Ogarita Booth Henderson
| Ogarita Booth Henderson | |
|---|---|
Henderson as Mary, Queen of Scots
|
|
| Born |
Ogarita Elizabeth Bellows October 23, 1859 Providence, Rhode Island, U.S. |
| Died | April 12, 1892 (aged 32) Binghamton, New York, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Pneumonia |
| Resting place | Glenwood Cemetery |
| Nationality | American |
| Other names | Ogarita Wilkes Rita Booth |
| Occupation | Actress |
| Years active | 1875–1892 |
| Spouse(s) |
William Ross Wilson (m. 1879–82) Alexander Henderson (m. 1884–92) |
| Children | 2 |
Ogarita Booth Henderson (born Ogarita Elizabeth Bellows; October 23, 1859 – April 12, 1892) was an American stage actress. Henderson maintained that she was the daughter of actor John Wilkes Booth, who assassinated President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865.
Ogarita was the daughter of Martha Lizola Mills (1837–1887), with her birth certificate listing Martha's husband, the mariner Charles Still Bellows, as her father. Martha would later claim it was Lincoln's assassin, the actor John Wilkes Booth, who was actually Ogarita's father. Throughout her life, Ogarita believed that Booth was her father. However, Booth had been performing in Richmond, Virginia in January 1859, making it unlikely that he could have been the father of a child born in Rhode Island. As for Bellows, muster rolls show that he was on board a Navy ship near Montevideo during that time period, making it impossible for him to have been the father of Ogarita.
Ogarita first appeared on stage in January 1875 at the Globe Theatre in Boston in support of the British comedian J. L. Toole. She was 15 at the time and appeared under the stage name "Ogarita Wilkes". A few months later, she appeared as Donalbain in Macbeth, in the farewell engagement of Charlotte Cushman. From this point and for the rest of her life, Henderson travelled across the United States and Canada with various theater companies, except for brief periods away.
She gave birth to Izola Forrester in 1878, but was not married to the father. The following year, she married 64-year-old mill owner William Ross Wilson. They lived in Burrillville, Rhode Island, but Ogarita eventually returned to theater life, causing Wilson in to file a divorce petition in 1882 on the grounds that she was a member of the Theatre Comique in Providence. According to her husband, it was a "disreputable place".
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