Before she became the voice that generations would associate with Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, Mary Costa was a Knoxville girl with a remarkable gift. Her path led her to a celebrated opera career — but in 1952, long before the film ever reached theaters, she stepped into a recording booth and brought Princess Aurora to life.

The movie’s journey was epic in its own right. Work on the story began in 1951, animation stretched through most of the 1950s, and the sweeping musical score — rooted in Tchaikovsky’s ballet — was recorded in 1957. When Sleeping Beauty finally premiered in 1958, it became the last Disney feature created with hand‑inked cels, closing the book on an era of painstaking artistry.

And here’s a small delight: the name “Aurora,” shared by both the princess and the old model‑kit company, means “dawn” in Latin.

In the photo, Costa (right) stands beside Mary Starr, a familiar face to Knoxville television audiences in the ’50s and ’60s, captured during one of Costa’s hometown visits.

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