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She had been born in New York in 1923 to George Kalogeropoulos a pharmacist from the Peloponnessos, who had emigrated earlier in that year. Like many Greeks, when he took US citizenship he had simplified his surname. Life was not easy in the USA during the years of the Great Depression, and Maria did not have a happy childhood. Her mother was single minded in her ambition that her daughters should have musical careers. Maria acquired an ear for music by listening to gramophone records and to the radio, and she was sent to piano and singing lessons.