May de Sousa

May De Sousa (November 6, 1884^[1] – August 8, 1948^[2]) was an American singer and a Broadway actress.^[3]

Biography

De Sousa was the daughter of a Chicago police detective,^[1] John De Sousa (born 1856 died 1941), and his wife, Carrie (1861—1910). She had a younger sibling, Marvin De Sousa (1891—1921).^{[1] [4]}

She came to fame in 1898 as the singer of "Dear Midnight of Love", a ballad by Bathhouse John Coughlin.^[5]

In 1913, De Sousa declared bankruptcy.^[6]

De Sousa retired in 1918, following a theatrical production in Australia, married a local doctor, and eventually moved to Shanghai. In 1943, following a seven month imprisonment as a civilian internee under the Japanese in Chapei Civil Assembly Center, in Shanghai, China, she returned to the United States on the Gripsholm^[7] and took a job in Chicago as a scrubwoman in the public-school system.^[8] She died in Chicago charity ward, of malnutrition,^[8] at age 66.^[2]

Marriages

May De Sousa was married twice to:

• Eaton Arthur Haines, a stockbroker, of Nunda, New York.^[6][8][9] They married Haverstraw, New York, on 24 April 1910^[10] and divorced in 1914, reportedly after De Sousa was beaten by her husband for years.^[11] Haines died in 1933.^[12]
• Dr. William E. O'Hara (1879—1941), an Australian surgeon.^[8] They met in 1918 while De Sousa was in Australia in a theatrical production and married in Melbourne, Australia, in either 1919 or 1920; he died in 1941.^[8]

References

External links

• May de Sousa at the Internet Broadway Database
  
• May Alvos De Sousa O'Hara; findagrave.com
• May De Sousa; Stagebeauty.net
• MementoMori, portrait