic last evening for Edinburgh, where she will study at Edinburgh University.
Miss Margaret Howden, Port Chalmers, will arrive in Christchurch tomorrow to spend a fortnight’s holiday. -Star, 10/5/1935.
At the Christchurch competitions on Monday, Miss Margaret Howden (Port Chalmers), gained third place in the English song for contraltos, with 83 points. -Evening Star, 25/5/1935.
WANTED Known — Miss Margaret Howden is returning specially from Christchurch to sing ‘Hame,’ Scottish Concert, Monday, Concert Chamber, at 8. -Evening Star, 29/5/1935.
The marriage of Miss Margaret Howden, of Port Chalmers, to Mr Eric Stride, of St. Clements, Lee-on-Solent, England, will take place at the Epsom Presbyterian Church, Auckland, on Saturday next. The officiating minister will be the Rev. J. W. McKenzie, formerly of Port Chalmers. -Evening Star, 7/7/1937.
PERSONAL AND SOCIAL
Miss Hilda Taylor, of Auckland, Miss Dora Miller, of Oamaru, together with friends, spent the week-end ice-skating at Lake Tekapo.
Mr and Mrs W. Gilroy will leave by the second express to-day for an extended tour of the North Island.
The guest of honour at an enjoyable “cabin” party given at Ballantyne’s, Christchurch, recently, was Mrs Eric Stride (formerly Miss Margaret Howden, of Port Chalmers), who was married in Auckland last week. Mrs Stride will leave by the Rangitiki for England next week. Mrs George Howden and Mrs Arthur Kirby were joint hostesses, and many useful gifts were received. -Otago Daily Times, 24/7/1937.
SINGER PASSES.
KNOWN IN PALMERSTON NORTH
Cabled advice has been received in Dunedin of the death in England of Mrs Eric Stride, known to a number of Palmerston North friends as Miss Margaret Howden. Mrs Stride stayed for a few days in Palmerston North in 1937 with her aunt, Miss Howden, of Nash Street. Mr A. J. Graham was very interested in Mrs Stride’s musical ability and as an outcome Mrs Stride sang at an evening service at St. Andrew’s Church, also at a social hour held afterwards. In the following week Mrs Stride contributed solos at a ladies’ meeting. Subsequently she proceeded to Auckland where she was married. Mrs Stride passed away in a nursing home at Lee-on-the-Solent. She was well-known in Dunedin musical circles and also in Port Chalmers, where her loving and unselfish disposition had endeared her to all. Possessor of a rich contralto voice she won the ladies’ vocal championship at the Dunedin competitions festival in 1936 and also gained considerable success at the Christchurch competitions. She was a popular performer on the concert platform. Mrs Stride had intended to further her musical studies in England at one of the London academies. Of a charming personality, she was at all times ready to assist any church or charitable organisation. She was the only daughter of Mr and Mrs J. A. Howden, of Port Chalmers, and was 28 years of age. During her short visit to Palmerston North she made a number of friends whose sympathy will be extended to her parents, and to her aunt in this city. -Manawatu Standard, 5/3/1938.
THE FLIGHT OF A SONG
Written for the Otago Daily Times By the Rev. D. Gardner Miller
Sometimes my mail brings me sad news. The other morning I received from an unknown friend a newspaper cutting, with a note enclosed, telling me of the death of a young woman whom I had met only once, but whom I had not forgotten. The newspaper cutting told me her married name, Mrs Eric Stride, and that she had died in a nursing home in England. I knew her as Miss Margaret Howden, of Port Chalmers. The one and only time I met her was in the little church of lovely Karitane. It was at the evening service. I had promised my friends to preach and Miss Howden was the soloist. She had a glorious contralto voice and she sang “Abide With Me.” I shall never forget her rendering. I remember sitting in the pulpit listening to her and wishing I hadn’t to preach, for I felt she was singing a message that my clumsy preaching might spoil. I could not for the life of me describe her to anyone, but I remember her voice and her song. Her voice still lives and so does her song. When I heard of her passing, the memory of her voice and her glorious song that night came back to me, there came alongside that memory the words of an old song that seemed so apt -
I breath’d a song into the air,
It fell to earth I know not where,
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of a song?
