Goon but not forgotten - a blue plaque for Leeds musician Angela Morley
But when they unveiled a plaque yesterday above Stott’s birthplace in Leeds, it bore a different name.
The composer and conductor Angela Morley had moved to the US and undergone sex reassignment therapy in the 1970s. She was the first openly transgender person to have been nominated for an Oscar, for her work on The Little Prince and The Slipper and The Rose.
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Hide AdShe also worked, uncredited, with John Williams on Star Wars, ET and Schindler’s List.
But her origins in 1920s Leeds, on Kirkstall Road, across from where the Vue cinema now stands and where a pet shop used to be, were largely forgotten - until a listener nominated her to receive one of 47 blue plaques being unveiled as part of BBC Radio’s World Music Day.
Professor Joe Wilson, of Leeds College of Music, who helped select the recipients, said: “I can imagine that the world was quite an intimidating place for her at that time. But the remarkable life and career she had can now be linked to a place and time, and Yorkshire can be proud of that.”
After leaving Leeds, Morley was a dance band saxophonist and later played with Geraldo and arranged music for the pop star Scott Walker. She died eight years ago, at 84.
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