The Central Glamorgan Gazette, and General, Commercial, and Agricultural Advertiser. — 1877-06-22 (Bridgend, Mid Glamorgan, Wales)

DEATH OF WINNETTA MONTAGUE.  The romantic career of this lady—a handsome woman, a pleasing singer, and a fair actress, but with whom Fortune had most cruelly sported— has closed in death. But little is known of her earlier years. She was, we believe, born in wash, Nova Scotia, and there passed her childhood, as also did her sister, likewise an actress. After leaving Nova Scotia, Winnetta Montague spent some years in New York and in Boston, and ultimately fell in love with Walter Montgomery, an English actor of American birth, who, in 1870-1, made a tour of America. Coming to England when he came back here, she was married to him on Aug. 30th, 1871. Both were to have returned to America on the following September 7th, the passage money having been already paid. On September Ist, in London, he killed himself by a pistol-shot. Except that the unfortunate actor had been despondent for several weeks, the cause of this suicide has never been known to the world. There have been many theories, but they are theories only. After the tragic death of her husband, the lady ventured upon giving a course of readings in England, in which she was unsuccessful, and she returned to America. The first record we have of her appearing on the stage was while Montgomery, after his return to England, was managing the Gaiety Theatre, London. She played Pauline in "The Lady of Lyons." Her first appearance as an actress in America was at the Trimble Opera House, Albany, on April Bth, 1872, when Owen Fawcett, Kate Claxton:, and others of Aug. Daly's Fifth Avenue Theatre Company produced Bronson Howard's "Saratoga" in that city for the first time. She was announced as being from Drury lane, London, and. played Effie Remington. She had been billed in England as Mrs. Walter Montgomery, and she was now billed as Miss Winnetta Montague, a name she ever afterwards retained for professional purposes, though she had been married to Montgomery as Lahlfleh Burpee Bigelow, which surname was at one time the professional one of her sister, if it is not now. At Trimble Opera House, also, when " Divorce" was reproduced there on April 22nd, 1872, she played Mrs. Ten Eyck. On the 25th of that month,for her benefit,she appeared as Handel in the first act of that tragedy, and on the26th, for Agnes Athel's benefit, she gave dramatic readings. She remained of the stock of the Opera House until 'about the close of the season, and on June 3rd, as Nellie Leighton in "The Winning Hand," at the Capitol Theatre in the same city, began that pro. tracted starring career with James M. Ward which ended only with her fatal illness. During this I first starring arrangement she on June Bth played Romeo in the last act of "Romeo and Juliet," and this speciality, together with the first act of "Hamlet," and her assignment in "The Winning Hand," constituted about the bulk of her reper- I tory for a long period. Justly or unjustly—and she I maintainedthat it was unjustly—she had the misfortune to have her name mixed up with the def ales. tion of Jersey City Treasurer Hamilton, about 1874, and that caused a suspension of professional relations between herself and Ward. They were shortly resumed, however, which is a fact that bears strongly in favour of the integrity of the lady, and the twain again entered upon a dramatic tour. Meanwhile she had sung in some of the Variety Theatres. Last autumn she and Ward went to the Pacific Coast, whence they were to have gone to Australia. This arrangement fell through, however, the twain again separating. After a serious illness in Virginia City, N.T., she contrived to reach the East early in May last, and became alternately an inmate of the Union Square Hotel and the New York Hospital, from the latter of which she was removed to the house of friends in Brooklyn, where she died on May 27th, in the 27th year of her age.  On Sunday night a boat capsized on the river Tare, and three men were drowned. The Berlin critics write favourably of the compositions of Mr. Pratt, an American musician, from Chicago, which were executed at a farewell concert in the Singacademie. Amongst the works were a symphony and an overture executed at the Philadelphia International Exhibition.