Wednesday 31 July 2019

904) William B. Travis

William Barret "Buck" Travis (1809 – 1836). American lawyer and soldier. At the age of 26, he was a lieutenant colonel in the Texas Army. He died at the Battle of the Alamo during the Texas Revolution. Travis County and Travis Park were named after him for being the commander of the Republic of Texas at the Battle of the Alamo.

- "It is said that William Barret Travis was tall--six feet or more--and fair, with dark, curley red hair.According to one writer, he had what the Mexicans came to call "blue-grey killer's eyes."  https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/travis/125/

- "The reasons this handsome red-haired young South Carolina native who was practicing law in Alabama left his pregnant wife and young child to move to Texas in 1831 has been the subject of fruitless speculation and legend.http://www.lone-star.net/mall/texasinfo/travis.htm

- "Possibly, it was his red hair which made people think he was too youthful to have had any life...https://books.google.it/books…



903) Thomas J. Rusk

Thomas Jefferson Rusk (1803 – 1857). Political and military leader of the Republic of Texas, serving as its first Secretary of War as well as a general at the Battle of San Jacinto. He was later a US politician and served as a Senator from Texas from 1846 until his suicide. He served as the President pro tempore of the United States Senate in 1857.

- "Throughout his life the red-haired, beefy six-foot Rusk was a stable and unflappable leader respected by everyone.https://sites.rootsweb.com/~galumpki/people/ThomasJRusk.htm

- "David Burnet had sent the Secretary of War, big, beefy red-haired Thomas Rusk...http://www.texfiles.com/eramar02/sanjacinto.htm


902) Chief Bowles

The Bowl (also Chief Bowles, ca. 1765 – 1839). One of the leaders of the Chickamauga Cherokee during the Cherokee–American wars. He served as a Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation–West and was a leader of the Texas Cherokees.
His mother was Cherokee and his father was a Scottish trader.

- "Emmet Starr, an early historian of the Cherokee, describes Bowles as "being decidedly Gaelic in appearance, having light eyes, red hair, and somewhat freckled.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bowl_(Cherokee_chief)



901) Sarah Bowman

Sarah A. Bowman (c. 1813 – 1866). American innkeeper, restaurateur, and madam. Nicknamed "The Great Western", she gained fame, and the title "Heroine of Fort Brown", as a camp follower of Zachary Taylor's army during the Mexican–American War. Following the war she operated an inn in Franklin, Texas (now El Paso) before settling near Arizona City (now Yuma, Arizona). Over the course of her life she was married multiple times, often without legal record or the blessing of a priest.
She received no formal education, and is believed to have been illiterate due to her use of an X on business and census forms. Despite the inability to read and write, she was bilingual by her later years, with a priest near Fort Yuma noting she was the first American woman he had met fluent in Spanish.


- "Then imagine a six-foot-two-inch woman with blazing red hair and blue eyes appearing at the head of the line of soldiers...https://www.lindabroday.com/sarah-bowman-the-great-western/

- "She had long red hair, carried pistols and took in orphan children. They called her the Great Western, after the largest steamship afloat at the time.https://wlna-webservice.gannettdigital.com/…/24.3.57/iphone…

- "Sarah was big, strong minded and very attractive with reddish hair and an hourglass figure."  http://www.tombstonetimes.com/stories/greatwestern.html

- "Over 6 feet tall and weighing 200 pounds, the buxom, red-haired beauty earned the reputation as a hard-working, astute businesswoman even though she could neither read nor write.https://saddlebagnotes.com/…/article_0f8d3839-12b7-5aac-9ed…



900) Mariano Arista

José Mariano Martín Buenaventura Ignacio Nepomuceno García de Arista Nuez (1802 – 1855). Noted veteran of many of Mexico's nineteenth-century wars. He served as president of Mexico from 15 January 1851 to 6 January 1853.

- "His adversary, Mariano Arista, a handsome, red-haired man who had lived in the United States..."  https://books.google.it/books…

- "... a thick set, corpulent Mexican of ordinary stature, about forty years old, with red hair, large bushy whiskers...https://books.google.it/books…

- "Arista was a forty-two-year-old red-haired native of San Luis Potosì..."  https://books.google.it/books…



899) Ernie Lopez

Ernie "Indian Red" Lopez (1945 – 2009). American professional boxer. He twice fought for the world welterweight boxing title, losing title bouts to José Nápoles in 1970 and 1973. He was a missing person from 1992 to 2004 and was the subject of extensive press coverage in early 2004 when, after being selected for induction into the California Boxing Hall of Fame, he was found at a homeless shelter in Fort Worth, Texas.

