Evangeline Edwards, a very remarkable lady, died on March 19 at the age of 104 (and a half) in her Magnolia home. Permit me to share a column I wrote for the Queen Anne News upon her centenary four years ago:
I had the great pleasure of being invited to a birthday party in Magnolia on Aug. 7, 2001. Not just an ordinary birthday party, but a celebration of 100 years of eventful and joyous living. The guest of honor, a bright and beautiful lady, Evangeline Edwards, had many interesting tales to tell.
Her ancestors really did come over on the Mayflower. The family name is on the Mayflower's passenger list in the year 1621, and the family has many connections with the early Pilgrims.
Evangeline, or "Van," as she is known by her many friends, was born in a log cabin at the foot of Queen Anne Hill on Aug. 7, 1901. Her parents had arrived from George-town, Ohio, a year earlier. Her father, Dr. Orange Edwards, a recent graduate of Cincinnati Medical School, set up his medical practice in downtown Seattle. The log cabin was the only housing available to them at that time. The family had a home built at 61 61st Ave. N. the year following Van's birth.
During her early years, Van remembers watching the Counterbalance being built, with a drugstore on the corner and a bakery where her aunt worked. In time, the Pres-byterian Church replaced the bakery. All these buildings have long gone.
Van has had a life filled with art, music and, above all, dancing. She began her dancing lessons at the age of 12, in 1913. That's before the First World War!
Always an apt pupil at ballet, she continued her dancing lessons, attending Cornish School before the new building was built. Dancing was always her first love. At her father's special request, she attended two years at the University of Washington, but continued studying at Cornish School, where she appeared in many of their recitals.
In the '20s, Cornish School was at the height of its glory under the leadership of the colorful Nellie Cornish, who brought world-class European actors, musicians and dancers to teach in her school, really putting Seattle on the cultural map. One of these teachers was Adolph Bolm, the celebrated character dancer of the Imperial Ballet of St. Petersburg and later of the Diaghilev Ballet.
Bolm, the ballet master at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, agreed to come to Seattle to teach summer school at Cornish. Pupils came from all over the United States to study with this great teacher and to take part in the recitals in which he himself danced.
Evangeline was fortunate to be one of these special pupils, selected to dance solos on several occasions. Bolm taught summer school at Cornish for three years. During that time he trained his pupils to form a touring ballet company for the Metropolitan Opera, which opened its western tour in Seattle a few weeks after the closing of summer school. At the conclusion of his tour, Bolm invited Evangeline to join his ballet company in Chicago.
In 1924, Van went to New York to continue her dancing career, landing a job with the well-known musical "The Vagabond King," in which she had three solos. She also appeared in "The Music of May." While appearing in a production of "Die Fledermaus," she worked with a very nice young Englishman who had a very pleasant singing voice, named Archie Leach. When he went to Hollywood, he invited Evangeline to accompany him. Evangeline declined, continuing her dancing career and working with many famous world-renowned dancers. For his part, Archie Leach enjoyed his Hollywood career under the name Cary Grant.
World War II found Van in Seattle once more, aiding the war effort by working in a defense plant as an accountant, selling War Bonds and entertaining the troops, and back living with her parents in the family house on Magnolia, which they had built in the '30s. She later had a dance studio in the basement of the house where she taught dancing to many of the Magnolia residents' children.
She also became an active member of the Music and Arts Foundation as well as the English Speaking Union, and a charter member of the Washington Athletic Club. She continues taking an interest in the affairs of Magnolia and has traveled extensively all over Europe and South America, visiting many of her famous friends.
So let's raise our glasses in a toast to a wonderful lady. Happy Birthday, dear Evangeline, and long may you continue to grace Magnolia.
DURING THE LAST years of her life Evangeline had three guardian angels, all Magnolia residents: Virginia John-son, Betty Pearl and Justine Johnson (no relation to Virginia Johnson). These great women provided care, meals and moral support. They all knew Van through the Music and Arts Foundation. Through her friends' care and attention as well as a live-in caretaker, Van was enabled to stay in her Magnolia family home for many years. We can indeed say Van's life was a saga from the Mayflower to Magnolia.
TTFN.
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