Carol Cook has been living in the US for 14 years now and has finally become a citizen. The Chicago Tribune says that Cook, who originally came from the United Kingdom, is the Lyric Opera of Chicago’s principal violinist and actually performed the national anthem during her own naturalization ceremony.
“It was quite a big deal to be sitting there and practicing, and to realize this is my new national anthem,” Cook noted to the Tribune during the naturalization ceremony. The idea was given to Cook by immigration officer Kevin Stasiek when she put in her application for US citizenship. Under normal circumstances, a recording of the anthem is played at citizenship ceremonies, according to the Chicago Tribune.
Cook went on to say that she now actually has a grand total of three national anthems, “The Star-Spangled Banner,” Great Britain’s “God Save the Queen,” and the unofficial “Flower of Scotland.” There were a total of 145 immigrants from as many as 53 different countries who gained their official recognition of having US citizenship during the naturalization ceremony.
Forty-six new US citizens were also sworn in during a naturalization ceremony that was held in Utica in New York. The Utica Observer-Dispatch says that Deputy Clerk Craig Minor administered the Oath for Citizenship as well as being responsible for distributing the Certificates of Citizenship. Immigrants Thahn Ba Bui and his wife Tram Tran Ngoc Nguyen say one of their main reasons for coming to the United States was to be able to offer their six-year-old daughter more opportunities than would be the case in Vietnam.