Born in Pocahontas, Arkansas, on June 21, 1939, but raised in the Denver, Colorado area, where her father was a pilot for United Airlines, Alice experienced a trauma that changed the course of her life.She was kidnapped by local criminal elements who took her to Los Angeles where she was introduced into prostitution and pornography. Her approximately four months ordeal was ended when a police raid occurred and she was found living with a pornography ring. She was hospitalized and send home.Two trials took place.When these were completed, and over time, because her family did not talk about her abduction, she repressed what happened to her.
As life continued, Alice developed an interest in singing, and at William Jewell College, in Liberty Missouri she majored in music, with a minor in voice. Because her professors encouraged her to continue to develop her voice, she moved to New York, where she continued her music education, seeking a career as an opera diva. Over the next thirteen years, (1961-1974) while working at United Airlines as a ticket agent, she studied with voice teachers, coaches, and language experts, eventually learning and performing eleven full operas at various venues throughout Manhattan. During this time, she also managed to volunteer at the New York School of the opera where she discovered an interest in opera management.Later, while volunteering at Opera Theater of New Jersey, she was able to apply for a grant from the National Opera Institute who accepted her. The stipend provided allowed her to quit United Airlines, put her singing aspirations aside and work full time learning how to run opera company.
In 1974 she was hired by San Francisco Opera, as executive director of the Merola Opera Program and the San Francisco Opera Auditions.Over the next fourteen years, along with a forty-member board of directors, she raised money, expanded the programs and helped young singers develop, many of whom went on to have international careers.
Then in 1989, after resigning from the opera, and after years of frightening nightmares, she woke up one night and began remembering her ordeal.This began a more than thirty-four-year struggle to remember and record what happened to her.
When her father died, she moved home to help her mother, who now lived in El Cajon, California, near San Diego. This enabled her to attend National University where she obtained a master’s degree in counseling psychology. She subsequently obtained employment as a social worker in Riverside County, California, where she worked with foster children for the next eight years.
Retiring in 2004, she moved to North West Arkansas, where she began serious efforts to find out what happened to her, and began writing her book, "ABDUCTED: MY STRUGGLE TO REMEMBER".
