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'MABEL HITE DIES AFTER BRAVE FIGHT
'New York, Oct. 23 [1912]. - Mabel Hite is dead. After a brave fight against conditions which were hopeless from the first, the little vaudeville actress and musical comedy star passed away at her apartment, 526 West One Hundred and Eleventh street, at 4 o'clock yesterday afternoon. She was conscious up to within a few minutes of the end and then fell into a sleep which merged into painless death.
'Mrs. Elsie Hite, her mother, was with the actress when she died, but her husband, Mike Donlin, well known as a ball player, was not. Mr. Donlin was in Youngstown, O. where he had just opened in a vaudeville act, with Tom Lewis as his partner. He was notified by wire and replied that he would start for New York immediately. Until he arrives plans for the funeral will be held in abeyance.
'Mabel Hite had been a Broadway favorite ever since her metropolitan debut as Nerissa in A Venetian Romance. She always displayed a distinct personality in grotesque parts and an unusual versatility in character roles. She had the facility of making her audience laugh or cry with her as she saw fit.
'Miss Hite was born at Ashland, Ky., on May, 30, 1883. she was the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Hite. Most of her girlhood was spent in Kansas City. Her first professional appearance on the regular stage was with Dunn & Ryly's Company in [Charles Hoyt's] A Milk White Flag.
'Her first real hit was made as Estrelle in The Telephone Girl, which part was created by Clara Lipman.
'Later Miss Hite appeared in vaudeville in partnership with Walter Jones. She married Michael J. Donlin early in 1906, when he was with the New York Giants. Vincent Bryan wrote them a baseball sketch and it was with his wife that Donlin made his first stage appearance.
(The Newark Daily Advocate, Newark, Ohio, Wednesday, 23 October 1912, p. 10b/c)
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