Neal Boyd, an opera singer who won NBC’s “America’s Got Talent” and dabbled in Missouri politics, died June 10 at his mother’s house in Sikeston, Mo. He was 42.
Mr. Boyd won the network TV show and its $1 million prize in 2008. He released the album “My American Dream” in 2009 and performed at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa.
Mr. Boyd also ran unsuccessfully as a Republican for a southeast Missouri U.S. House seat, losing in the general election in 2012 and in the primary in 2014.
Neal Evans Boyd was born Nov. 18, 1975, and grew up in Sikeston. His exposure to the Three Tenors concerts on CD sparked his interest in opera while in grade school.
He graduated in 2001 from the University of Missouri, where he studied music, and over the years performed at Carnegie Hall in New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington.
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