Lela Lombard, a third generation Beloit resident, was born in Beloit on January 18, 1892. She was the daughter of John and Mary Donnelly Fairchild and was one of nine children. The family lived at 730 Euclid Avenue and she attended Hackett School. She studied piano at the music department of Beloit College and later the University of Wisconsin. She was an entertainer on the Chautauqua circuit and on early radio and television. She and some of her sisters formed the Fairchild Ladies Quartette and traveled about accompanied by their brother, Paul, a cellist, who later was with Paul Whitman’s orchestra. Lela also played the viola and was a whistler.

Lela Lombard had an interesting and colorful life, traveling all over the world, in all kinds of conveyances, playing before royalty, top brass and hard rock miners. She met her husband in Chicago about the time of the torpedoing of the “Lusitania.” They were married December 26, 1917, in Beloit at St. Jude Church. Harry Clyde Lombard had a lovely baritone voice and was also in show business. In 1920 their son Harold was born. They performed on Beloit College’s first radio station when people listened on their crystal sets to WEBU. They acted on the WLS “Showboat” out of Chicago and on WGN and WIBO.

During World War I they played at many army camps in the United States. She frequently referred to herself and Harry as “guinea pigs” be-cause on short notice they were asked to appear on television in 1927. They played with Red Lyceum and Chautauquas. In their half century of show business, Lela Lombard and her husband came in contact with renowned celebrities such as “stunning lady-like” Marjorie Main, “forceful” Louella Parsons, “quaint” Sterling Holloway and “witty” Edgar Bergen.

At the end of the 1930’s her mother, who lived at 535 Public Avenue, was seriously ill and Lela took care of her for five years. During this time her husband served as Director of USO’s and she did solo acts for servicemen at Camp Grant. Near the end of World War II her mother died and Lela then took on an eight-year assignment with Columbia Artists, booking concerts and symphonies. She appeared in many Beloit Civic Theater plays such as “Cradle Song, Light Up the Sky, Craig’s Wife, Philadelphia Story,” and as a last minute assignment stayed up all night learning her dialogue for “Solid Gold Cadillac.” She had said this was her swan song. Semi-retired, Lela Lombard and her husband came back to Beloit and lived at 1157 Elm Street.

They were still active until Harry died February, 1963. Later she moved to 430 Harrison and then to Caravilla. Lela Lombard received many awards for her service to mankind and was active in the Beloit Booster, Beloit Treble Clef, Beloit Community Concert, Altrusa, Beloit Symphony Guild, American Legion Auxiliary, YWCA and Beloit Historical Society. She was twice president of Catholic Women’s Clubs. Lela Lombard died on July 18^th, 1978, at the age of 86 at Caravilla Nursing Home. Burial was in the Fairchild plot in Calvary Cemetery and memorials given to the Treble Clef Scholarship Fund.