Cleo Mayfield

Cleo Mayfield, born Cleo Empey on August 6, 1898, in Hutchinson, Kansas, was an American actress and singer whose Broadway career spanned more than three decades, from 1913 to 1944. The youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence B. Empey, she attended North Side school in Hutchinson before her family relocated to Kansas City, Missouri when she was twelve years old.

Mayfield's professional life became closely intertwined with that of performer Cecil Lean, whom she first encountered in Chicago in 1912 during the production of The Military Girl at the Ziegfeld Theatre. By 1913 she had adopted the stage name Cleo Mayfield, and the two entered into a romantic relationship that remained known only to a small circle of close friends. In February 1914, Mayfield and Lean wed in a civil ceremony in Chicago, and for the remainder of his career the pair frequently shared the stage in theatrical productions. In July 1935, Lean collapsed and died of an apparent heart attack in Manhattan, with Mayfield present at the time.

Her Broadway credits encompassed a range of genres, including the musicals The Blue Paradise, The Blushing Bride, and Look Who's Here, the revue Miss 1917, and the production Innocent Eyes. Beyond New York, Mayfield toured extensively, with engagements reaching as far as London. Among her notable touring credits was a production of No, No, Nanette that opened in Detroit in January 1925. She made her final Broadway appearance in 1944 in the comedy Right Next to Broadway.

Mayfield died on November 8, 1954, at her residence at the Ansonia Hotel in New York City, following a lengthy struggle with cancer.