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| Frances Beebe Portrait Sketch by Rebecca J. Becker |
Only
one girl in the history of Crescent College was ever invited back after she
graduated, to give a solo dramatic and musical performance: to demonstrate to
current and incoming students the level of skill and expertise possible after
studying in their limestone castle in the Ozarks.
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| Girl on Stage oil on canvas, c. 1907 by Everett Shinn |
That
student was Frances Alberta Beebe. And when
she returned to Crescent College to stand on that familiar stage, she was confident,
astonishingly talented, beautiful and assured. She was seventeen years old.
Why was she, alone of all the hundreds of girls over the years, singled out for this honor? What had her years at Crescent been like? How had it all begun?
One month after President Woodrow Wilson announced United States’s official neutrality as war raged in Europe, Frances Beebe arrived in Eureka Springs.
Why was she, alone of all the hundreds of girls over the years, singled out for this honor? What had her years at Crescent been like? How had it all begun?
One month after President Woodrow Wilson announced United States’s official neutrality as war raged in Europe, Frances Beebe arrived in Eureka Springs.
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| Frances Beebe First Year Preparatory Student Crescent College From the 1915 yearbook |
Frances was only fourteen years old in September, 1914, but she’d already won more awards and garnered more attention than many women could claim in a lifetime. From her first public performance at age four (where she delivered the Opening Address at Children’s Day celebrations in Jones City, Oklahoma), to her recent appearance, testifying at a murder trial in Oklahoma City - - Frances had been in the news.
It may have been that last event that led her parents to agree to their young daughter's becoming a boarding student at Crescent College, more than 250 miles from home. But Crescent also had a remarkable reputation, and its Expression Department (where students learned many aspects of theatrical performance, including oratory, acting, movement and voice training, and dance) was one of the finest in the nation.
Frances entered Crescent College as a First Year Preparatory School student (the equivalent of a 9th grade pupil). She was one of the youngest girls in school. Every student seems to have acquired a nickname while at Crescent - - Frances’s was “Babe.”
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| Frances Beebe, on the left from the 1915 Crescent College Yearbook original caption in the yearbook: "Two Imps" |
Students usually progressed through four years of preparatory study before commencing their college work, but - - as you’ll see - - Frances’s trajectory was hardly typical!
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| Crescent College Riding Club from the 1915 yearbook |
In that extraordinary first year,
Frances’s endeavors reflected the talents and interests of both her remarkable
parents.
Her mother, Stella, had worked continually during her married life as a teacher, postmistress, proprietor of a bookshop, and as a bank clerk, but she also had once been a child prodigy, performing at social, political and theatrical events. From an early age Stella had been involved with the Rebekahs, working tirelessly to provide aid, education and entertainment to communities wherever and whenever she could.
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| Crescent College Expression Department Production of "The Blue Bird" by Maurice Maeterlinck from the 1915 yearbook |
Her mother, Stella, had worked continually during her married life as a teacher, postmistress, proprietor of a bookshop, and as a bank clerk, but she also had once been a child prodigy, performing at social, political and theatrical events. From an early age Stella had been involved with the Rebekahs, working tirelessly to provide aid, education and entertainment to communities wherever and whenever she could.
Frances’s father, Frank, had
become famous for hunting down and arresting stagecoach and train robbers as an
inspector for the United States Post Office.
A skilled horseman and sharpshooter, Frank enjoyed national popularity before a very public fall from grace ended in his having to reinvent himself - - something he did with panache. Frank became a political organizer, a real estate speculator, and was now trying his hand developing oil wells.
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| 1920 Postcard |
A skilled horseman and sharpshooter, Frank enjoyed national popularity before a very public fall from grace ended in his having to reinvent himself - - something he did with panache. Frank became a political organizer, a real estate speculator, and was now trying his hand developing oil wells.
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| Crescent College Athletic Association (students with barbells) from the 1915 yearbook |
...but also joined the Athletics Association, the Riding Club, the Oklahoma Club, and the Gun Club.
