Carol Ellen Forsythe, a singer and voice teacher, carried on the work of her longtime mentor, Josephine McGrail, and taught the bel canto technique to aspiring performers in a Downtown studio on Penn Avenue.

Bel canto, an Italian phrase meaning beautiful singing, is a technique used by opera singers that originated in the late 16th century. Miss Forsythe learned the technique as a teenager.

"A lot of her students looked up to her. She was very professional in her work. She loved teaching voice," said her sister, Janet Phillips of St. Peters, Mo.

Miss Forsythe, who lived in Crafton, died Thursday of arteriosclerosis at Ohio Valley General Hospital. She was 64.

The eldest of three sisters, she grew up in Crafton and graduated from Crafton High School in 1960. Afterward, she became an associate of Miss McGrail, founder of the McGrail School of Voice, which was located for many years in Downtown's Fulton Building.

As a young woman, Miss Forsythe sang soprano roles with a small opera company founded by Miss McGrail and had leading parts in productions of "Faust" and "Rigoletto." She also attended Duquesne University for two years and studied voice and music but did not earn a degree, her sister said.

Miss Forsythe and Miss McGrail worked together for 36 years until Miss McGrail's death in 1996.

"She took over Miss McGrail's business. Miss McGrail left it to her," Mrs. Phillips said.

As a teacher, Miss Forsythe usually dressed in matching jackets and slacks and insisted that students use all of their muscles to sing, said Catherine "Kate" Aupke of Mount Washington.

Besides her love of voice and music, especially operas by Giuseppe Verdi, Miss Forsythe attended the theater often and also traveled. But when her parents or friends became ill, Miss Forsythe was there to help.

"Carol was a very compassionate person," Mrs. Phillips said, adding that her sister took care of their father, John Forsythe, before his death in 2001 and their mother, Dorothy Forsythe Plank, who died in 1985.

Miss Forsythe is also survived by another sister, Debbie Staude of Crafton.

Friends will be received tomorrow from 2 to 4 and 7 to 9 p.m. at Hershberger-Stover Funeral Home, 170 Noble Ave., Crafton. A funeral service will be held there at 10 a.m. Monday. Burial will follow in Chartiers Cemetery, Carnegie.