The flight of a song! I have no doubt at all where that song of hers, and that glorious voice of hers, have gone. My faith still hears it, and one day I shall meet the singer. The song has not died, for Margaret Howden has not died. She is singing up in heaven.
There is one glorious aspect of my faith which comforts me and strengthens me when the billows are rolling over my head, and it is that God preserves and uses our gifts, no matter what they are or how poor they may be. Death is not an end, it is a liberation. And as I cannot think that heaven is a place for idling, I believe that God uses us there to do the thing, it may be the one thing, that we can do well. And so I thought immediately of Margaret Howden singing in heaven, and teaching others to sing praises to the Saviour. Let me here re-tell a story of Stanley Jones, the famous missionary. In the city of Rangoon was a bright, vivacious European college girl who became a teacher. Life seemed to hold beautiful promise for her, but before her sun had climbed to its zenith it became suddenly darkened by the blackest of clouds. She discovered that she was a leper. She tried to hide the dread fact but it could not be done. She was taken away for treatment. After some time she came back symptom-free. She began her teaching again. But the disease had only been stayed — it was still there and began to be active again. She felt instinctively that if she went back for treatment again it would be all over. She tried to smother it and tell herself it was not there. But to no avail. One day she deliberately left her classroom, walked out the two miles to the leper asylum, hesitated a long time before the gates, knowing that if they closed on her this time it would be almost certainly for good and all. With a prayer on her lips she went in. On the axis of that prayer, life turned from resentment and bitterness to victory. Blocked from teaching on the outside, she turned to teaching the lepers, and more — she arranged them into a choir and taught them to sing. And in doing so her own heart caught a strange new music it had never known before. She is radiant. Did I say she was teaching those lepers? Nay, she is teaching us all. I have told this story of Stanley Jones’s because it enshrines a glorious truth to me. And that truth is that God uses us along the line of our capabilities when the gates of this life have closed behind us. So it is that I can see Margaret Howden teaching lots of tired pilgrims how to sing when they arrive in the Celestial city. Think of the great number of people in the world who never had a song in their hearts. Life has been harsh to them. But, oh, the transport, the delight, when in Heaven God teaches them, through one of His singing servants, the new song, the song of the Lamb!
Similarly with the rest of us with our gifts. I can think of many women who have the lovely gift of being able to comfort. There must come to Heaven many a frightened child and many a lonely creature; won’t God ask the comforters to make them feel at home! I even dare to think that God will let me preach for there must come to Heaven many whose acquaintance with the Saviour’s life story is very meagre. At any rate I could tell them how I met the Saviour and what He did for me. It may be that some of you may think all this is fanciful. Let me say, in all seriousness, that to me it is very real. I am kept very busy and most of my days are spent getting alongside men and women whom life has dealt harshly with I can never think of God cheating anyone and I remind myself, again and again, that God must, because He loves, give those whose spirits are bruised and to whom life has refused opportunities for growth, ample scope in Heaven for the hidden graces of the heart and life to flower. Life here is too short, even at its longest, for any of us to do and be all that we would like to be and do Heaven is a continuation of life. It is only the locality that changes when we die; and so I believe with all my heart and soul that without hampering restrictions, Heaven is the place of growth and completion. Why, there are many people in this life who have never had a real chance eyen to live decently. And do you think God does nothing else but condemn! That’s a wrong and a horrible thought to have of God. I am sure God loves to give chances and Heaven is the only chance some folks will ever get of being what God always meant them to be. Yes, the song goes on and others learn from us. When God takes anyone away quickly I hear a voice within me saying, "She is needed up in Heaven far more than on earth.” And so to all of you to whom Brother Death has come and taken a loved one I would say, "Listen and you will hear your loved one singing."
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