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| Crescent College Gun Club from the 1915 yearbook |
That last club may surprise
readers, and we’ll let the students themselves describe it for you. It was the only club in Crescent College
history to have three full yearbook pages devoted to its activities, and members
elucidated the Gun Club’s purpose:
The three pictures you see here are from the 1915 yearbook. The third photograph has a description of one of the club’s outings:
“Before we are aware, twilight has crept upon us; the shadows fall; day is receding into the gold and purple hills. Alas, we are forced to realize that to reach the college in time for study hall we must ‘hit the trail.’
“We leave reluctant, arriving in good time. Tired? Yes. But we are better and stronger for having listened to the robins’ twilight song; for having watched the moon rise above the mountains and peep at us through the pines; for having laughed much. And we are more than ever inclined to make our prayer to the God of the Open Air.”
One of Frances’s closest friends at Crescent was also a member of the club. Barbara Maude Beach (usually called Maude, or Peach) and Frances were such close friends that when asked why she returned to Crescent the next year, Frances laughingly replied, “To be by the Beach!”
Frances’s mother, Stella, was having a similarly wonderful year. During Frances’s first year at Crescent College, Stella, at home in Oklahoma City, was elected president of the Rebekah order of the entire state.
“To appreciate ‘The God of the Open Air’; to have a general good time; to steady the nerves and train the eye; to train one in presence of mind, coolness, precision and resourcefulness; to become good markswomen.”
The three pictures you see here are from the 1915 yearbook. The third photograph has a description of one of the club’s outings:
“After shooting until the sun sinks behind the mountains, we all join in building a fire beneath the overhanging rocks. When the coffee begins to bubble and boil each girl, with a pointed stick, eagerly stabs a weinna [sic] or two, and soon has them sizzling over the fire. Buttered buns with mustard, pickles, bacon, coffee, make a supper fit for 'queens.' When the fresh air and exercise have stimulated already huge appetites, compliments on the excellent coffee, delicious juicy wiennas, [sic] are lavish, not to say extravagant. The toasted buns and butter - - um-mm. The caterpillar isn’t in it when it comes to making butter fly.
“Before we are aware, twilight has crept upon us; the shadows fall; day is receding into the gold and purple hills. Alas, we are forced to realize that to reach the college in time for study hall we must ‘hit the trail.’
“We leave reluctant, arriving in good time. Tired? Yes. But we are better and stronger for having listened to the robins’ twilight song; for having watched the moon rise above the mountains and peep at us through the pines; for having laughed much. And we are more than ever inclined to make our prayer to the God of the Open Air.”
One of Frances’s closest friends at Crescent was also a member of the club. Barbara Maude Beach (usually called Maude, or Peach) and Frances were such close friends that when asked why she returned to Crescent the next year, Frances laughingly replied, “To be by the Beach!”
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| Expression Department at Crescent College Frances Beebe, top left from the 1915 yearbook |
Frances’s mother, Stella, was having a similarly wonderful year. During Frances’s first year at Crescent College, Stella, at home in Oklahoma City, was elected president of the Rebekah order of the entire state.
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| 1898 poster demonstrating the various activities of the Rebekahs |
Known for patriotism, humanitarianism and loyalty, the Rebekahs were dedicated to performing charitable services for everyone, no matter what religion. Christians, Jews, Muslims were all welcome as members (a policy leading to the Catholic church condemning the organization until the 1970s).
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| Tulsa World [Tulsa, Oklahoma] 08 October 1914, Page 3 |
Stella’s
talents and concerns were perfectly in tune with the Rebekahs. One newspaper explained:
“She brings to her office a high order of ability seldom equaled in either executive or detail affairs. College educated, thoroughly posted in the law, rules and regulations of the order, a forceful speaker, enjoying the love and highest esteem of the members of the order all over the state. (Her election from grand warden up having been unanimous and without a contesting candidate.) The opinion of one and all is that she will have one of the most successful administrations in the history of the order.”[i]
Frances returned to Eureka Springs in September 1915, and we find she’d somehow skipped three levels of preparatory work to begin the new school year as a Crescent College junior!
