The Armenian beauty who gave up Hollywood to take care of parents

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Armenian Weekly in an article has detailed the life of multi-talented, and a noted beauty, Detroit-born Margaret Lafian could have sought the limelight in New York or even Hollywood, but this only child of Armenian Genocide survivors keenly felt the responsibility toward her parents to remain, and eventually become their caregiver.

Lafian’s parents received a letter from the Screen Actors Guild, offering their then-eight-year-old an audition, but they discarded the offer. Who knows what doors could have opened for the talented youngster, though no moss has grown beneath her feet.

Noticing that their young daughter was musically inclined, her mother surprised Margaret with a used upright piano. Thereafter, the seven-year-old devoted nine years taking classical piano lessons. At one point, she begged to quit the piano, wanting to take tapdancing lessons. Her mother firmly put her foot down, saying “No!”

Margaret was an honor student in high school, excelling in shorthand at 120 words per minute, and typing 70 words per minute. It served her well, as she became employed as a legal secretary, adding another dimension to her intellectual versatility.

She went on to Wayne State University, where she studied music and singing, continuing on to Henry Ford College and graduating Magna Cum Laude.

Margaret was vocalist and played the keyboard with the Hachig Kazarian Ensemble for over 25 years, entertaining audiences in Chicago, St. Louis, and elsewhere throughout the Midwest and Canada.

Margaret was one of five finalists in the Miss Detroit Pageant, the preliminary to the Miss America contest, receiving the talent trophy for singing an aria from the opera Tosca.

Lafian comments, “No one has handed me anything. I’ve done it all on my own.”

Taking her keyboard along, Margaret performs at private homes, senior centers, and offices. She sings Armenian folk songs as well as American standards. She has played for hundreds of outdoor weddings and at country clubs. She even translated a song, “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine,” into Armenian: “Keeneeyen Anoush Hampouyrner.”

Fluent in Armenian, Margaret has been an interpreter for 15 years for Executive Languages for legal depositions and proceedings.

Margaret went on to win a national essay contest, “Why Armenia should be free.” It was published in full in the Armenian Weekly. The article was read by Herb Philbrick, American FBI counterspy and inspiration for “I Lead Three Lives” TV series. He infiltrated the U.S. Communist Party on behalf of the FBI in the 1940s and wrote a best-selling book, I Lead Three Lives: Citizen, Communist, and Counterspy. Philbrick invited Lafian to Valley Forge, Pa., where she read her article in full at a Pennsylvania convention.