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Langford senior belts out a win in singing test

Trip to Niagara Falls for national competition a possibility
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Elizabeth Winter

Singing has always been a passion for Elizabeth Winter.

At the Senior Star competition organized by Chartwell Seniors Housing, she sang “You Light Up My Life” and took home the first-place trophy June 28 at the Ross Place Retirement Residence in Victoria.

Winter, 80, dressed in a purple evening gown with silver rhinestone earrings and a matching necklace.

“I dressed to sing,” she said. “Come on, if you are going to do it, you have to do it right.”

Videos of the top two performances in Victoria will be sent to Chartwell Senior Star organizers in Ontario. One person will be selected to compete in the national finals in Niagara Falls, Ont. Winter will find out in September if she has earned one of the 10 coveted spots.

Eight seniors competed in the Victoria event and Winter was deemed the winner by a panel of three judges.

“I saw a poster asking for singers 65 or better,” she said. “I’ve been in a lot of competitions. I have sang on TV, radio and on stages.”

Her first radio-broadcast performance came as a youngster on CJVI in 1945, when she sang “I Am Always Chasing Rainbows.” Later, she joined the Gilbert and Sullivan Society, now known as the Victoria Operatic Society.

From 1969 to 1974 she was a singer at Butchart Gardens at the Just for Fun show.

“I have been singing all my life,” the Langford resident said.

Today she sings and plays piano with a group called The Nutones, who generally play at retirement residences.

“We play mostly old-time music and we take requests.”

charla@goldstreamgazette.com