Opera Singer. A contralto, she is probably best remembered as the creator of Nettie Fowler in the 1945 Broadway world premiere of Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Carousel". Initially raised in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, she moved to Owensboro as a teen and graduated from high school there in 1929. She studied at the Nashville Conservatory and performed on WSM radio prior to relocating to New York in 1937. Christine bowed on Broadway in the 1938 flop "Great Lady", sang at Radio City Music Hall, toured the country with the Columbia Symphony Orchestra, and landed 1941 opening night honors at Tanglewood as Dorabella in Mozart's "Cosi fan tutte". After receiving praise for her portrayal of Mrs. Page in Nicolai's "The Merry Wives of Windsor", she sang the female lead of Gershwin's "Porgy and Bess" in a 1942 performance under the baton of Leonard Bernstein. For winning, along with Patrice Munsel, the 1943 Metropolitan Opera Auditions of the Air, Christine became the youngest lady ever to sing Erda in Wagner's "Das Rheingold" at the venerable house. She reprised Erda in "Siegfried", gained particular notice as two Verdi characters, the Gypsy fortune teller Azucena of "Il Trovatore" and Maddalena, the prostitute who assists her hired-killer brother Sparafucile, in "Rigoletto", and was also heard in the principal alto roles of Verdi's "La Forza del Destino" and "Macbeth", Puccini's "The Girl of the Golden West", and as the lead 'heroine' of Bizet's "Carmen", at the San Francisco Opera and other prominent venues. In 1945 Christine returned to the Broadway stage to create Nettie in "Carousel" with the popular numbers "You'll Never Walk Alone" and "June is Busting Out All Over" written for her. She stayed with the show for several hundred performances, earned a Tony Award nomination, toured with the production in the United States and Europe, and was part of the 1949 revival. In 1950 she returned to Owensboro and married Dr. Robert Smith (deceased 1959). She taught voice, numbering Florence Henderson of "The Brady Bunch" among her students, did some local theatrical productions, and later worked for a gas transmission company. At her death her recorded legacy, the original-cast album of "Carousel", remained available on CD. Looking back, she said that she had been "the most fortunate lady in the world to have had a successful career and the most satisfying private life".