Martha Ingram, a longtime business leader and philanthropist who was the driving force behind the Schermerhorn Symphony Center and other major Nashville arts initiatives, died Aug. 6 in Nashville surrounded by family. She was 90.
Ingram became chairman of Nashville-based Ingram Industries, a river barge transportation and book publishing company, when her husband, business magnate and philanthropist E. Bronson Ingram, died in 1995. Ingram also served on the boards of Vanderbilt University, The Harpeth Hall School and several publicly traded businesses.
But she made her biggest mark on Nashville through the arts.
Ingram was the driver behind the city's first symphony hall, the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, which opened in 2006 and was named for
late Kenneth Schermerhorn, maestro for more than 20 years.
She also was instrumental in developing the Tennessee Performing Arts Center (TPAC) in the 1970s and the Tennessee Repertory Theater, now the Nashville Rep. Ingram served on boards of TPAC, Nashville Symphony, Nashville Ballet, Nashville Opera, Frist Art Museum.
The Blair School at Vanderbilt opened the Martha Rivers Ingram Center for Performing Arts with her support.
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Martha Ingram, driving force behind the Schermerhorn Symphony Center, dies
