Silver Queen: The Fabulous Story of Baby Doe TaborBancroft, Caroline
History
Silver Queen: The Fabulous Story of Baby Doe Tabor
Bancroft, Caroline
Baby Doe, -1935
During this period two private sorrows came to me. One of them disturbed
and vexed me for years. The other was a swift and desperate grief. The
first unhappiness was because I made no real friends and had received no
invitations in Denver. Through Tabor’s prominence in Denver and
Leadville, I met and entertained many men interested in politics. The
famous beauties, Lily Langtry and Lillian Russell, and other well-known
figures of the nineteenth century stage such as Sara Bernhardt, Mme.
Modjeska, John Drew, Augustin Daly, William Gillette, Edwin Booth, and
Otis Skinner frequently played at the Tabor Opera House, and Tabor and I
would entertain them at champagne suppers after their performances. They
always seemed to like me and would ask to see me on our fairly frequent
visits to New York. The excitement of these friendships, knowing the
great artists of my day, proved a great compensation for my early
ambition to go on the stage. But the society women of Denver remained
steadfastly aloof.
The other sorrow was the loss of my baby son. He was born October 17,
1888, and lived only a few hours. I suppose every mother wants a boy,
and this new chastisement from God made my life almost unbearable. I had
no real place in life except as a good wife and mother and I wanted for
Tabor’s sake to be able to fulfill this place to my very best. Augusta
had borne him a son and I wanted to, too. I cried silently in the nights
about his death, longing for another boy.
But this was not to be. On December 17, 1889, I had another daughter,
Rose Mary Echo Silver Dollar Tabor, whom I nicknamed “Honeymaid.” But
most of her friends as she grew up called her Silver. Lillie, the first
little girl, was blonde like myself, but Silver was dark like Tabor, and
very lovely in appearance.
By the time she was born, many of Tabor’s mines had fallen off in
output, but the Matchless was still bearing up. Some of Tabor’s other
investments had not turned out as we thought, although we were still
hopeful and felt it was just a question of time. We continued to live on
the same lavish scale; Tabor mortgaged the Tabor Block and the Opera
House until some of the other mines he had bought should begin to pay.
Silver had nearly as gorgeous clothes and toys and ponies as Lillie did.
But this was not to be for long. However, at that time we had no inkling
of what the future held for us. Tabor made frequent business trips East
and to his mining properties. Mostly I went with him but sometimes I
stayed with the children. His holdings were enormous and he was
expanding in many directions that required his personal attention. He
bought a yacht in New York City with the idea that when the children
were older we would cruise down to Honduras to see his mahogany forests.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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