Amy Ricard (January 1, 1882 — August 17, 1937) was an American actress and suffragist.

Early life

Amy Ricard was born in Boston, Massachusetts and raised in

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

. Her mother was Emma A. Ricard. She studied acting at the

American Academy of Dramatic Arts The American Academy of Dramatic Arts (AADA) is a private performing arts conservatory with two locations, one in Manhattan and one in Los Angeles. The academy offers an associate degree in occupational studies and teaches drama and related art ...

. She also trained as a soprano singer, with Horton Kennedy.

Career

Ricard appeared in Broadway in ''

The Pride of Jennico ''The Pride of Jennico'' is a four-act play based on the book by the same name from Agnes Castle and Egerton Castle published in 1897 by the Macmillan Company. The setting is the mid-1700s and the plot revolves around Captain Basil Jennico, a ...

'' (1900), ''Janice Meredith'' (1900-1901), ''The Stubbornness of Geraldine'' by

Clyde Fitch Clyde Fitch (May 2, 1865 – September 4, 1909) was an American dramatist, the most popular writer for the Broadway stage of his time (c. 1890–1909). Biography Born in Elmira, New York, and educated at Holderness School and Amherst College (cl ...

(1902), '' Babes in Toyland'' by

Victor Herbert Victor August Herbert (February 1, 1859 – May 26, 1924) was an American composer, cellist and conductor of English and Irish ancestry and German training. Although Herbert enjoyed important careers as a cello soloist and conductor, he is be ...

(1903-1904), '' The College Widow'' (1904-1905), ''Mary and John'' (1905), ''Matilda'' (1906-1907), ''The Literary Sense'' (1908), ''The Reckoning'' (1908), ''Girls'' by Clyde Fitch (1908 and 1909), ''The Torches'' (1917), ''The Woman on the Index'' (1918), and ''Those Who Walk in Darkness'' (1919). On the Boston stage, with her husband Lester Lonergan, she starred in ''An Idyl of Erin'' (1910). Dorothy Parker wrote of ''The Woman on the Index'' in ''Vanity Fair'', saying "The thing was so well done. You know yourself that with a cast including Julia Dean, Amy Ricard, and Lester Lonergan, you can't really have such a terrible evening." Amy Ricard made her political views in favor of

women's suffrage Women's suffrage is the right of women to vote in elections. Beginning in the start of the 18th century, some people sought to change voting laws to allow women to vote. Liberal political parties would go on to grant women the right to vot ...

public, wearing a "Votes for Women" pin and speaking at suffrage events in New York City.

Personal life

Amy Ricard's engagement to poet and editor Charles Hanson Towne was announced in 1908, but she married Irish actor and playwright Lester Lonergan, as his third wife, in 1909. The couple owned a summer cottage on Indian Island in Maine, which was among the buildings removed by the Portland Water District in 1922 to return the island to an undeveloped state. Ricard was widowed in 1931, and she died in 1937, aged 55, in New York City."Mrs. Lester Lonergan" ''New York Times'' (August 18, 1937): 19. via

ProQuest ProQuest LLC is an Ann Arbor, Michigan-based global information-content and technology company, founded in 1938 as University Microfilms by Eugene B. Power. ProQuest is known for its applications and information services for libraries, provid ...

References

External links

*
Amy Ricard Lonergan's gravesite
on Find a Grave.
A photo of Laura Nelson Hall, Ruth Maycliffe, and Amy Ricard
in ''Girls'', from the American Vaudeville Museum Archive, Special Collections, University of Arizona Libraries. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ricard, Amy 1882 births 1937 deaths American actresses American suffragists