Edna Anna "Birdie" Bankson

1873 - 1883  (10 years)

• Name	Edna Anna "Birdie" Bankson
  Birth	1873
  Gender	Female
  Death	21 Jun 1883
  Person ID	I3813	forneyclark
  Last Modified	12 Apr 2024

  
  

  Father	John Wesley Bankson,   b. 16 Jan 1847, AR; grew up in Keokuk, IA; lived in NY d. 26 Dec 1904, Portland, OR (Age 57 years)
  Mother	Mary Ellen "Auntie Bankson" Taylor,   b. 26 Nov 1848, Jefferson Co., IN d. 28 Aug 1935, Newberg, OR (Age 86 years)
  Marriage	21 Mar 1872	Keokuk, IA
  Family ID	F1475	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos

  Bankson, Edna Anna "Birdie" (abt.1873-1883) & Franchon Campbell 2-Persons/ Theatrical photo of Edna Anna "Birdie" Bankson (in front) and her friend Franchon Campbell came from the Don Coatney Archives. The picture and name identifications entered the Archives via Tori Connolly via the Bankson Album owned by John Phillips. This photograph was probably taken 1880-1882.

  
  

• Notes

  Source: SEE JOHN PHILLIP'S SITE MARY BANKSON, ACTRESS: http://marybankson.blogspot.com/ Sunday, November 18, 2007 Mary's Story Copyright 2007 John Phillips, Kathleen, GA Source: http://genforum.com/cgi-bin/pageload.cgi?bankson::coatney::246.html Tori Connolly: Name Source: Don Coatney Archives: Donald Gordon "Don" Coatney: Edna "Birdie" Bankson was a stage actor. Source: Laurie Phillips Reilly: Edna "Birdie" Bankson died at 11 y/o, probably of chlorea. Source: John Phillips: Pages 4-5 in Current Bankson Notes of John Phillips: Mary's Story Copyright 2007 (forwarded by Tori Connolly): BIRDIE DIES The Banksons were living at 62 East Ninth Street, just west of Broadway and not far from Washington Square, when Birdie got scarlet fever. She died a few days later, on Thursday June 21,1883. Services were held in the Little Church Around the Corner at One East 29th Street between Fifth and Madison avenues. She was buried in Greenwood Cemetery. (Years later Mary told a newspaper reporter that Birdie died in June 1882, but her memory was off a year.) One undated clippings in Mary's scrapbook calls Birdie "the leading child actress of America" and "the hope of the American stage." The Chicago Tribune reported on Sunday June 24, 1883: BIRDIE BANKSON. Death of the Child Actress. NEW YORK, June 23 (Special)-Little Edna Bankson, known throughout the theatrical profession as Birdie Bankson, was buried in Greenwood Cemetery yesterday from the Little Church Around the Corner. She was ill but a few days and died at the house of her parents, No. 62 East Ninth Street, Thursday. The tiny actress was only 9 years and 8 months old. When about five years of age she began her theatrical career by playing in one of the numerous Uncle Tom's Cabin combinations. Shortly afterward, manager E.L. Tilton was in Cincinnati with the Union Square Company, and Birdie's parents asked him to engage her. When Mr. Tilton returned to New York he heard of an opening for the child and brought her to the city to play the convict's daughter in Collier's Celebrated Case company. Since then she had been playing steadily in Collier's company, her last impersonation being that of the waif in The Lights o' London. She was recently stricken down with scarlet-fever. Thursday, when it became known that she would die, the child put her hands together and repeated "The Lord's Prayer," after which she said: "God bless you mamma and papa; God bless you." In a few minutes her eyes closed wearily, the white hands dropped down, and the little heart ceased to beat. Her experience in The Lights o' London would have been between December 1881, when the play debuted in America, and June 1883. Little Jimmie began playing the waif in "Lights," but we don't know that he replaced Birdie. (One of his obituaries says he did the role "with Ida Van Cortland, in repertoire.") The New York Times of March 30, 1884 gave good insight into the rigors of travel, noting that the touring company for a play called Romany Rye had covered 20,000 miles in six months. The manager bragged that the 47-member troupe hadn't missed a performance or had an illness despite freezing weather, snow and floods. (Romany Rye was another of George Sims' plays.) Source: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/read/BANKSTON/2004-10/1099019981 From: Ellen Blackstone Subject: Broadway BANKSONs? Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 20:19:46 -0700 "Just saw a book for sale on ebay about the Bankson family on Broadway: John and Mary Bankson were longtime character actors in the 1880-1900 era, spending a lot of their time on Broadway and a lot of time touring the hinterlands. Their daughter Edna (called "Birdie") was a child star until dying in 1883. Their son James Bankson was on the verge of becoming a leading man on Broadway when he died at age 22. His widow was Lotta Linthicum, a longtime stock lead on Broadway. This is a 44-page booklet discussing their lives and their shows. There are rare photos, plus a section on stars they appeared with (William Farmum, Taylor Holmes, George M. Cohan, Charles Coghlan, Edythe Chapman, Laura Nelson Hall, James A. Hernem nat Robson and Thomas Ince). Mary Bankson was born Mary Ellen Taylor in Indiana. John Bankson was born in Arkansas but grew up in Keokuk, Iowa."