Mayme Gehrue

Mayme Gehrue (born c. 1880 in Louisville, Kentucky; died after May 1929) was an American actress, dancer, and lyricist who worked across Broadway, vaudeville, and silent film. Although 1883 is frequently cited as her birth year, the date is considered unreliable given that she was already performing in touring productions by the mid-1890s. As a teenager, Gehrue toured in a dance act alongside her sister Daisy, before Daisy's marriage ended the partnership.

Gehrue's Broadway career spanned from 1900 to 1912 and encompassed a range of productions. Her stage appearances included Little Red Riding Hood (1900), The Casino Girl (1900), Nell-Go-In (1900), The Giddy Throng (1901), the burlesque The King's Carnival (1901), and the burlesque Hoity Toity (1901–1902). She returned to Broadway in Lovers and Lunatics (1906), the musical The Deacon and the Lady (1910), and the musical The Opera Ball (1912). Beyond her Broadway work, she toured with The Ford Dancers, performed as "the Yama-Yama Girl" in a touring production of Three Twins from 1910 to 1911, and appeared in Topsy and Eva (1923), a musical comedy drawn from Uncle Tom's Cabin.

Gehrue maintained an active presence on the vaudeville stage well into the late 1920s, performing both in the United States and internationally, including a tour in Australia. In 1915, she appeared in two silent films: the short The Fable of the Galloping Pilgrim Who Kept on Galloping and the feature Above the Abyss. She also worked as a lyricist, writing the words to several songs connected to World War I, all with music composed by Victor Hammond. These titles included "I'm Leaving France for my Old Kentucky Home," "I Wish to Wed a Sammy," "Military Band," "The Man of the Hour," "Dear Little Jessamine," "Over in Spain," and "Back Down South."

In her personal life, Gehrue married her vaudeville dance partner Johnny Ford, though the couple later divorced. Ford subsequently married and divorced vaudeville performer Eva Tanguay.