THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 21, 1996 TAG: 9601180530
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: GEORGE TUCKER
LENGTH: Medium: 75 lines
It's not generally known, but Rosalie Poe, the only sister of Edgar Allan Poe, was born here in 1810. Rosa, as she was familiarly known, may have been only Poe's half sister - which serves to introduce a bit of early 19th century American theatrical gossip.
Poe's parents, David and Elizabeth Arnold Poe, who were both actors, were married in Richmond in 1806. Their first child, William Henry Leonard Poe, was born in 1807. Two years later, the man who was to become one of the towering geniuses of American literature, was born in Boston, where his parents were then treading the boards. Soon, David Poe disappeared from the scene, for in July 1810, Mrs. Poe, accompanied only by 18-month-old Edgar, headed south for Norfolk.
For several months after her husband's disappearance, Mrs. Poe was the leading lady of John Howard Payne, a much admired actor and later the author of ``Home, Sweet Home.'' Indeed, it was rumored that he was Rosalie's father. This was apparently confirmed by a packet of letters that were in Mrs. Poe's possession when she died but were later destroyed. John Allan, the wealthy Richmond tobacco merchant who took Edgar into his home after his mother's death, had access to the letters and their secrets. He taunted Poe by referring to Rosalie as ``your half sister.''
Mrs. Poe, who was one of the most popular American actresses of her day, was in desperate financial and physical straits when she and Egar arrived in Norfolk in the fall of 1810. Her firstborn, William Henry Leonard Poe, had been left behind with his grandfather, ``General'' David Poe, in Baltimore.
The no-longer-existing house on Brewer Street where Rosalie was born on Dec. 20, 1810, was referred to as ``the Forrest House'' in the Bible of the Richmond family that adopted her in 1811. According to Norfolk court records, it was owned at that time by Andrew Martin, a maternal great-great-grandfather of General of the Army Douglas MacArthur.
On Dec. 8, 1811, Mrs. Poe died in destitute circumstances in rented rooms over a Richmond millinery shop. After that, childless Mrs. John Allan took little Edgar home, while Mrs. William MacKenzie, another Richmond matron, adopted Rosalie and give her the name of MacKenzie as her middle baptismal name.
Until her early teens, Rosalie appeared to be normal. Then she ceased to develop mentally. Since they moved in the same social circles, she and her brother saw each other a lot. But Rosalie's clinging devotion greatly annoyed Poe. He even rebuffed his somewhat backward sister. Once, when she appeared bedraggled and late for a party, saying she had been asleep, he made a laughingstock of her by quipping, ``Yes, and with Rip Van Winkle evidently.''
On another occasion when Poe was reciting ``The Raven'' at a party, Rosalie entered the room and perched on her brother's knee just as he was reciting the lines:
And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the palid bust of Pallas, just above my chamber door. . .
This caused a general laugh, but Poe turned the merriment sour when he remarked that for his next public lecture he would ``take Rose along to act the part of the raven, in which she seemed born to excel.''
Despite her retarded condition, Rosalie Poe had a beautiful handwriting and taught penmanship in a fashionable girl's school in Richmond for several years. She was also well looked after until her foster family's losses during the Civil War more or less cut her adrift.
Rosalie Poe outlived her brother Edgar by 25 years. She ended her days in the Epiphany Church Home in Washington, where she spent her last years soliciting money from prosperous people, representing herself as Poe's poverty-stricken sister. Frances Winwar's ``The Haunted Palace - A life of Edgar Allen Poe'' (1959), gives this graphic account of her end:
``Then, on June 14, 1874, after about six years of her gainful business, Rosalie Poe was surprised by death. When found, she was clutching in her hand a letter that she had just received in answer to one of her applications, from George W. Childs of Philadelphia. It contained a check for $50. No one ever discovered Rosalie's cache or, if it was found, no one ever told. She was buried in the cemetery of Epiphany Church Home in a pauper's grave.'' by CNB