ST CHARLES, Mo. — Did you know Taylor Swift has a connection to the St. Louis area?
Swift's grandmother, Marjorie Moehlenkamp Finlay, was raised in St. Charles, Missouri, and attended Lindenwood College, now named Lindenwood University. She was part of Mu Phi Epsilon, a professional music fraternity, the college's choir and other activities while attending.
Lindenwood shared photos of Finlay in the college's 1949 yearbook in a recent Facebook post. The St. Charles City-County Library also shared a newspaper clipping in an Alton newspaper from May 1951 featuring her.
Finlay graduated in 1949 with a Bachelor of Music in Voice. She toured the country with a radio audition entertainment troupe, according to the newspaper clipping.
She also went on to perform at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's pop concert at Kiel Auditorium in January 1962. She performed several songs including "Jewel Song," from Charles Gounod's Faust, according to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
Swift paid homage to her grandmother in a song off her ninth album "Evermore" called "Marjorie."
Swift included photographs and footage of her grandmother's life and included a newspaper clip announcing her debut with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in the song's lyric video. She also used Finlay's voice in the song, transforming it into a backing vocal line.
In the song, the lyrics go "And if I didn't know better, I’d think you were singing to me now," which you can then hear Finlay's voice in the background.
Additional photos of Finlay and her husband, Robert Finlay, can be seen in the lyric video of Swift's vault track "Timeless" off her re-recorded third studio album, "Speak Now."
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