Ruth Tsonis

Anne Turner Tsonis, was born May 9, 1938 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and passed August 28, 2021 in Hobbs, NM. Anne was born into a family steeped in the professional music Industry.  Her parents were also educators and church musicians. Anne grew up singing from early childhood and was offered numerous opportunities in television, live performance and radio. After graduating from UCLA with a major in Voice Performance, Theater Arts and Languages, she also received her Teaching Credential.  She later earned a Lifetime CA Community College Credential equivalent of a Masters Degree.
Her career included singing on 40 different movie soundtracks including Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Camelot and Hello Dolly. She sang in the acclaimed musicals Candide and The Mass with Leonard Bernstein. She worked with Luciano Pavarotti, Igor Stravinsky, Steven Spielberg, and Barbara Streisand.
Anne won many awards throughout her life including Woman of the Year, Most Inspirational, and Who’s Who of Executives and Professionals.
After living in California, and Oregon she moved to Hobbs in 2004 to be near her family and joined NMJC as a professor and served on the Southwest Symphony Artistic Committee, and Lea County Commission for the Arts.  She won the prestigious Lea County Joe and Joyce Walker Award for Excellence in the Arts.  After working for over 40 years as a singer and actress and 35 years as a music educator she retired but continued teaching her private students.
Anne leaves behind her husband Conrad Sprout, her sister Ellen Lucas, daughters Wendy Brickman and Heather Bunnell and Wendy’s husband Bob Brickman, her granddaughters and their husbands Rosalyn and Kenny Goss and Mallory and Bryan Rainwater. She will be missed by her family, friends and students.