Person:Adelaide McCord (1)

Notes

• Caution: Facts about her early life and parents are uncertain with Ada herself having published differing accounts.
  • 1865 - Ada wrote that her birth name was Dolores Adios Los Fiertes, and that she was the daughter of a French woman from New Orleans and a Spanish-Jewish man
  • 1868 - Ada wrote that she was born in Bordeaux, France, and lived in Cuba as a child before her family settled in New Orleans. [NY Times, 1868]
  • Abt 1869 - Ed James, a journalist friend, wrote after her death: "Her real name was Adelaide McCord, and she was born at Milneburg, near New Orleans, on June 15, 1835."
  • Abt 1940 - the consensus of scholars was that her parents were Auguste Théodore, a free Black man, and Marie, a mixed-race Creole, and Adah was raised as a Catholic. She had a sister and a brother. Based on Ada's assertions of being a native of New Orleans, Wolf Mankowitz and others studied Board of Health records for the city. They concluded that Ada was born in the city as the legitimate daughter of Auguste Théodore, a free man of color (mixed race), and his wife Magdaleine Jean Louis Janneaux, likely also a Louisiana Creole. Ada would have been raised as Catholic. [Wikipedia]
  • 1990 - John Cofran, using census records, said that she was born as Ada C. McCord, in Memphis, Tennessee, in late 1830. He said she was the daughter of an Irish merchant, Richard McCord, and his wife Catherine. According to Cofran, her father died when she was young and her mother remarried. The family then moved from Memphis to New Orleans. [Wikipedia]

1. ↑ ^1.0 1.1 Examiner (London, Greater London, England)
   7, 26 Nov 1864.
2. ↑ ^2.0 2.1 Montgomery, Ohio, United States. Dayton Journal Herald. (Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio)
   3, column 1, 8 Nov 1858.
3. ↑ Montgomery, Ohio, United States. Dayton Journal Herald. (Dayton, Montgomery, Ohio)
   23 and 24 Jul 1858.

   appears onstage in Dayton

4. ↑ ^{4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4} 7887580, in Find A Grave.

   Burial: Cimetière du Montparnasse, Paris, City of Paris, Île-de-France, France
   
   Bio: Author, Actress. She received world-wide notoriety in the 19th Century for being an American author and actress.
   
   Her life before her theatrical career is difficult to document since her personal history has been highly elaborated in addition to the various names she used. She masked her life hiding factual events and forming a mystery for researchers to unravel.
   
   She had wed G.W. Kneass, a musician, in February of 1855 in Galveston, Texas. On October 8, 1855 an advertisement in the Austin, Texas newspaper “Liberty Gazette” announced that Ada Bertha Theodore would be giving Shakespeare readings. This followed with the publishing of her poems and essays. In the role of Pauline in “The Lady of Lyons” she made her theatrical debut in 1857. This followed with the role of Bianca in “Fazio” in a New Orleans, Louisiana theater and over the next years other performances at small theaters there.
   
   In March of 1858 she made her New York City debut as the Widow Cheerly in “The Soldier's Daughter.”
   
   As a young divorcee, she married on April 3, 1858 in Livingston, Texas to Alexander Isaac Menken, a Jewish theatrical musician from Cincinnati, Ohio. He became her agent.
   
   Although she never formally converted to Judaism, she claimed the faith often stating that she was born Jewish. She published a number of poems in the “Cincinnati Israelite.” Her husband's family did not care for her theatrical career and her smoking cigarettes in public, thus her marriage to Menken was soon dissolved by a rabbinical diploma, which was not legal as she learned after marrying another man. She continued to used Menken as her stage name.
   
   On April 3, 1859 she married the well-known prizefighter, John Camel Heenan; their marriage ended soon after their infant son died.
   
   In 1859 she appeared on Broadway in New York City in the play “The French Spy.” In June of 1861 she received a leading role in “Mezeppa” or “The Wild Horse of Tartary,” a melodrama based on a poem by Lord Byron, which opened in New York at the Albany's Green Street Theater. She played the part of a male in the production. In the last act, she rode a horse on stage wearing flesh-toned tights under dim stage lights, which made her appear nude to her audience. She became an overnight sensation. During the next years, this drama was produced in the major United States cities starting in the Northeast, then traveling to the Midwest and Western states.
   
   On September 24, 1862 she married poet Robert Henry Newell. When their marriage ended, he became brokenhearted, which he remained for the rest of his life.
   
   She traveled with this show to European cities including Paris, France and at Astley's Theater in London, England where she played to sold-out audiences. She soon was earning the highest salary of any actress. As she traveled, she mingled with authors Samuel Clemens and Bert Harte, and poet Joaquin Miller and Walt Whitman. She longed to be a successful writer and wrote about many subjects but mainly from a woman's view of the world. She may have been the first woman poet to write in free verse. Besides English, she spoke Spanish and French.
   
   While in Europe, she became the lover of French novelist Alexander Dumas and others. Her book of verse “Infelicia” was published posthumously eight days after her death in 1868 and dedicated to English novelist Charles Dickens. This book was still in print until 1902. She actually published a total of twenty essays and 100 poems. Although she lived a life in luxuries, she was known to be generous monetarily to friends, struggling actors and artists, and various charities.
   
   On August 19, 1866 she wed James Paul Barkley, a gambler and her fifth husband. The couple had a child that died in infancy.
   
   In 1868 she unsuccessfully attempted to revise her role in “The Wild Horse of Tartary.” Without Barkley, she returned to Paris, France to rehearse another one of her favorites, “Les Pirates de la Savane.”
   
   Upon becoming ill, her last performance was on May 30, 1868 at Sadler's Well Theater. She died two months later.
   
   She was first buried at Pere Lachaise Cemetery but her body was moved in 1869 at the request of Ed James to the Jewish Section of the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris, France. Her actual cause of death has been listed as peritonitis or tuberculosis but the “Encyclopedia of American Poetry: 19th Century” states the cause of death was cancer.
   
   In 1865 she wrote in an article that her name was Dolores Adio Los Fiertes and she was the daughter of a New Orleans French woman and a Spanish-Jewish man.
   
   In 1868 in an autobiographical article published in the “New York Times,” she claimed that her name was actually Marie Rachel Adelaide de Vere Spenser and she was born in France, lived in Cuba before her family settled in New Orleans.
   
   After her death, a journalist and her personal friend, Ed James, stated that her name was Adelaide McCord and she was born in Milneburg near New Orleans on June 15, 1835 and that she had two siblings.
   
   A genealogical researcher said the Federal Census shows that she was Ada McCord of Memphis, Tennessee and the family moved to New Orleans when her mother remarried.
   
   Many have mainly thought she was a mixed race child of Louisiana Creole Roman Catholic mother and an African father. Thus, this shows how complex the mystery of her life story is to unravel.
   
   Her papers have been archived at Sam Houston Regional Library and Research Center in Liberty, Texas.

5.   Adah Isaacs Menken, in Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia
   includes sources, last accessed Jun 2025.

   Adah Isaacs Menken (June 15, 1835 – August 10, 1868) was an American actress, painter and poet, and was the highest earning actress of her time.[1] She was best known for her performance in the hippodrama Mazeppa, with a climax that featured her apparently nude and riding a horse on stage. After great success for a few years with the play in New York and San Francisco, she appeared in a production in London and Paris, from 1864 to 1866. After a brief trip back to the United States, she returned to Europe. She became ill within two years and died in Paris at the age of 33. ...