Her stage name was MISS EXCELSA, and she was part of a vaudeville gun juggling and sword fighting act, which also included mock combat with swords and rifles with bayonets. She had been in town with her performing troupe for only a few days at the Novelty Theatre on 3rd Street in Santa Rosa when it happened—April 18, 1906— the Great Earthquake. Her lifeless body was pulled from the collapsed ruins of what is now believed to have been the Grand Hotel.
Miss Excelsa’s stage partner in her gun juggling and sword fighting act, Marie De Rossett, and the rest of her performing troupe left Santa Rosa quickly after the quake, leaving others to deal with Miss Excelsa’s unclaimed body and figure out her true identity. She was later identified as Cecile Heath, supposedly born in Paris, France, and the wife of Fred Heath, himself a vaudeville performer.
So WHY was Miss Excelsa left behind to be buried in a common grave in Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery with 14 other Earthquake victims? Well—there is one detail I left out. Her stage partner, Marie De Rossett, was the ex-wife of Excelsa’s husband, Fred Heath. Marie had obtained a divorce from Fred several years earlier after Fred abandoned her for another woman—Miss Excelsa.
For Miss Excelsa to form a stage partnership with her husband’s ex-wife must have been rather awkward, especially since Miss Excelsa was named as “the other woman" in Marie and Fred’s bitter divorce proceedings. So was Excelsa’s body left behind for revenge? Had Marie been harboring unresolved anger against Miss Excelsa? We will never know.
The name etched in the Earthquake monument that sits atop the mass grave of 1906 Earthquake victims at the Franklin Avenue entrance to the Rural Cemetery identifies Miss Excelsa as “Mrs. C. Heath.” However, we now know that “Heath” was her husband’s stage name. His name was actually “Fred George,” which means her last name would have been “George.” Call her what you want—the story of her short life of just 30 years has added a bit of drama and mystery to the stories of the 5,250 residents of Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery.
~by Sandy Frary, cemetery archivist
It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. So in lieu of 1,000 words, I am submitting the following photograph of Miss Excelsa, which appeared on an old vaudeville poster. (Is this how you had her pictured? Me neither.)
At the bottom of the poster, she is billed as Miss “Excelia.” But because her stage name was misspelled as “Excelsa” on the 1906 Earthquake causality list, upon her death, she was thereafter referred to as Miss “Excelsa.”
On April 15, 2012, Miss Excelsa was remembered in a ceremony honoring those who died in the 1906 Earthquake. The event was sponsored by the Rural Cemetery Preservation Committee and included a theatrical performance by actress, Ellen Bowen, which was dedicated to Miss Excelsa. A cerise-colored rambling rose by the name of Excelsa was then planted along the fence next to the mass grave of Earthquake victims where Miss Excelsa is buried. The event ended with the scattering of rose petals on the large granite monument dedicated to the Earthquake victims, which sits atop the cement-covered mass grave.
The 7th unknown earthquake victim is a little girl from the Ramona Lodging house. She is believed to be buried in the mass grave with Mrs. Cecile Heath a/k/a Miss Excelsa. She was included in the Coroner’s Inquest along with the other 6 unknowns.
Source: Sandy Frary, SRRC cemetery archivist
Note: Chas. W. Palmer, also, listed on the group marker is actually buried at Chanate in Santa Rosa.
Miss Excelsa’s stage partner in her gun juggling and sword fighting act, Marie De Rossett, and the rest of her performing troupe left Santa Rosa quickly after the quake, leaving others to deal with Miss Excelsa’s unclaimed body and figure out her true identity. She was later identified as Cecile Heath, supposedly born in Paris, France, and the wife of Fred Heath, himself a vaudeville performer.
So WHY was Miss Excelsa left behind to be buried in a common grave in Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery with 14 other Earthquake victims? Well—there is one detail I left out. Her stage partner, Marie De Rossett, was the ex-wife of Excelsa’s husband, Fred Heath. Marie had obtained a divorce from Fred several years earlier after Fred abandoned her for another woman—Miss Excelsa.