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| Frances Beebe - now a Junior! from the 1916 Crescent College yearbook |
She
was even more active than in her previous year:
she was elected President of the Riding Club, and she added piano
studies and the Tennis Club to all of her former activities.
Remember - - Frances was only 15 years old.
Her intellect, her theatrical abilities and her physical training were impressive indeed and she more than held her own in the company of talented girls three and four years her senior.
Frances performed in the four plays directed by senior girls (including Frances’s friend, Barbara Maude Beach) and in various other entertainments staged throughout the year.
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| Athletic Association at Crescent College students with Indian Clubs from the 1916 yearbook |
Remember - - Frances was only 15 years old.
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| Frances Beebe as a member of the Expression Department from the 1916 Crescent College yearbook |
Her intellect, her theatrical abilities and her physical training were impressive indeed and she more than held her own in the company of talented girls three and four years her senior.
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| Crescent College Athletic Association Dance Class from the 1916 yearbook |
Frances performed in the four plays directed by senior girls (including Frances’s friend, Barbara Maude Beach) and in various other entertainments staged throughout the year.
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| "Eleven Good Fellows" - from the 1916 Crescent College yearbook The original poem accompanying this image had rhymes about each girl. The poem concludes, "Last, but not least, is Frances, the baby, Who is a darling, and our little lady." |
Meanwhile,
Frances’s father, Frank A. Beebe, was back in the newspapers. The Sun
[Coffeyville, Kansas], 21 March 1916, headline announced, “Got a Fine Well.” The article explained, “Frank A. Beebe has a
90-barrel producer in his No. 1 on the Porter Lewis farm just west of the city,
says the Nowata Star.” The family seemed
on the brink of both wealth and fame.
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| Expression Department of Crescent College, from 1916 yearbook Celia Brinson is in the center Frances Beebe is #7 Her friend Barbara Maude Beach is #1 |
In May, her family embarked on a new adventure in its new hometown: the Fort Worth Star Telegram announced the incorporation of “Northeastern Oil Company, Nowata, Oklahoma: capital $20,000.” Frances’s father, mother, and older sister were named as the Incorporators.
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| Postcard from Nowata, Oklahoma |
Unhappily, the oil company seems to have been a failure, and soon the family - - collectively and individually - - was forced to reinvent itself once again.
Frances didn’t return to Eureka Springs in September, 1916. Having blazed through two years at Crescent College, she turned her attention to conquering new worlds, this time at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri.
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| Frances Beebe at Stephens College from the 1917 Stephens yearbook |
While she was at Stephens, in April 1917, Woodrow Wilson requested Congress to declare war on Germany. Four days later, they did so.
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| The United States of America declares war on Germany on 6 April, 1917 |
But two disasters struck her family, and wartime uncertainty troubled the nation, all of which must have affected Frances’s plans. No record of her Chautauqua company has been found after initial exciting newspaper announcements of its existence.
The two family calamities struck within one week, early in 1918. First, her father was once again in court, this time suing for possession of real estate in Baxter Springs, Kansas[iii], while the family ran the Liberty Café and Rooming House in that city.[iv]
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| Postcard from Baxter Sprngs, Kansas |
And while Frank was busy with his lawsuit, Frances’s maternal grandmother died. Once again Frank was unable to be with his wife, Stella, because a court case kept him occupied. Alone, Stella traveled to Rogers, Arkansas, where her parents had been living, and brought her father back to Baxter Springs.
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| Advertisement focusing on the twin terrors of war and influenza: August 1918 |
And what of Frances?
No matter what storms the family weathered, her career was on the ascendant.
Students and faculty who remained at Crescent College missed Frances and her astonishing talent. And in September, 1918, they invited the now seventeen-year-old girl to be their guest, to perform for students during the homecoming week, and also for the Commencement exercises.[v]
While back at Crescent College, Frances gave a memorable dramatic art and song recital to the student body of which she had once been a member. The moment was a culmination of all of her years of work, a recognition by her peers and her former teachers that hers was, indeed, an extraordinary talent.
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| "Keith's Union Square" oil on canvas, c. 1906 by Everett Shinn |
Two
months later, the Great War ended, and soon Prohibition took its place as the
nation’s primary topic of conversation.
