I never had the privilege of meeting her, but I have heard from many people that Diana Nicholas was quite a lady.

Born to Joseph and Mary Lizzadro, she spent her summers in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula where she developed a love of nature. She also developed a love for music, theater and the arts in general, and supported them. She supported not only the Lizzadro Museum of Lapidary Arts, but the Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst Children’s Theater, the Elmhurst Symphony Orchestra, and the Monday evening concert series at Bethel United Church of Christ. Her passing this past July saddened the many who knew her. Her obituary read, “Her life was a celebration. She lived a rich full life deeply imbedded in family and tradition.”

Jeff Panko, Elmhurst’s resident concert pianist as well as the music minister at Bethel and founder of the concert series there, said, “Diana Nicholas was the first person I met after moving to Elmhurst, and I was fortunate to be her piano teacher for six years. I got to know her well. She was a beautiful woman both outside and inside, loved children, and a had a great sense of humor and scintillating wit.”

Panko went on to say that Nicholas frequently would bring several of her friends to the Bethel concerts because she loved good music and believed in supporting the arts.

He also announced that this series, which is in its 10th year, now will be called Music at Bethel to reflect the fact that the concerts will not just be held on Monday nights. The first concert this season, to be presented at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29, will be dedicated to Diana Nicholas.

“Diana was a very influential person in Elmhurst,” he said. “I knew her as a neighbor, music lover, and friend. She loved show tunes, and because George Gershwin was her favorite composer, we are including the ‘Porgy and Bess Fantasy’ by Percy Grainger, which was inspired by Gershwin’s opera.”

This concert is titled “Dueling Pianos” and will feature the talent of both Panko and Maureen Zoltek, who will perform works composed for two pianos and four hands. Songs include the beloved “Carnival of the Animals” by Saint-Saens, with Elmhurst performer Jennie Riddle reading the verses of Ogden Nash, and Chopin’s “Rondo.”

Other concerts in the 2008-09 series include “The Met at Bethel” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, with Metropolitan opera star and mezzo soprano Jane Bunnell and her husband, bass baritone Marc Embree, in a varied program of music ranging from operatic arias and duets to art song, musical theater, and spirituals. At 3 p.m. Sunday, March 1, Music at Bethel will present “The Music of Rachmaninoff,” featuring soprano Natalie Mann and the Elm Trio. Rounding out the season will be “Chamber Music at Bethel” with the Axia String Quartet and Elmhurst resident Ann Palen and Panko performing Schubert’s luscious “Trout Quintet” and Brahm’s famous “Piano Quintet in F minor” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, May 2.

Bethel United Church of Christ is at 315 E. St. Charles Road. For more information on Music at Bethel or to purchase tickets, call (630) 279-4040.

More About the Prairie Path

Soon after my column on the Prairie Path appeared, Judge William Bauer contacted me to make a correction. He was part of the Tri County Transportation Commission formed when the Chicago Aurora and Elgin Railroad was about to go out of business.

“It was quiet, convenient, and, because it was electric, it was a clean form of transportation and this commission hoped it would one day be resurrected,” he said.

They lobbied to have the State of Illinois purchase it for $10 million and continue to operate it, but when that didn’t happen, the railroad went bankrupt and sold off everything but the land. DuPage County bought that portion running through it for $1 million.

“The plan was to hold the land until another railroad showed interest,” he said. “But after a year and a half, the Prairie Path people approached the county, and it was leased to them for a dollar a year.”

The rest is history, and the county continues to lease them the land for a dollar a year. No railroad company ever showed interest, and the residents have come to love the Prairie Path.

Send comments and ideas to elmhurstovereasy@comcast.net.