For Miss Excelsa to form a stage partnership with her husband’s ex-wife must have been rather awkward, especially since Miss Excelsa was named as “the other woman" in Marie and Fred’s bitter divorce proceedings. So was Excelsa’s body left behind for revenge? Had Marie been harboring unresolved anger against Miss Excelsa? We will never know.
The name etched in the Earthquake monument that sits atop the mass grave of 1906 Earthquake victims at the Franklin Avenue entrance to the Rural Cemetery identifies Miss Excelsa as “Mrs. C. Heath.” However, we now know that “Heath” was her husband’s stage name. His name was actually “Fred George,” which means her last name would have been “George.” Call her what you want—the story of her short life of just 30 years has added a bit of drama and mystery to the stories of the 5,250 residents of Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery.
~by Sandy Frary, cemetery archivist
It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. So in lieu of 1,000 words, I am submitting the following photograph of Miss Excelsa, which appeared on an old vaudeville poster. (Is this how you had her pictured? Me neither.)
At the bottom of the poster, she is billed as Miss “Excelia.” But because her stage name was misspelled as “Excelsa” on the 1906 Earthquake causality list, upon her death, she was thereafter referred to as Miss “Excelsa.”
On April 15, 2012, Miss Excelsa was remembered in a ceremony honoring those who died in the 1906 Earthquake. The event was sponsored by the Rural Cemetery Preservation Committee and included a theatrical performance by actress, Ellen Bowen, which was dedicated to Miss Excelsa. A cerise-colored rambling rose by the name of Excelsa was then planted along the fence next to the mass grave of Earthquake victims where Miss Excelsa is buried. The event ended with the scattering of rose petals on the large granite monument dedicated to the Earthquake victims, which sits atop the cement-covered mass grave.
The 7th unknown earthquake victim is a little girl from the Ramona Lodging house. She is believed to be buried in the mass grave with Mrs. Cecile Heath a/k/a Miss Excelsa. She was included in the Coroner’s Inquest along with the other 6 unknowns.
Source: Sandy Frary, SRRC cemetery archivist
Note: Chas. W. Palmer, also, listed on the group marker is actually buried at Chanate in Santa Rosa.
Her stage name was MISS EXCELSA, and she was part of a vaudeville gun juggling and sword fighting act, which also included mock combat with swords and rifles with bayonets. She had been in town with her performing troupe for only a few days at the Novelty Theatre on 3rd Street in Santa Rosa when it happened—April 18, 1906— the Great Earthquake. Her lifeless body was pulled from the collapsed ruins of what is now believed to have been the Grand Hotel.
Miss Excelsa’s stage partner in her gun juggling and sword fighting act, Marie De Rossett, and the rest of her performing troupe left Santa Rosa quickly after the quake, leaving others to deal with Miss Excelsa’s unclaimed body and figure out her true identity. She was later identified as Cecile Heath, supposedly born in Paris, France, and the wife of Fred Heath, himself a vaudeville performer.
So WHY was Miss Excelsa left behind to be buried in a common grave in Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery with 14 other Earthquake victims? Well—there is one detail I left out. Her stage partner, Marie De Rossett, was the ex-wife of Excelsa’s husband, Fred Heath. Marie had obtained a divorce from Fred several years earlier after Fred abandoned her for another woman—Miss Excelsa.
For Miss Excelsa to form a stage partnership with her husband’s ex-wife must have been rather awkward, especially since Miss Excelsa was named as “the other woman" in Marie and Fred’s bitter divorce proceedings. So was Excelsa’s body left behind for revenge? Had Marie been harboring unresolved anger against Miss Excelsa? We will never know.
