Lettie Sylvia Stone, 89, of Talladega, AL passed away on Monday, May 19, 2025. Her family will receive friends on Wednesday, May 21, 2025, from 5:00 P.M. until 7:00 P.M. at Usrey Funeral Home of Talladega. A funeral ceremony will be held in her honor at 2:00 P.M. on Thursday, May 22, 2025, at First Methodist Church of Talladega with Todd Henderson officiating. Interment will follow directly after the service at Pine Hill Memorial Park.

Sylvia Stone was born in Talladega on May 20, 1935. From the youngest age, Sylvia wanted to be an opera singer. She took inspiration from Ms. Bessie Priester, who taught her to play piano and sight-read, even though Bessie herself was totally blind. She sang in the church choir and took the bus to Birmingham every Saturday to study with Ms. Martha McClung. She was a proud graduate of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, where she was a George Eastman scholar and earned both a Baccalaureate of Music in Vocal Performance and a Masters of Music in Music Literature. She graduated with Honors, was awarded a Fullbright scholarship and was a two- time recipient of the Martha Baird Rockefeller Foundation Grant.

Over the following decades, she performed more than 1,300 times across opera houses in Germany, Switzerland, Iceland, Netherlands, and of course the US to great acclaim. At the height of her operatic career, she was appointed to the School of Music at the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana, where she taught Voice and Diction (French/German) for 42 years and served several turns as the Chair of the voice department. She retired in 2024, at 89 years of age. Her passion, her knowledge, teaching skill, and commitment to her students earned her a legendary following. Her former students have appeared with the Metropolitan Opera, Chicago Lyric Opera, Houston Grand Opera, St Louis Opera, and important opera festivals around the world. They have stayed in touch, sometimes for decades.

Sylvia served as the artistic director at the Scuola Italia summer program for Young Opera Singers in Italy for 17 years. She received a National Italian Award “Tartufo D’Oro 2018” which is conferred on personalities who have distinguished themselves in the world of Culture, Art, and Performance, among other disciplines.

Sylvia was a force of nature, a talented, passionate and accomplished artist, an outstanding and dedicated teacher, a charming lady and a loving, devoted daughter and mother.

She was preceded in death by her father and mother, Mr and Mrs L.M. Stone, and her husband, Mr. Ludwig Boder.

Mrs. Stone is survived by her daughter, Valerie L. White (Graham Davis).

Graham Davis, Hoyt Davis, Mike Crim, Patrick O’Brien, Rickey Latham, and Gordon Schermer will serve as pallbearers.

Online condolences may be offered at www.usreyfuneralhome.com.

Usrey Funeral Home of Talladega is directing the services.