The Opera Singer Who Left Her Husband One Last Song
Our American Stories
iHeartPodcasts
4.6 • 816 Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2026
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On this episode of Our American Stories, Tom Lyons and Lillian Lyons married in 1946 and spent a lifetime together on the South Side of Chicago. Lillian’s opera career began before their marriage, and it was her voice that first captured Tom’s heart. Through decades of family life, music remained at the center of their love.
When Lillian died, Tom thought he would never hear her sing again. But on his 97th birthday, an unexpected discovery gave him one final gift: her voice. For Tom, it was more than a recording. It was the return of the woman who had been his partner in everything and the sound that had shaped his life.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an I-Heart podcast. |
| 0:02.6 | Guaranteed Human. |
| 0:14.1 | This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories, the show where America is the star and the American people. |
| 0:22.5 | This next story comes to us from the south suburbs of Chicago. |
| 0:27.1 | Tom Lyons met his wife, Lillian, back in 1946, and they remained married until the love |
| 0:34.0 | of Tom's life passed in 2020. |
| 0:37.5 | Lillian, who was an opera singer in Chicago for 18 years, |
| 0:42.2 | was 91 when she passed. |
| 0:44.9 | On Tom's 97th birthday, he received a gift from his son, Jarlet, |
| 0:49.7 | that words alone cannot describe. |
| 0:53.1 | This is the story of that gift, an unearthed treasure that brought joy and life to his father. |
| 1:00.3 | And for just a moment, through the magic of technology and art, brought a bit of heaven |
| 1:06.6 | to earth. |
| 1:08.3 | Here's Jarleth to tell this remarkable story. You'll also hear from Jarla's father Tom. |
| 1:14.7 | I was back in town for a memorial for my mom, along with everyone else in the family, that we |
| 1:20.3 | had postponed at least once or twice because she had died earlier in COVID, and we were not |
| 1:25.4 | able to do that. Now the memorial's over. Everyone's gone home. |
| 1:30.2 | I'm sticking around with my dad and trying to figure out what can I do to help. And I'm just trying |
| 1:37.9 | to organize some things in the basement, see what I can get rid of. And I noticed a large pile of |
| 1:43.2 | records, and I thought, oh, I should, |
| 1:44.7 | I should be able to get rid of most of these. And so as I'm figuring out what to give away, |
| 1:48.9 | a few records jumped out at me because they were 78s, which are unique and old. The other |
... |
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