- "Lopez was given the nickname "Indian Red" because of his flaming red hair and Native American heritage. In 1968, when Lopez became the first Native American boxer to be ranked as the No. 1 contender in any weight class, Pulitzer Prize winning sports writer Jim Murray wrote: 'I don't know how he is as a prize fighter, but Ernie (Indian Red) Lopez certainly is disappointing as an Indian. I mean, he doesn't look like something John Wayne would chase down the street shouting something about 'damned redskin.' 'Damned redhead,' maybe. But, Lordy, the skin is even freckled! Now, whoever heard of a red-headed, freckle-skinned Indian? ... 'What was your Indian name?' I asked Indian Red? 'Ernie,' he told me.' https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Lopez

- "Lopez was born with flaming red hair and stubborn courage, strong legs and knuckles of steel."  https://www.latimes.com/…/la-xpm-2004-mar-04-sp-lopez4-stor…


898) Rusty Hamer

Russell Craig "Rusty" Hamer (1947 – 1990). American stage, film and television actor. He is best known for portraying Rusty Williams, the wise cracking son of entertainer Danny Williams (Danny Thomas), on the ABC/CBS situation comedy Make Room for Daddy (later retitled The Danny Thomas Show), from 1953 to 1964. He reprised the role in three reunion specials and the sequel series, Make Room for Granddaddy, that aired on ABC from 1970 to 1971.
On the night of January 18, 1990, John Hamer found his brother's body in his trailer home in DeRidder, Louisiana. Hamer had shot himself in the head with a .357 Magnum revolver.
John Hamer later said he believed that his brother had remained bitter over his inability to transition into acting as an adult. He also said he believed that his brother's chronic and debilitating back pain (for which Hamer refused to seek medical treatment) and their mother's illness had contributed to Hamer's depression.


- "As a child, Hamer was nicknamed "Rusty" because of his red hair and freckles.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusty_Hamer



897) Thomas L. Hamer

Thomas Lyon Hamer (1800 – 1846). United States Democratic congressman and soldier.
Before being admitted to the bar in 1821 he was a school teacher. He was an Ohio Presidential elector in 1828 for Andrew Jackson. He practiced law in Georgetown, Ohio and was elected to the Ohio House of Representatives in 1828, which body unanimously chose him as their Speaker in December 1829.
Following service in the House, Hamer was elected to the U.S. Congress. While serving as a congressman he nominated Hiram Ulysses Grant to be a cadet at West Point. Hamer incorrectly put on the nomination the name "Ulysses S. Grant" (assuming his middle name was his mother's maiden name of Simpson, the custom of the time) and the name stayed with the new cadet.
When the Mexican–American War broke out Hamer volunteered as a private in the Ohio Volunteers, and was quickly commissioned as a major in June 1846. Popular and well respected, Hamer was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers on July 1, 1846.
He died unexpectedly while stationed with the army at Monterrey on December 2, 1846. Upon Hamer's death, General Zachary Taylor exclaimed "I have lost the balance wheel of my volunteer army" and Lt. Ulysses S. Grant also lamented that the "U.S. has lost a future president." Grant later described him as "one of the ablest men Ohio ever produced."


- "Thomas L. Hamer was a man of middle height, of slender physique, with a head covered with a shock of bushy red hair, always neat and cleanly dressed..."  http://www.ohiogenealogyexpress.com/…/adamsco_bios_1900_h.h…

- "The red-haired congressman was normally a long winded talker..."  http://kkspc.com/argus/Hometown-Heroes.html

- "The red hair of Hamer and the dark skill of Corwin were familiar subjects of remark.http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search…

- "Unprepossessing in appearance, with an unwieldy mop of red hair, Hamer was infectiously vivacious, cheerful, generous and hospitable."  https://www.ancestry.com/boards/surnames.hamer/135/mb.ashx



Tuesday 30 July 2019

896) George Mayfield

George Mayfield (1779−1848). Interpreter and spy for General Andrew Jackson during the Creek War of 1813 – 1814. He is most notable for his dual existence between the white and Native American peoples of North America at a pivotal moment in the history of the United States.

- "Also, George Mayfiled is said to have had flaming red hair."  https://www.newspapers.com/clip/11892540/the_tennessean/

- "George had bright red hair and it was probably the Indians facination with this that prevented them from killing him as they did his father.http://www.oocities.org/bsdunagan/ancestors.htm

895) Randal William McGavock

Randal William McGavock (1826–1863). American lawyer, Democratic politician, Southern planter, and colonel in the Confederate States Army. He served as the Mayor of Nashville, Tennessee from 1858 to 1859.

