May De Sousa

May Alvos De Sousa (November 6, 1884 – August 8, 1948) was an American singer and actress whose career spanned Broadway, London's West End, Paris, and Australia. Born in Chicago, she was the daughter of John De Sousa (1856–1941), a Chicago police detective, and his wife Bridget Caroline Walsh (1861–1910). She had one younger sibling, Marvin De Sousa (1891–1921).

De Sousa first attracted public attention in 1898 as the performer of "Dear Midnight of Love," a ballad by Bathhouse John Coughlin. By the close of her first full season in 1901, still a teenager, she was engaged by producer Frank L. Perley as one of the principals in his touring production of the musical comedy The Chaperons, a company said to be the largest musical organization yet seen in America, comprising thirty-four speaking and singing roles and a chorus of sixty. She subsequently served as understudy to Alice Nielsen in San Francisco, and in 1902 was offered the opportunity to accompany Nielsen to London. She declined on that occasion due to a fear of the sea crossing and instead joined the cast of the operatic fantasy The Storks. In April 1904, she was engaged to replace Bessie Wynne in the role of Sir Dashemoff Daily in The Wizard of Oz, and in September of that year succeeded the same actress in Babes in Toyland.

Her Broadway career ran from 1904 to 1915 and included the musicals A Skylark, Two Is Company, and The Goddess of Liberty, as well as the productions Lieber Augustin and The Commuters. During this same period she also pursued an active career in London, making her debut on the London stage as Cinderella at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Further London engagements included Castles in Spain, The Geisha, and The Girls of Gottenberg. In 1911, she played the role of the model Juliette in The Count of Luxembourg at Daly's Theatre in London.

Although her voice had established her in light operatic roles, De Sousa sought opportunities in dramatic acting. The French actor Monsieur de Max proposed introducing her to Paris audiences as Juliet opposite his Romeo, and offered to cover her expenses for six months of preparation, but her insufficient command of French made the engagement impractical. She did eventually perform in Paris, where she was received enthusiastically by French audiences. On one return journey to the United States following a Paris engagement, her parents reported her missing after not hearing from her for more than five weeks.

Personal hardship marked her life off the stage. On January 31, 1910, her mother was found dead in a gas-filled room, with the cause undetermined. In April 1910, De Sousa married stockbroker Eaton Arthur Haines in Haverstraw, New York. She alleged that Haines had misrepresented his financial situation before the marriage, that she was required to support him, and that he subjected her to physical abuse, reportedly restricting his blows to her torso to avoid visible marks. She divorced him in December 1914 on grounds of cruelty and financial desertion. Haines died in 1933. In 1913, De Sousa declared bankruptcy.

She was in France shortly before the outbreak of the First World War and left the country only weeks before the German invasion. In 1918, she traveled to Australia to appear in the touring production Goody Two-Shoes, produced by George Tallis for the J.W. Williamson Company. While in Australia she met Dr. William E. O'Hara (1879–1941), an Australian surgeon, and the two married in Melbourne in either 1919 or 1920. She eventually settled in Shanghai, where she performed in several productions for the Amateur Dramatic Club. Her husband died in 1941.

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, De Sousa was held for seven months as a civilian internee at the Chapei Civil Assembly Center in Shanghai under Japanese occupation. In 1943 she returned to the United States aboard the Gripsholm and took employment as a scrubwoman in the Chicago public-school system. Her health, weakened by the years of internment, deteriorated to the point where she could no longer work. She died on August 8, 1948, in a county hospital in Chicago, without financial means, at the age of 63. Her body went unclaimed for several days before being interred, most likely on August 12, in an unmarked family plot at Mount Carmel Cemetery in Hillside, Illinois.