Myrna darby biography of donald

(Songsheet via LOC.gov)

Lotta Crabtree was one of America’s first child stars and one of those rare celebrities widely referred to with just one name; she was known across the country as simply “LOTTA.” She rests in Woodlawn’s Juniper section along with her brother John, her Aunt Charlotte (for whom she was named) and her devoted mother, Mary Ann Crabtree.

Lotta’s stone reads:

Lotta M. Crabtree /September 25, 1924/Beloved Actress/Founder of Noble Charities

Lotta began her journey to stardom in the gold mining camps of California in the 1850s.

She was born in New York in 1847 but her English immigrant father John Crabtree left his Manhattan bookshop in 1851 to follow the rush for gold on the west coast, and young Lotta and mother Mary Ann followed after a couple of years.

(Lotta and mother Mary Ann Crabtree around 1879; photo from book Lotta Crabtree: Gold Rush Fairy Star by Lois V.