A butcher’s daughter, Marjoie Lawrence overcame financial hardship to launch her career and serious illness to continue it. Born at Deans Marsh south of Winchelsea, Marjorie was only two when her mother died and was raised by her paternal grandmother.

The Anglican parson recognized her talents and she was a regular soloist from the age of 10. At 18 she moved to Melbourne and trained with Ivor Boustead. She had to return home when she ran out of money but she won the Sun Aria contest in Geelong in 1928. Despite financial hardship she moved to Paris and boarded with a French family, studying with Cécile Gilly who extended the upper range of her voice.

She made her début in January 1932 as Elisabeth in Tannhäuser at Monte Carlo drew critical acclaim. Dramatic leads for the Paris Opera (from 1933) and the Metropolitan Opera in New York and on tour (from 1935) followed.

On her return to Australia in 1939, one of several visits, she kept a promise to perform first at Winchelsea, which honoured her with an escort of 100 horsemen. In 1941 she married Thomas King, osteopath and Christian Scientist but was struck down with an attack of poliomyelitis which left her almost completely paralysed in both legs.She returned to the stage 18 months later, performing in a chair, reclining or on a special platform.

A 1955 film starring Eleanor Parker and Glenn Ford was based on her candid 1949 autobiography, Interrupted Melody Lawrence made extensive tours to entertain troops, sang at Buckingham Palace and the White House, and continued to perform until 1952, after which she taught at Tulane, Southern Illinois, and Arkansas universities. In summer she ran opera workshops and sponsored children's opera at her home Harmony Range, Hot Springs, Arkansas.

Marjorie Lawrence died in America on 13 January 1979. For her work in France she had received the cross of the Légion d'honneur (1946) and she was also appointed C.B.E. in 1976.