Florence Wyman-Richardson

Florence Wyman Richardson (March 24, 1855August 19, 1920) was one of the early workers for the St. Louis Symphony Society and assisted in organizing the St. Louis Equal Suffrage League. Youth Florence Wyman was born on March 24, 1855, in St. Louis. Her parents were Edward Wyman, a noted educator, and Elizabeth Frances Hadley. Both moved to St. Louis from Boston. When her mother died, her father remarried to Martha Leigh. From the age of eight years up to twenty-two Wyman studied music, her first teacher being Sabatski. Her most influential teacher was William G. Robyn, father of Alfred Robyn. He was succeeded by a number of other teachers, notably Egmont Froelich, who gave her a valuable training in technic specified as the Stuttgart method. At nineteen she began work with Arthur J. Creswold, and after a year was given a position as organist in the First Presbyterian Church, playing in concerts as well as for the service. Florence Wyman was educated at Bonham's Seminary and Mary Institute, graduating from the latter in 1873, in the class with Emilie Johnson and Nellie Hazeltine, and again from the advanced course two years later, under Carlos Pennell, Wilham G. Elliott and Miss Wall.