Ann Moray

Who was Ann Moray?

Ann Moray was a singer and novelist. A native of Wales, Moray married Juan Lopez de Ceballos, a Venezuelan diplomat.

While biographical information is difficult to find, according to liner notes on her recording, “The Love Songs of Robert Burns”, she studied music in Vienna. During World War II, she worked with the U.S. Army Chaplains, singing unaccompanied in battlefield hospitals, where the soldiers knew her as “Scottie.” Maxine Andrews tells a story about a soldier who was afraid he was near death, who asked Moray to sing “Abide With Me” at his funeral. Moray assured him that he was not going to die anytime soon, but promised to sing. That night the soldier did die, and “two days later, Ann Moray stood in the rain next to his freshly dug grave on the beachhead at Anzio and sang.” Moray herself told about a time when a field hospital physician had cautioned her against informing a soldier that he had been blinded. This soldier asked her to sing "Smilin' Through" from a 1941 motion picture. The song contains repeated references to "eyes of blue," and the soldier asked her if his eyes "are blue" or "were blue." Moray answered, "were."