Obituary of Yvonne E. Orr

With loving family and her beloved puppy, Ruby, at her side, Yvonne Emerika de Regéczy-Farkas Pruzan Ehrlich Orr, passed away quietly in her home on Thursday, February 13, 2025. She was 98 years old. Born in New York City and raised in Hungary, Yvonne, at 12, returned to the United States in 1938 with her mother, Margita de Regéczy, as the threat of war loomed in Europe. Performing on the ship in exchange for the price of their passage, Yvonne sang and danced to the accompaniment of her mother, an internationally acclaimed concert pianist. At that early age, without looking back, Yvonne began her life of handling adult practicalities while pursuing her dreams. Yvonne's world was filled with family, friends, study, music, art, travel and creativity. At 14, falsifying her application, she won an audition to dance with the famous Radio City Music Hall Rockettes and spent a summer touring Canada. She was let go when her age was discovered. In her teens and early 20s, after a back injury prevented her from continuing with dance, she focused on developing her powerful operatic voice. Encouraged and provided with performance opportunities by several sponsors, she blossomed as an opera singer under the tutelage of vocal coach Donald Read. A dramatic soprano, she performed many lead roles with the renowned Amato Opera. To support herself while her singing career developed, Yvonne worked various jobs, including as a hat check girl at the Village Vanguard. There she got to mingle with jazz greats like Harry Belafonte and forge a life-long friendship with jazz pianist, Clarence Williams, and his family. Eventually, Yvonne landed a job as a photo lab assistant at the United Nations where she met John Orr who fell ardently in love with her. Married in 1952, they spent almost 60 years together, raising four children in Mount Kisco, New York, where the Orrs were deeply rooted in the community and the Methodist Church. A strong determined woman, Yvonne jumped into the role of spouse, mother and host with seemingly endless energy. She created a vibrant welcoming place filled with good food, music, laughter and an ever-ready dining table where family and friends gathered until all hours. In her 40s, disrespected by a doctor, Yvonne determined to go back to school to become a registered nurse. At 50, while battling cancer, she proudly graduated. Always the head nurse, she began her 30-year career with one brief pause. She finally retired at 83. Yvonne loved to be on the road. She and John, often with their granddaughter, Angel, drove all around the country. She travelled to Europe several times and to India twice for extended stays with her nurse colleague and precious friend, Mary, and her family. Yvonne and John spent summers at their home in Otis, Massachusetts, enjoying time with their many friends in the small community, gathering at the lake, painting, attending concerts at Tanglewood and exploring all the richly varied attractions of the Berkshires. In 2012, at 86, Yvonne lost John. While missing him greatly, she remained fiercely independent and never stopped getting out and doing. In recent years, needing to slow down, there was comfort at home surrounded by innumerable keepsakes of hers and John's creativity in photography, ceramics and paintings. Yvonne passed away as she wished, at home in the Sears house that John's father built in the early 1930s. She is survived by her four beloved children: Denise Orr, Suzanne Logan, Michelle Hatcher and Drew Orr and five precious grandchildren: Angela Eisermann-Wolken, Brandon Meyers-Orr, Abigail Meyers-Orr, Timothy Hatcher and Zachary Hatcher. Yvonne touched many lives and her joie de vivre lives on in all who knew her.