{{short description|American actress}} {{Infobox person | name = Annie Lewis | image = Annie Lewis 001.JPG | caption = The Marie Burroughs Art Portfolio of Stage Celebrities, 1894 | birth_name = Annie B. Lewis | birth_date = {{Circa|1869}} | birth_place = Washington D. C., USA | death_date = {{Death date and age|1896|10|5|1869|1|1|mf=y}} | death_place = Washington D. C., USA | other_names = Little Annie Lewis | occupation = Musical comedy soubrette | spouse = Wilton Lackaye}}

'''Annie Lewis''' ({{Circa|1869}} – October 5, 1896) was an American soubrette of light operas and musical comedies who died from tuberculosis in her twenties.

==Biography== Annie B. Lewis was born and raised in Washington D.C. where her father, Charles Lewis, clerked for the U.S. Treasury Department. Early on Lewis demonstrated a talent for mimicry and by age four she was performing on stage under the eye of her mother, Amelia Lewis, a former parlor entertainer. At that age her song-and-dance routine oftentimes would be performed atop a piano to enable her to be seen by the audience.<ref>1870 US Census Records, Charles and Amelia Lewis, Ancestry.com</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=n5HNAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA298 Munsey’s Magazine; vol. 11; 1894; pg. 298] accessed June 27, 2012</ref><ref name = "The Evening Times">[http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn84024441/1896-10-05/ed-1/seq-1/;words=LEWIS+Annie+ANNIE+Lewis?date1=1896&rows=20&searchType=basic&state=&date2=1896&proxtext=%22annie+lewis%22&y=8&x=11&dateFilterType=yearRange&index=5 Little Annie Lewis Dead – The Evening Times (Washington D.C.); October 5, 1896; pg. 1] accessed June 27, 2012</ref>

By sixteen Lewis was touring the country with her own company as the soubrette in Lincoln A. Fisher's ''Little Trump'',<ref>Little Trump Advertisement - Fort Wayne Daily Gazette; October 17, 1885; pg. 5</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=nNw_AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA3 Fisher, A. Lincoln-Little Trump; or, Rocky Mountain Diamond: A Drama In Three Acts] accessed June 27, 2012</ref> and the following year with Charles Verner in ''Shamus O’Brien'', a romantic comedy from the poem by Frederick Maeder and Thomas B. Macdonough.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=mJEXAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA260 Brown, Thomas Alston - A History of the New York Stage; 1903; pg. 260] accessed June 27, 2012</ref><ref>Shamus Obrien Advertisement-The Lowell Sun; October 10, 1886; pg. 4</ref> Lewis would go on to play leading roles in productions of ''Favette'', a comedietta in one act, adapted for the stage by John Treshar from the story by Ouida;<ref>Adams, William Davenport - A Dictionary of the Drama, 1904; pg. 504</ref> ''Our Irish Visitor'';<ref>Author unknown, performed by the vaudeville team, Murray and Murphy in the mid-1880s, Brown, Thomas Allston', A History of the New York Stage; 1903; pg. 226</ref> David Loyd's ''The Woman-Hater'';<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=BacTAAAAYAAJ&q=%22the+woman+hater%22 Lloyd, David Demarest – The Woman-Hater] accessed June 28, 2012</ref> Gus Heege productions of ''A Lumber Camp in Winter'' and ''Yon Yonson''; the comic opera ''Prince Pro Tem'' by Robert A. Barnet and Lewis S. Thompson, first performed at the Boston Museum on September 17, 1894;<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=L6URAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA32 Barnett, Robert A., Thompson, Lewis S. Prince Pro Tem] accessed June 28, 2012</ref><ref>No title-The Sandusky Register 9 May 1894; pg. 6 col. 5; Ancestry.com</ref><ref>[http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn82014635/1891-12-12/ed-1/seq-8/;words=A-LUMBER+CAMP+WINTER?date1=1891&rows=20&searchType=basic&state=&date2=1922&proxtext=%22A+Lumber+Camp+in+Winter%22&y=0&x=0&dateFilterType=yearRange&index=0 ''A Lumber Camp in Winter'', ''Yon Yonson'', The Wichita Daily Eagle; December 12, 1891; pg. 8] accessed June 28, 2012</ref> Frederick Hallen and Joseph Hart's vaudeville skit ''Later On'';<ref>[http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2014/New%20York%20NY%20Herald/New%20York%20NY%20Herald%201889/New%20York%20NY%20Herald%201889%20-%204403.pdf Advertisement - The New York Herald, October 31, 1889; pg. 14, col. 1] accessed June 28, 2012</ref> and ''A Nutmeg March'' by William Hawthorn.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Vmg9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA155 The New York Clipper Annual; 1893; pg. 155] accessed June 28, 2012</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ncQvAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA56 Opera Glass, Volume 1; 1894; pg. 57] accessed June 29, 2012</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=RZFBAAAAYAAJ&pg=PT80 Burroughs, Marie - The Marie Burroughs Art Portfolio of Stage Celebrities: 1904] accessed June 28, 2012</ref> thumb|175px|left|Photograph of Lewis published in ''The Opera Glass'' magazine, 1894 In May 1895 she supported Camille D'Arville at the Broadway Theatre in ''A Daughter of the Revolution'', a historical comic opera by J. Cheever Goodwin and Ludwig Engländer.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/1895/05/28/archives/miss-darvilles-new-operetta-a-daughter-of-the-revolution-produce-at.html Miss D’Arville’s New Opera- New York Times; May 28, 1895; pg. 5] accessed June 28, 2012</ref> A short time later ill health would force her to withdraw from performing.<ref name="The Evening Times"/>

