May Yohé
| May Yohé | |
|---|---|
Yohé in The Era Almanack, 1894
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| Born |
Mary Augusta Yohé 6 April 1866 Bethlehem, Pennsylvania U.S. |
| Died | 29 August 1938 (aged 72) Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Occupation | Musical actress |
| Spouse(s) |
Lord Francis Hope Putnam Bradlee Strong John A. Smuts |
Mary Augusta "May" Yohé (April 6, 1866 – August 29, 1938) was an American musical theatre actress. After beginning her career with the McCaull Comic Opera Company in 1886 in New York and Chicago, and after other performances in the United States, she quickly gained success on the London stage beginning in 1893. The following year, in London, she created the title role in the hit show Little Christopher Columbus.
In 1894, she married Lord Francis Hope and possessed the Hope Diamond. She nevertheless continued to perform in musical theatre in the West End and then the U.S. She divorced Hope in 1902 and married a series of adventurous, but financially unsuccessful, men. She performed in music hall and vaudeville on the West Coast and in various other places in the U.S. in the early decades of the 20th century, but she was frequently in financial jeopardy. By 1924, she and her last husband, John Smuts, had settled in Boston, where she died in near poverty.
Yohé was born in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, the daughter of William W. and Elizabeth (nee Batcheller) Yohé. Her father, a veteran of the American Civil War, was either the son or nephew of Caleb Yohé, proprietor of the Eagle Hotel, where Yohé was born. William Yohé inherited the hotel and was locally famous for the elaborate miniature village scenes he would construct on the hotel grounds, especially for his annual Christmas putz. Yohé’s mother, a descendent of the Narragansett people, was a talented dressmaker, who according to Yohé had a clientele in Philadelphia that included many famous theater people of the day. As a young girl Yohé entertained the Eagle's guests by dancing and singing in the hotel lobby and recounting childhood stories. What became of her father is unclear. In 1878 he applied for a US Passport with plans to travel to Brazil while family lore has him dying in Colorado or Montana around 1885. At around the age of ten, Yohé was sent to Europe for a refined education, studying in Dresden and later at the Convent of the Sacré Coeur in Paris.
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