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| Sheet music cover: At the Prohibition Ball 1919 |
And
Frances? Although her Chautauqua company
had foundered, she was full of plans.
Her next endeavor may reveal that the fissure in her family (first noted
during Frank’s year-long very public ordeal during the humiliating blackmail
trial) had never fully healed.
In any event, just after Christmas in 1919 the newspapers announced a startling development in the Beebe family:
Apparently
Frances and her father had been in Pawhuska while Stella stayed in Baxter Springs,
running the Liberty café. The school
seems quickly to have become a success, and its beautiful young proprietor and
her father a popular pair around Pawhuska.
At her school, Frances could put all of her abilities to use, employ all
of the lessons she learned at Crescent College and elsewhere, and create her own shining palace of delight,
when tragedy struck again - - and this time the blow was one from which she
never recovered.In any event, just after Christmas in 1919 the newspapers announced a startling development in the Beebe family:
“Miss Frances Beebe is visiting her mother, Mrs. Stella M. Beebe, during the holidays. Miss Beebe is conducting an academy of physical culture,dramatic art, aesthetic dance
Cover of Physical Culture magazine
August 1919
Cover of Aesthetic Dancing by Emil Rath
c. 1924
and ball room dancing instruction with the father, Frank A. Beebe, at Pawhuska, Oklahoma.”[vi]
Postcard: "A Motor to Pawhuska" c. 1910
In February, 1920, Frank A. Beebe died, suddenly. His remains were taken to Carthage, Missouri, where he’d grown up (and where his father had once been mayor). Newspapers were careful to explain:
“Stella M. Beebe, wife, is yet bedfast at home, recovering from ailments when a surgical operation was necessary and will not be able to attend these services.”[vii]
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| Postcard: Scene on White River, Rogers, Arkansas |
After a few months, she revisited Pawhuska as a houseguest of friends she’d left behind. Within days of her return to Rogers, Pawhuska newspapers announced another surprising turn of events:
"Married.
“The many friends of Boone Sadler and Miss Frances Beebe, who, with her father, conducted a dancing school in this city some time ago, were very much surprised when the announcement came that they were married last Monday in Rogers, Arkansas.
“After the marriage ceremony the happy couple journeyed to Eureka Springs, where they will spend a few days before returning to Pawhuska to make their future home.”[viii]
The marriage foundered after fourteen years, and Frances’s beautiful daughter, Mary Frances, suffered through unhappy marriages and eventually died of an overdose.
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| Frances's daughter, Mary Frances Sadler, in her 1939 yearbook photo (She was voted the most beautiful student in Austin, Texas) |
All of this was in the future, however, on that incredible day in September, 1918, when the brilliant, beautiful 17-year-old Frances Beebe stood on the stage at Crescent College and showed everyone just how wonderful the world could be.
If you're related to Frances Beebe, or to any other Crescent College student or faculty member, please get in touch. We'd love to hear from you!
And
if you’re in Eureka Springs, stop by the Crescent College History Project
Exhibit in the Faculty Lounge, 4th floor of the 1886 Crescent Hotel
and Spa. Open 10 – 5 every day, free to
the public - - it’s a wonderful way to discover more about the people who
lived, worked, laughed and dreamed inside the walls of the limestone castle
housing Crescent College, high up in the Ozarks.
[i] Tulsa
World [Tulsa, Oklahoma] 08
October 1914, Page 3.
[ii] The Daily
Missourian [Columbia, Missouri], February 07, 1917, page 2.
[iii] The Baxter Springs Herald [Baxter
Springs, Kansas] 21 March 1918, Page 8.
[iv] The Baxter Springs News [Baxter Springs,
Kansas] 22 March, 1918, Page 6.
[v] Baxter Daily Citizen [Baxter Springs,
Kansas] 23 May 1918, Page 1.
[vi] The Baxter Springs Herald [Baxter
Springs, Kansas] 27 December 1919, Page 2.
[vii] The Baxter Springs Herald [Baxter
Springs, Kansas] 17 February 1920, Page 1.