- "His red hair was the pride of both families which boasted of red-haired men with ruddy Scotch-Irish complexions.http://www.tennessee-scv.org/Camp1713/rwmbio.htm

- "A fourh generation Southern American of Scott-Irish descent who was tall, handsome, and with red hair.http://10thtennesseeco.a.tripod.com/id5.html

- "... he was six feet two inches with grey eyes and red hair."  https://books.google.it/books…



894) Charles C. Burleigh

Charles Calistus Burleigh (1810 - 1878). American abolitionist and journalist, who fought against Connecticut's "Black Law" and enlisted participants in the Underground Railroad 

.Burleigh was the antislavery editor of The Unionist and also the editor of The Pennsylvania Freeman after 1844. He served as secretary of the American Anti-Slavery Society beginning in 1836, and was the editor of its annual reports. He traveled around the Northeast, particularly in Pennsylvania, visiting antislavery societies and helping other groups to organize their own anti-slavery groups.
In 1863 he was the first speaker of the Free Congregational Society of Florence. Burleigh spoke on subjects such as abolition, woman's suffrage, welfare, social reform. Other speakers who shared his stage were Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson and Louisa Alcott, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Susan B. Anthony.  

He was known as an effective and colorful orator, with very long hair and beard that he had vowed not to cut until slavery had ended in the United States.

- "The speaker was tall and slim, with long arms, long legs, and a profusion of auburn or reddish hair hanging in ringlets down his shoulders; while a huge beard of the same colour fell upon his breast.http://civilwaref.blogspot.com/…/robert-purvis-born-august-…

- "... reddish hair which curls slightly and falls gracefully over his shoulders..."  https://books.google.it/books…
 




893 Red Embree

Charles Willard "Red" Embree (1917 – 1996). Major League Baseball pitcher. His key pitch was the curveball. He played with the Cleveland Indians (1941–1942, 1944–1947), the New York Yankees (1948) and the St. Louis Browns (1949).

- "Nicknamed Red, due to his red hair..."  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Embree



892) Isabella Gethin Shawe

Isabella Gethin Shawe (1816–1893). Born in Calcutta, she was the daughter of Colonel Matthew Shawe and Isabella Creagh Shawe. In 1836 she married the novelist William Makepeace Thackeray. They had three daughters: Anne Isabella, lady Ritchie (1837 - 1919), Jane (born in 1839, who died at eight months) and Harriet Marian (1840–1875), who married Leslie Stephen in 1869. She suffered of poor mental health and after an attempted suicide in 1840, she was put in an asylum.

- "Gordon Ray informs us that Isabel shawe, Thackeray's wife, was of Irish descent, had many siblings and red hair.https://books.google.it/books…

- "She was a small, shy young woman with light-red hair."  http://mlsh.ru/…/2016-…/39f60f1899d3e3e8f67a39ff6be56a84.pdf

- "Petite and red-haired, Isabella played the piano and sang charmingly..."  https://kb.osu.edu/…/ANNE_THACKERAY_RITCHIE_JOURNALS_AND_LE…

Monday 29 July 2019

891) Deanna Durbin

Edna Mae Durbin (1921 – 2013) known professionally as Deanna Durbin. Canadian-born actress and singer, later settled in France, who appeared in musical films in the 1930s and 1940s. With the technical skill and vocal range of a legitimate lyric soprano, she performed many styles from popular standards to operatic arias.
Durbin made her first film appearance with Judy Garland in Every Sunday (1936), and subsequently signed a contract with Universal Studios. Her success as the ideal teenaged daughter in films such as Three Smart Girls (1936) was credited with saving the studio from bankruptcy. In 1938, at the age of 17, Durbin was awarded the Academy Juvenile Award.
As she matured, Durbin grew dissatisfied with the girl-next-door roles assigned to her, and attempted to portray a more womanly and sophisticated style. The film noir Christmas Holiday (1944) and the whodunit Lady on a Train (1945) were, however, not as well received as her musical comedies and romances had been. Durbin retired from acting and singing in 1949, and withdrew from public life, granting no interviews for the remainder of her life, except for one in 1983. She married film producer-director Charles Henri David in 1950, and the couple moved to a farmhouse near Paris.


- "Those motion picture portraits of her flawless oval face, rich auburn hair, startling blue eyes..."  http://www.speakingofradio.com/pdf/0698_1.pdf

- "Her blue eyes, auburn hair and toothsome gaiety won the hearts of filmgoers without resorting to sexuality or coquetry."  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/…/o…/10031232/Deanna-Durbin.html



890) Paul Draper

 Paul Draper (1909 – 1996). Noted American tap dancer and choreographer. Born into an artistic, socially prominent New York family, the nephew of Ruth Draper was an innovator in the arts. His passion and unique style led him to international stardom. One signature piece was Sonata for Tap Dancer, danced without musical accompaniment.

