Oriska Worden Explained

Oriska Worden
Other Names:Oriska Breidinger, Oriska Baird
Birth Name:Oriska Haverfield
Birth Date:July 13, 1868
Birth Place:Cadiz, Ohio, US
Death Date:October 1, 1954 (aged 86)
Death Place:Hempstead, New York, US
Occupation:Singer, actress
Years Active:1890s-1910s

Oriska Worden (July 13, 1868 – October 1, 1954), born Oriska Haverfield, was an American actress and singer.

Early life and education

Oriska Haverfield was born in Cadiz, Ohio, the daughter of George A. Haverfield and Mattie Elna Warman Haverfield. Her father was a disabled veteran of the American Civil War; he died in 1886.[1] Her mother remarried, to Col. Frederick W. Worden in 1888; her stepfather's brother was Admiral John Lorimer Worden.[2] As a young woman, Oriska Worden helped her mother, a physician and orthopedic surgeon who ran "a summer sanitarium and school of physical culture" in Michigan.[3]

Worden attended the Mount du Chantal convent school in West Virginia,[4] and studied voice at the Michigan State Normal Conservatory of Music in Ypsilanti, Michigan,[5] graduating in 1892.[6] [7] She pursued further musical studies in Paris with Belgian singer Jacques Bouhy.

Career

Worden sang with the Castle Square Opera Company of Boston, early in her career.[8] [9] In 1897, she toured in the American West with a stock company. In 1899, she modeled and spoke about "the new French tight-fitting skirt" for a newspaper feature.[10]

On Broadway she appeared in The Supper Club (1901-1902) and in My Lady Molly (1904).[11] In 1905, she was in vaudeville starring in The Queen's Fan,[12] an operetta.[13] [14] She was in a comic opera, Burning to Sing, in vaudeville in 1907.[15] [16]

Worden taught at the summer school of the Petoskey Normal Conservatory in 1899.[17] In 1908, she began teaching voice students at a studio in Carnegie Building in New York.[18] In 1912, she announced that she was directing a theatrical costuming department for Renard's in New York.[19]

Personal life

Worden married William P. Baird in Tennessee in 1884.[20] She married wealthy Charles W. Glover in 1892.[21] [22] In 1901 she announced that she would sue his parents for alienation of affection, and Glover himself for alimony, after they were divorced in 1895. She owned property in Petoskey, Michigan, until she sold it in 1915.[23] Her third husband was John Breidinger; they married in New York in 1923. Oriska Breidinger died in 1954, at the age of 86, in Hempstead, New York.[24]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Taylor, Wallace. A genealogy and brief history of the Haverfield family of the United States, one of the pioneer settlers of Jefferson County, Ohio, later Harrison County. 1919. Oberlin, Ohio, Press of the News Printing Co.. New York Public Library. 264–265.
  2. News: 1897-11-07. She is the Niece of Admiral Worden. 15. The San Francisco Call. 2020-06-17. Newspapers.com.
  3. News: September 9, 1891. The Happy Home. 2. The Goshen Democrat. June 17, 2020. NewspaperArchive.com.
  4. News: September 25, 1900. Her Love Story. 5. Indianapolis Sun. June 17, 2020. NewspaperArchive.com.
  5. Web site: Michigan State Normal Conservatory Class of 1892. 2020-06-17. Ypsilanti Historical Society Photo Archives. en.
  6. News: 1892-06-22. The Normal School. 3. Detroit Free Press. 2020-06-17. Newspapers.com.
  7. Hoos-Lemke. Debi. Fall 2011. Ypsilanti History in Photographs. Ypsilanti Gleanings. 15.
  8. News: 1901-04-27. Untitled news item. 22. Evening Star. 2020-06-17. Newspapers.com.
  9. News: 1897-04-14. Amusements. 16. Evening Star. 2020-06-17. Newspapers.com.
  10. News: 1899-10-08. The New French Tight-Fitting Skirt. 30. The San Francisco Examiner. 2020-06-17. Newspapers.com.
  11. https://books.google.com/books?id=01swAQAAMAAJ&dq=Oriska+Worden+Broadway+Weekly&pg=RA33-PA15 "Plays and Players"
  12. News: March 12, 1905. Empire Theatre. 21. Boston Sunday Post. June 17, 2020. NewspaperArchive.com.
  13. News: October 31, 1905. Grand Opera House, Indianapolis. 2. Greenfield Evening Star. June 17, 2020. Hoosier State Chronicles.
  14. May 24, 1905. Round About the Town. Musical Courier. 50. 33.
  15. News: 1907-02-02. Keeney's Theatre. 3. The Chat. 2020-06-17. Newspapers.com.
  16. News: 1907-02-02. Aspiring Variety Act. 6. Times Union. 2020-06-17. Newspapers.com.
  17. April 20, 1899. Advertisement for Petoskey Normal Conservatory. School Moderator. 19. 481.
  18. News: December 12, 1908. Miss Worden's New Move. 22. New York Star. June 17, 2020.
  19. News: February 26, 1912. Trimmings. 8. Women's Wear Daily. ProQuest.
  20. News: 1884-01-18 . The Baird Romance . 4 . Chattanooga Daily Times . 2022-12-11 . Newspapers.com.
  21. Web site: Glover House History. 2020-06-17. The Glover House.
  22. News: November 26, 1900. Oriska Worden's Millionaires. 4. Defiance Daily Express. June 17, 2020. NewspaperArchive.com.
  23. News: January 8, 1916. Miscellaneous. The Economist. 55. 90.
  24. New York Department of Health; Albany, NY; NY State Death Index. via Ancestry.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Oriska Worden".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.