Opera Singer. A lyric soprano, she is remembered as a leading figure of European opera for more than 20 years. Born Marguerite Virginie Emma Clementine Deceuninck to a well-off family (the origin of her stage name is unclear), she graduated from the Liege Conservatory and made her professional debut at La Monnaie, Brussels in late 1910 as Elena in Raoul Gunsbourg's "Ivan the Terrible". She remained in Brussels thru 1912, then between 1914 and 1918 refined her art at Monte Carlo; after singing in Warsaw and St. Petersburg, Fanny made her 1917 Paris debut at the Opera-Comique as Violetta in Giuseppe Verdi's "La Traviata", with her bow at the Paris Opera coming in 1920 as the title Juliette of Charles Gounod's "Romeo and Juliette". She first appeared at Covent Garden, London in 1926 as the title heroine of Massenet's "Manon and was chosen by Arturo Toscanini to sing at La Scala Milano as the title leads of Gustave Charpentier's "Louise" and Gabriel Faure's "Peleas and Melisande". In 1923, she was selected to appear in Pathe's recording of "Manon" with tenor Jean Marny as her co-star and Henri Busser on the podium; one of the first complete operas on record, it remains, despite the primitive sound, a valuable historic document. Over Fanny's career her signature roles were to be Manon, Juliette, and Violetta, though she was also seen as the title lead of Massenet's "Esclarmonde", the doll Olympia from Jacques Offenbach's "The Tales of Hoffmann", Rosina in Rossini's "The Barber of Seville", Marguerite of Gounod's "Faust", as well as in such weightier fare as the title leads of Puccini's "Tosca" and "Madame Butterfly", the last two being roles not really suited to her voice. Fanny sang the world premieres of several operas that are seldom heard today, among them Reynaldo Hahn's "Le marchand de Venise" and Maurice Ravel's "The Spanish Hour" and late in her time on stage was Nelly Harfield in Gunsbourg's "Venise", Freddie of Franco Alfano's "L'ultimo Lord", Octavian from Richard Strauss' "Der Rosenkavalier", and title cigarette girl of Bizet's "Carmen". Retiring to Dammarie-sur-Loring, Loriet in 1939, she became a noted breeder of race horses, her final years made comfortable by her marriage to Marcel Boussac, owner of the House of Dior and reputedly the richest man in Europe. Today, the Prix Foundation Fanny Heldy annually honors a soprano for a recording of particular merit. Her recorded legacy was small, but most of it including the historic "Manon" remains available on CD.