Although we were not close friends, Ophelia was a good classmate and fellow conservatory piano student of Freeman Koberstein. She was an accomplished pianist and an ambitious music student. During or near her Oberlin years she studied composition in France with the aging Nadia Boulanger. But Ophelia had a natural and straight forward nature that allowed a white boy from North Carolina to learn that being friends with an African-American girl was a lot like being friends with anyone else. Rest in peace Ophelia Smith, and thank you.
Reginald Rodgers
Although we were not close friends, Ophelia was a good classmate and fellow conservatory piano student of Freeman Koberstein. She was an accomplished pianist and an ambitious music student. During or near her Oberlin years she studied composition in France with the aging Nadia Boulanger. But Ophelia had a natural and straight forward nature that allowed a white boy from North Carolina to learn that being friends with an African-American girl was a lot like being friends with anyone else. Rest in peace Ophelia Smith, and thank you.