Lydia Locke

Lydia Locke (August 1, 1884 – July 31, 1966) was an American celebrity, a soprano singer whose eventful personal life, including seven marriages and a murder trial, made national headlines for decades.

Lydia Locke with fan, from a 1918 publication

Early life

Lydia Mae Locke was born in Liberty, Illinois and raised in Hannibal, Missouri, the daughter of Newton Bushnell Locke and Lucy Ann Holcomb Locke.

Career

From 1911 to 1912, Lydia Locke performed with the London Opera Company under Oscar Hammerstein I.[1] She also gave recitals.[2] She made her New York stage debut in 1915, taking over the role of Marguerite in Faust at the Academy of Music.[3] Locke's activities off-stage, including vacations and fashion choices, were followed by the press.[4][5]

Personal life
Lydia Locke and Arthur Hudson Marks, her third husband, on their wedding day in 1918

Lydia Locke married seven times. Her first marriage, to gambler A. W. "Prince" Talbot, ended in 1909 when she shot him in a lawyer's office during an argument.[6] She was tried and acquitted in 1911 for Talbot's murder, successfully proving that he was an abusive husband, and further that the shooting was accidental.[7] Her second husband was a fellow opera singer, Orville Harrold; they married in 1913 and divorced in 1917.[8][9] That same year, Locke married her third husband, Arthur Hudson Marks, a naval officer and businessman;[10] they divorced in 1924. Her fourth husband was her young assistant Harry Dornblaser,[11] who left her during their honeymoon in Europe,[12] and died by suicide a few months later.[13]

Lydia Locke with parasol, from a 1918 publication

After some legal entanglements involving ex-husband Arthur Marks, including a stolen baby, a false paternity charge,[14] and "poison-pen" letters about Marks' next wife,[15] she married her fifth husband, Count Carlo M. Marinovich, in 1927;[16] they divorced by 1932.[13] There must have been a sixth husband, though the details of that are unclear. She counted her last husband, real estate developer Irwin Rose, as her seventh. They married in 1954 and lived in Yorktown Heights, New York at "Locke Ledge", her mansion, which they ran as an inn.[17]

Lydia Locke was erroneously reported dead in 1912,[18] after a car accident that probably limited her stage career.[19] In fact, she died in 1966, aged 82 years. She had a son, Newton Locke, adopted in 1922 during her marriage to Arthur Marks.[20][21]

Soon after her death, the Davenport House museum in Yorktown acquired a collection of her stage costumes. They displayed one of her concert gowns on a life-sized cardboard figure of Locke, beside a piano in the drawing room.[22]

References
  1. "Singer Badly Hurt", Wilkes-Barre Record (November 2, 1912): 16. via Newspapers.com
  2. "Lawrence, Mass., Admires Lydia Locke's Singing", Musical Courier (July 11, 1918): 38.
  3. "Debut of Lydia Locke", Brooklyn Daily Eagle (April 21, 1915): 18. via Newspapers.com
  4. "Lydia Locke on the Southern Seas", Musical Monitor (June 1918): 509.
  5. "Lydia Locke in Tafel Prize Gown", Musical Courier (July 11, 1918): 27.
  6. "Like a Vamp in the Movies" Pittsburgh Press (November 8, 1925): 108. via Newspapers.com
  7. "Former Diva Faces Poison-Pen Charge" The New York Times (September 30, 1925): 3.
  8. "Opera Tenor's Wife Accuses Chauffeur" The New York Times (May 4, 1915): 10.
  9. "Harrold Seeks Divorce" The New York Times (July 8, 1917): 3.
  10. "Lieut. Comdr. Marks Marries" Washington Post (December 23, 1917): 8.
  11. "Mrs. Dormblaser Wins Points in Suit" The New York Times (November 18, 1925): 14.
  12. "Much Married Woman Held as Poison Penman" Chicago Daily Tribune (September 30, 1925): 10.
  13. "Single Again After her Fifth Marriage" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (June 27, 1932): 26. via Newspapers.com
  14. "Lay Plot to Ex-Wife to Palm off a Baby" The New York Times (November 1, 1924): 25.
  15. "Sued by Present Wife of her Third Husband" Boston Daily Globe (September 30, 1925): A6.
  16. "Ex-Opera Singer Weds 5th Husband" Reading Times (May 4, 1927): 18. via Newspapers.com
  17. Eric Grundhauser, "Lydia Locke, the Turn of the Century Opera Singer With a Soap Opera Life" Atlas Obscura (September 15, 2015).
  18. "Hammerstein Star Fatally Hurt" Buffalo Enquirer (November 1, 1912): 14. via Newspapers.com
  19. "Auto Smash-Up Reveals St. Louis Singer is Bride" St. Louis Post-Dispatch (November 3, 1912): 56. via Newspapers.com
  20. Bert Andrews, "Silence in Golden but Money Talks!" Akron Beacon-Journal (July 23, 1939): 50. via Newspapers.com
  21. "Marks Estate Case Settled" Palm Beach Post (February 19, 1941): 2. via Newspapers.com
  22. Georgia Dullea, "Lydia Locke Lives Again in Yorktown Exhibit" Patent Dealer (February 29, 1968): 1.
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