Ernestine Myers

Ernestine Myers Morrissey, born January 7, 1900, in Terre Haute, Indiana, was an American dancer, Ziegfeld girl, and dance educator who performed on Broadway and vaudeville stages during the early twentieth century. She died on June 29, 1991, in Terre Haute at the age of 91. Her father, Al Myers, was a professional baseball player, and her mother was Flora LaTart Myers. Myers received her dance training at the Chicago Musical College and subsequently studied with Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn in Los Angeles.

Her professional career brought her into contact with several figures who became central to American modern dance. She toured with Ruth St. Denis's dance company at a time when Martha Graham, Florence O'Denishawn, and Doris Humphrey were also members of the troupe. In 1917, she toured in a singing and dancing act alongside Carl Randall. A reviewer named Giles P. Cain described one number from that tour as a pseudo-Egyptian fox trot performed in costume, noting that a burlesque element gave it energy.

Myers accumulated a range of stage credits during this period. In 1918 she appeared in both Sinbad and Follow the Girl, and in 1920 she performed in Silks and Satins. She also appeared in the Ziegfeld Follies, earning her the designation of Ziegfeld girl. A 1921 reviewer observed that Myers was a skilled dancer who worked hard to deliver her selections to audiences. That same year, Billboard magazine noted that her use of a purple wig created a weirdly beautiful effect in performance. She is sometimes credited in sources under the alternate spelling Ernestine Meyers.

From 1923 to 1978, Myers operated a dance school in her hometown of Terre Haute. She personally produced, choreographed, and designed both costumes and lighting for the school's biennial revue, which in some years featured more than two hundred performers. Among her students was Elise Reiman, who later became a teacher at the School of American Ballet. In 1976, Myers's photograph was included in a Bicentennial salute to American theatre held at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., and in 1980 she contributed an oral history interview to the Vigo County Oral History Project.

Myers married Chicago businessman Daniel E. Morrissey in 1948. He died the following year, in 1949.