- "Draper is 27, red-haire, the son of Muriel Draper..."  https://books.google.it/books…

- "Draper, the gaunt red-headed dancer..."  https://books.google.it/books…



889) Harriet Lane

Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston (1830 – 1903). First Lady of the United States during the presidency of her uncle, lifelong bachelor James Buchanan, from 1857 to 1861. Lane is among eleven women who have served as First Lady but were not married to the President, with most of the other women being relatives of widowed presidents.
She dedicated $400,000 (equivalent to $11,200,000 in 2018) to establish the Harriet Lane Home for Invalid Children at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland as a memorial to two sons who had died in childhood. In October 1912 the Harriet Lane Home officially opened. It was the first children’s clinic in the United States that was associated with a medical school. Eventually treating over 60,000 children a year, the Harriet Lane Home became a pioneer treatment, teaching, and research clinic.
She had an art collection based on European works which she left to the US government. The Smithsonian Institution called her the "First Lady of the National Collection of Fine Arts" after her collection was accepted into public ownership.

- "In appearance "Hal" Lane was of medium height, with masses of light, almost golden-colored hair. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Lane

- "Her hair was of a golden- brown hue..."  https://archive.org/…/f…/famousamericanbe00peacuoft_djvu.txt

- "Her hair was a bright reddish-brown..."  http://www.firstladies.org/biographies/firstladies.aspx…



888) Minnie Maddern Fiske

Minnie Maddern Fiske (born Marie Augusta Davey, 1865 – 1932), often billed simply as Mrs. Fiske. One of the leading American actresses of the late 19th and early 20th century. She also spearheaded the fight against the Theatrical Syndicate for the sake of artistic freedom. She was widely considered the most important actress on the American stage in the first quarter of the 20th century. Her performances in several Henrik Ibsen plays widely introduced American audiences to the Norwegian playwright.
Although she was highly praised as an actor, she died poverty-stricken, having fought against a group of producers that organized the Theatrical Trust or Syndicate. This organization took control of first-class playhouses in the U.S., dictated the plays chosen, and the actors that were cast. She fought for artistic freedom for 12 years, which caused her to perform in third-class theatres, such as churches and skating rinks.
In addition to her battle against the Syndicate, she was also one of the most prominent animal welfare advocates of her era. She fought against the wearing of snowy and great egrets on hats, raised awareness of the cruelties of fur trapping, and changed the treatment of cattle on ranges. Because she was well-known and loved, people followed her example and she was able to broadly influence animal reform. She was twice named one of the twelve greatest living American women because of her fight for animal rights and for her outstanding talent. She was first named in 1923 by the League of Women Voters, and then again in 1931 by Good Housekeeping magazine. Mark Twain wrote the story "A Horse's Tale" at her request to combat bullfighting in Spain.

- "... when red-haired Minnie Maddern toured the far West..."  https://books.google.it/books…

- "Fiske, a wisp of a woman, with red hair and intense blue eyes, was generally noted for her understated "realistic" acting and impeccable technique..."  https://www.encyclopedia.com/…/fiske-minnie-maddern-1865-19…

- "With her luxuriant red hair and twinkling blue eyes, Mrs. Fiske (nee Marie Augusta Davey, 1865-1932) enchanted theatre audiences..."  http://prosperosbookshelf.blogspot.com/…/minnie-maddern-fis…

- "She was described as a short, magnetic redhead whose acting was full of subtlety and finesse." https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Fiske%2C+Minnie…  

- "... theatre goers witnessed her red hair, blue eyes and delicate features."  https://books.google.it/books…



887) Nellie Hazeltine Paramore

Nellie Hazeltine Paramore (1857 - 1884), known as the "Belle of St. Louis".
She was the only daughter of Captain William B. Hazeltine, a man who had made a large fortune in the mercantile world.
On the 2d of December, 1881, she was married to Mr. Frederick W. Paramore, a young railroad man of St. Louis, and a son of Mr. J. W. Paramore, who was president of the Texas and St. Louis Railroad. She died after giving birth to a son.
A play, called "Nellie of N'Orleans" was written about her life and starred Minnie Maddern Fiske.

- "Her red gold hair seemed to reflect some of the sun’s own glory..."  https://accessgenealogy.com/…/nellie-hazeltine-mrs-frederic…

- "... Guerin’s portrait of society belle Nellie Hazeltine was unable to “convey the exquisite tints of the violet eyes and Titian-red hair...”  https://www.ancestry.com/boards/thread.aspx…