Saba Doak (1879 – December 8, 1918) was an American soprano from Chicago, Illinois.
Early life Saba Regina Doak was born in Texas,"Obituary:Saba Doak" Chattanooga News (December 9, 1918): 7. via Newspapers.com and raised in Huntsville, Alabama,"Saba Doak" Musical Courier (December 19, 1918): 19. the daughter of a Presbyterian minister, Algernon Sidney Doak, and his wife, Emma Regina Smith Doak. Both of her parents were originally from Tennessee. Her father served in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War.Bruce Long, "NC Civil War Sailors Project". She was a descendant of Samuel Doak. She also lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee as a girl."Saba Doak's Patriotism" Musical Courier (May 17, 1917): 44-45. Saba Doak trained as a singer with Oscar Seagle, Charles W. Clark, and in Paris with Jean de Reszke."The Chicago Band and Miss Saba Doak" Musical Monitor (March 1915): 233."Saba Doak, Concert and Oratorio Soprano" Musical Monitor (April 1917): 384.
Career Doak sang in concerts and as a church soloist in Chicago. In 1917 she toured in the American South,"Saba Doak to Make Southern Trip" Musical Courier (January 4, 1917): 17."Saba Doak Scores on Southern Tour" Musical Courier (July 11, 1918): 38. and performed with Pablo Casals in Chicago.Casals and Saba Doak at the Illinois" Music News (March 9, 1917): 12."Saba Doak Substitutes for Mme. Casals" Musical Monitor (March 1917): 363. She announced that she would donate a percentage of her performance income to the Red Cross during World War I."Miss Saba Doak Aids War Cause" Musical Monitor (May 1917): 507. Also during the war, she sang for the troops stationed in Illinois, at Fort Sheridan and at the Great Lakes Training Station. She sang at a reception for the Political Equality League, a suffrage organization in Chicago."Miss Saba Doak" Chicago Tribune (March 25, 1917): 40. via Newspapers.com
Personal life Doak died from pneumonia during the 1918 flu pandemic, aged 39 years."Death of Saba Doak" Musical Leader (December 19, 1918): 586. Her remains were buried in Huntsville, Alabama."Miss Saba Doak Buried in Alabama" The Tennessean (December 12, 1918): 2. via Newspapers.com
References
External links A Saba Doak promotional brochure from the 1910s, from Traveling Culture: Circuit Chautauqua in the Twentieth Century, Redpath Chautauqua Collection, University of Iowa Libraries. Saba Doak's gravesite on Find a Grave.