Margaret Lawrence (actress)

Not to be confused with Margaret Laurence (actress).

Margaret Lawrence
Lawrence, c. 1920
Born	Margaret Whittaker Lawrence (1889-08-02)August 2, 1889 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died	June 9, 1929(1929-06-09) (aged 39) New York City, U.S.
Resting place	Ivy Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1910–1929
Spouse(s)	Orson D. Munn Wallace Eddinger
Children	2

Margaret Whittaker Lawrence (August 2, 1889 – June 9, 1929) was an American stage actress known for her performances on Broadway and other venues.

Born in Philadelphia to Mr and Mrs. George Lawrence, Margaret Lawrence began her career in Chicago in 1910, appeared in New York in Over Night (1911) and starred in such Broadway plays as Wedding Bells (1919), Lawful Larceny (1922) and Secrets (1922),^[1] the latter of which she was also costume designer.^[2] She was socially prominent, serving on the advisory boards of several charitable organizations. She collected old plays, reportedly one of the most complete collections of its kind in New York City.^[3]

In 1911 she married Orson D. Munn, publisher of Scientific American, with whom she had two daughters. They divorced in 1922, and in 1924 she married actor Wallace Eddinger. Eddinger died in 1929, and on June 9 of that year, Margaret was shot dead by actor Louis Bennison in a murder-suicide.^[4][5][6][7]

She was buried in Philadelphia's Ivy Hill Cemetery.^[8]

References

1. Parker, John, ed. (1922). Who's Who in the Theatre. Boston: Small Maynard & Company. p. 480.
2. Owen, Bobbi (2003). The Broadway Design Roster: Designers and Their Credits. Westport: Greenwood Press. p. 269. ISBN 9780313319150.
3. "Miss Lawrence has hobby for old plays". The Washington Times. December 17, 1922. p. 7 D.
4. Coughlin, Gene (January 2, 1949). "Margaret Lawrence's Fallen Star". The Milwaukee Sentinel. pp. 6–7.
5. "Noted Stage Stars in Murder-Suicide". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. June 10, 1929. p. 1. cont., p. 5
6. Frasier, David K. (2005). Suicide in the Entertainment Industry: An Encyclopedia of 840 Twentieth Century Cases. McFarland. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-7864-2333-0.
7. "Margaret Lawrence slain by Louis Bennison, actor, who ends life in her home". The New York Times. June 10, 1929.
8. Wilson, Scott (2016). Resting Places: The Burial Sites of More Than 14,000 Famous Persons (3rd ed.). McFarland. p. 429. ISBN 978-0-7864-7992-4.

External links

• Media related to Margaret Lawrence at Wikimedia Commons
• Margaret Lawrence at the Internet Broadway Database