Louisa Lane Drew
| Louisa Lane Drew | |
|---|---|
 Drew as Ophelia circa 1840-48 |
|
| Born | Louisa Lane January 10, 1820 London, England |
| Died | August 31, 1897 (aged 77) Larchmont, New York |
| Occupation | Stage actress |
| Spouse | John Drew |
Louisa Lane Drew (January 10, 1820 – August 31, 1897) was an American actress and theatre owner of British birth.
Drew was born Louisa Lane in London, England, the daughter of Eliza Trentner, an actress, and William Haycraft Lane, an actor and stage manager.[1] She and her third husband John Drew were the parents of Louisa Drew (1852–1888), John Drew, Jr. and Georgie Drew (Barrymore). She had no children from her first two marriages. The Drews owned the Arch Street Theatre, where they staged performances, and she managed the business. After her husband's death Mrs Drew adopted a baby boy and named him Sidney. She was the grandmother of John Barrymore, Ethel Barrymore and Lionel Barrymore. Her other grand children were Georgie Drew Mendum an actress (from her daughter Louisa and Charles Mendum) and Louise Drew (Mrs Jack Devereaux) also an actress( from her son John Drew Jr and his wife Josephine) as well as S. Rankin Drew, Sidney's son with his wife Gladys Rankin. She is the great-great-grandmother of Drew Barrymore.
As a young woman and strolling player, her theatrical travels took her and her mother as far away as Jamaica where one of her step fathers died. She appeared in plays with Junius Brutus Booth Sr. and his son, John Wilkes Booth.[2] The younger Booth assassinated U.S. President Abraham Lincoln. In the mid 1890s the aged Mrs Drew appeared in an all star revival of Sheridan's The Rivals. In 1897 an ailing Louisa Drew spent the summer at her annual Larchmont, New York retreat with her grandsons Lionel and John Barrymore. She died in Philadelphia at the end of August 1897 aged 77.
[edit] References
- Drew, Louisa Lane (1899). Autobiographical sketch of Mrs. John Drew. New York, New York: C. Scribner's Sons. http://books.google.com/books?id=WzwPAAAAMAAJ. Retrieved 2010-10-17.
[edit] External links
- Louisa Lane Drew at the Internet Broadway Database
- Louisa Lane Drew at Find a Grave
- 1880 portrait of Mrs Drew University of Washington Sayre Collection
