Nell Lane Bradford, professor emerita of music at Alabama A&M University, passed away on July 27. She was 104 years old.
Born in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, and raised in Gary, Indiana, Bradford earned a normal certificate and a bachelor of music degree from Sherwood Music School in Chicago. She received her master of music degree from the Oberlin College and Conservatory in Ohio and completed additional studies at Chicago Musical College and Oakland University in Michigan.
After several years as a public school teacher in Illinois and Louisiana, Bradford moved to Huntsville, Alabama, in the 1940s to teach music at the laboratory high school of Alabama A&M Institute. She later joined the HBCU’s faculty as an associate professor of music and director of the university choir. Bradford taught at Alabama A&M University for four decades.
In 2021, the university dedicated the Dr. Henry and Nell Lane Bradford Auditorium in Buchanan Hall in recognition of the many contributions of Bradford and her late husband Henry Bradford Jr., who served as chair of the department of music education and as university chaplain at the HBCU. Three years later, Bradford was granted the title of professor emerita.
