A Singing Journey

My name is Inez A. Lasso. I was born in 1937 in the South Bronx of NYC the youngest of four children. My mother a Singing Contest Winner in her youth filled our lives with music singing with the radio as she cared for us. She turned the poverty of the Bronx into a happy home for us and singing and songwriting into a lifelong passion for me. After graduation from Jamaica High School in 1954 I had my first job with the Chase Manhattan Bank in Times Square as a stenographer. Then I had the opportunity to join a religious organization the Young Christian Workers as a Lay Missionary in Bogota Colombia. I tell of the work I did to form new groups and of the young people I met who were enthusiastic about the movement and hoped to have a better life. I met my future husband in Colombia and he came to New York where we got married on June 16 1961. We lived in Jackson Heights N.Y. and had 2 children Elena and Diana. We then moved to Albuquerque New Mexico as a better place to raise them. Our third daughter Julie was born in Albuquerque. I always worked as a legal secretary and decided when I turned 40 yrs. old that I wanted to have a job that made a difference in the world - I wanted to be a Lawyer who fought for the rights of women who felt powerless. I enrolled in the University of Albuquerque and received my Bachelor of Business Administration; May 16 1981. my Masters Certificate; from The Antioch School of Law for Equal Opportunity Law on February 15 1983...and my Juris Doctor from the University of New Mexico on May 16 1984. I divorced my first husband in 1985 after 22 years of marriage. I tell of my life as a Student and my life as an Attorney at Law and in retirement as an Administrative Hearing Officer A/KA The Judge. I tell of my Second Life with New Husband after I moved to D.C. to work as a lawyer with the Dept. of Labor. He is a blind bluegrass musician and I was able to join him as a harmony singer in his band in weekend gigs. We were marr