Melissa Wells was born Militza-Elisabeth Foelsch on November 18, 1932, in Tallinn, Estonia, daughter of singer Miliza Korjus and physicist Kuno Georg Detlef Foelsch. Both parents were Estonian. This was the time after Estonia gained her independence in 1918, only to fall under the subsequent Soviet, Nazi and second Soviet occupations during and after the Second World War.
Melissa’s mother was starting her career as a coloratura soprano singer. Miliza Korjus had performed in Tallinn in her early twenties and in 1932 was performing in Berlin, Magdeburg and other German cities. In the autumn of that year, she returned to Tallinn, where her father lived, presumably to have her baby.
Kuno Foelsch, who was 15 years older than Miliza, had a master’s degree in applied physics from the Braunschweig Technical University in Germany. He had already done work in thermodynamics and optical measurements in ultraviolet light by photoelectric methods, which were very advanced topics at the time.
After Melissa was born, the family lived in Tallinn until around the middle of 1933, when they moved to Germany.
Here is a photo of the United States legation (embassy) in Tallinn in the 1930s. Melissa would return to the country where she was born as ambassador in 1998.
For more information about Miliza Korjus, click here.