Effie Germon

Mary Euphemia Germon, known professionally as Effie Germon, was born on June 13, 1845, in Augusta, Georgia, and died on March 6, 1914. An American stage actress active during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, she performed on Broadway from 1869 to 1907 and was recognized as a skilled soubrette.

Germon came from a prominent theatrical family. Her father, Greenberry Carr "Greene" Germon, was the first actor to portray Uncle Tom at the Troy Museum, in the George Aiken adaptation of Uncle Tom's Cabin produced by George C. Howard. Her mother, Jane Anderson Germon, a cousin of actor Joe Jefferson, began performing at age eight and sustained a career spanning fifty years. Effie was one of six siblings, including two brothers, and the family traced its theatrical roots to the Germons of Baltimore.

Her stage career began during the 1857–58 season at the Holliday Street Theatre in Baltimore, Maryland, where she played Sally Scraggs in Sketches in India. She subsequently worked with both the Baltimore and Philadelphia stock companies. At a young age she left the stage to marry violinist Carlo Patti, brother of opera singers Adelina Patti and Carlotta Patti, in a ceremony held in Providence, Rhode Island. She returned to prominence at the Chestnut Street Theatre during the 1863–64 season, and made her New York City debut in 1869 under the management of John Brougham.

Her Broadway career encompassed a range of productions. She starred in The Two Roses, Much Ado About A Merchant of Venice, and The Dramatic Review for 1868, and also appeared in Dr. Wake's Patient, Mr. Barnes of New York, and Home, among other productions. In December 1872 she appeared alongside John Gibbs Gilbert at Wallack's Theatre in Brother Sam. At the same theater she acted with Richard Mansfield in Prince Karl and participated in the original production of Little Lord Fauntleroy. She also paired with Francis Wilson in Erminie. During the 1906–07 season she performed on the road in Sunday.

Following her divorce from Carlo Patti, Germon remarried, this time to comedian Nelse Seymour.

On the evening of April 14, 1865, Germon was performing in Aladdin at Grover's Theatre in Washington, D.C., while Abraham Lincoln was being assassinated at Ford's Theatre. She was onstage singing "Sherman Has Marched To The Sea" when C.D. Hess, the manager of Grover's Theatre, received word of the shooting. One week prior to the assassination, Germon had been present when John Wilkes Booth visited Hess's office and inquired about when Lincoln would attend a performance of Aladdin. The President had been invited and had promised to attend, but his son Tad Lincoln came in his place. When Booth was shot dead at Richard H. Garrett's farm in 1865, a photograph of Germon was found on his person.

Germon died in 1914 at the Actors' Fund Home in Staten Island, New York, at the age of 68. She was interred in the Actors' Fund Plot at Evergreens Cemetery.