Adelaide Thurston

Adelaide Thurston, born Adelaide Belle Sawyer on October 7, 1871, in Red Wing, Minnesota, was an American stage actress whose Broadway career spanned the turn of the twentieth century. She was the second of four children born to Ruemma Sawyer and Harridon S. Sawyer, a carpenter and American Civil War veteran who raised the family in the Methodist faith. Thurston completed her secondary education at Duluth High School in June 1888 and subsequently worked as a teacher before pursuing a career in the performing arts.

Her early involvement in acting consisted of local plays and stage readings throughout the 1880s and into 1895. On June 25 of that year, she departed Duluth for New York City to seek professional opportunities in the theater. Her first acting role came in a production of Alabama, and she later appeared in A Texas Steer, written by Charles H. Hoyt. In 1897, Thurston joined a stock company in Pittsburgh, working alongside filmmaker Harrish Ingraham. That same year, on December 25, she married Arthur W. Little in New York City.

Her breakthrough came in early 1899 with a role in The Little Minister, the play by J. M. Barrie. Her Broadway work followed in the years 1900 and 1901, during which she appeared in The Land of Heart's Desire and The Greatest Thing in the World. Thurston continued performing in subsequent years, taking on roles in Contrary Mary in 1907 and The Girl from Out Yonder, written by Pauline Phelps, that same year.

Beyond the stage, Thurston made a public statement in 1922 urging women to cast their votes for major political parties. She died on February 10, 1958, in New Jersey, at the age of 76.