This Wheeling native operatic soprano Eleanor Steber (1914–1990) studied music and won the prestigious Metropolitan Opera radio auditions in 1940. She made her official debut at the Met that same year in the opera Der Rosenkavalier.

She remained a leading singer at the Metropolitan Opera until the 1960s, performing 404 times in 33 different roles. In 1948, she commissioned and performed the world premiere of Samuel Barber's work Knoxville: Summer of 1915.