Lewis married William Lackey on December 22, 1886, in Essex, Ontario, Canada. Lackey was known on the stage as Wilton Lackaye and would go on to have a long career in theater and film. At the time she was 17 and he 25.<ref>Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1801-1928 about William Lackey - Name: William Lackey - Birth Place: Washington DC US - Age: 25 - Estimated Birth Year: abt 1861 - Father Name: James Lackey - Mother Name: Margaret Lackey - Spouse Name: Annie B. Lewis - Spouse's Age: 17 - Spouse Birth Place: Washington D C - Spouse Father Name: Charles E Lewis - Spouse Mother Name: Amelia Lewis -Marriage Date: 22 Dec 1886 - Marriage County or District: Essex -Ancestry. com</ref><ref>[http://fultonhistory.com/newspaper%209/New%20York%20NY%20National%20Police%20Gazette%201844-1906/New%20York%20NY%20National%20Police%20Gazette%201888-1889%20Grayscale/New%20York%20NY%20National%20Police%20Gazette%201888-1889%20Grayscale%20-%200244.pdf National Police Gazette; January 12, 1889; pg. 2; col. 4; Fulton History] accessed June 27, 2012</ref>

She died in October 1896 at her parents' Washington home, nearly a year after what was thought to have been a bad cold had developed into tuberculosis. Lewis spent some time in the months that followed in the American Southwest in a hope that the dry weather there would help improve her health. A successful benefit concert organized by her brother-in-law in the summer of 1896 in Washington D. C. raised needed funds for her care. Just two years earlier it had been reported in the press that Lewis had purchased in cash a $9,000 granite-and-brick house for her parents in the Chevy Chase, neighborhood of Washington D. C.<ref name="The Evening Times"/><ref>[http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2010/New%20York%20NY%20Dramatic%20Mirror/New%20York%20NY%20Dramatic%20Mirror%201894%20Nov-Dec%201895%20Grayscale/New%20York%20NY%20Dramatic%20Mirror%201894%20Nov-Dec%201895%20Grayscale%20-%200121.pdf No Title-The New York Daily Mirror; December 8, 1894; pg. 4; col. 4] accessed June 28, 2012</ref>

==Sources== {{reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Annie}} Category:1860s births Category:1896 deaths Category:19th-century American actresses Category:American stage actresses Category:Actresses from Washington, D.C. Category:19th-century deaths from tuberculosis Category:Tuberculosis deaths in Washington, D.C.