The name etched in the Earthquake monument that sits atop the mass grave of 1906 Earthquake victims at the Franklin Avenue entrance to the Rural Cemetery identifies Miss Excelsa as “Mrs. C. Heath.” However, we now know that “Heath” was her husband’s stage name. His name was actually “Fred George,” which means her last name would have been “George.” Call her what you want—the story of her short life of just 30 years has added a bit of drama and mystery to the stories of the 5,250 residents of Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery.
~by Sandy Frary, cemetery archivist
It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. So in lieu of 1,000 words, I am submitting the following photograph of Miss Excelsa, which appeared on an old vaudeville poster. (Is this how you had her pictured? Me neither.)
At the bottom of the poster, she is billed as Miss “Excelia.” But because her stage name was misspelled as “Excelsa” on the 1906 Earthquake causality list, upon her death, she was thereafter referred to as Miss “Excelsa.”
On April 15, 2012, Miss Excelsa was remembered in a ceremony honoring those who died in the 1906 Earthquake. The event was sponsored by the Rural Cemetery Preservation Committee and included a theatrical performance by actress, Ellen Bowen, which was dedicated to Miss Excelsa. A cerise-colored rambling rose by the name of Excelsa was then planted along the fence next to the mass grave of Earthquake victims where Miss Excelsa is buried. The event ended with the scattering of rose petals on the large granite monument dedicated to the Earthquake victims, which sits atop the cement-covered mass grave.
The 7th unknown earthquake victim is a little girl from the Ramona Lodging house. She is believed to be buried in the mass grave with Mrs. Cecile Heath a/k/a Miss Excelsa. She was included in the Coroner’s Inquest along with the other 6 unknowns.
Source: Sandy Frary, SRRC cemetery archivist
Note: Chas. W. Palmer, also, listed on the group marker is actually buried at Chanate in Santa Rosa.
Miss Excelsa’s stage partner in her gun juggling and sword fighting act, Marie De Rossett, and the rest of her performing troupe left Santa Rosa quickly after the quake, leaving others to deal with Miss Excelsa’s unclaimed body and figure out her true identity. She was later identified as Cecile Heath, supposedly born in Paris, France, and the wife of Fred Heath, himself a vaudeville performer.
So WHY was Miss Excelsa left behind to be buried in a common grave in Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery with 14 other Earthquake victims? Well—there is one detail I left out. Her stage partner, Marie De Rossett, was the ex-wife of Excelsa’s husband, Fred Heath. Marie had obtained a divorce from Fred several years earlier after Fred abandoned her for another woman—Miss Excelsa.
For Miss Excelsa to form a stage partnership with her husband’s ex-wife must have been rather awkward, especially since Miss Excelsa was named as “the other woman" in Marie and Fred’s bitter divorce proceedings. So was Excelsa’s body left behind for revenge? Had Marie been harboring unresolved anger against Miss Excelsa? We will never know.
The name etched in the Earthquake monument that sits atop the mass grave of 1906 Earthquake victims at the Franklin Avenue entrance to the Rural Cemetery identifies Miss Excelsa as “Mrs. C. Heath.” However, we now know that “Heath” was her husband’s stage name. His name was actually “Fred George,” which means her last name would have been “George.” Call her what you want—the story of her short life of just 30 years has added a bit of drama and mystery to the stories of the 5,250 residents of Santa Rosa Rural Cemetery.
~by Sandy Frary, cemetery archivist
It’s been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. So in lieu of 1,000 words, I am submitting the following photograph of Miss Excelsa, which appeared on an old vaudeville poster. (Is this how you had her pictured? Me neither.)
At the bottom of the poster, she is billed as Miss “Excelia.” But because her stage name was misspelled as “Excelsa” on the 1906 Earthquake causality list, upon her death, she was thereafter referred to as Miss “Excelsa.”
On April 15, 2012, Miss Excelsa was remembered in a ceremony honoring those who died in the 1906 Earthquake. The event was sponsored by the Rural Cemetery Preservation Committee and included a theatrical performance by actress, Ellen Bowen, which was dedicated to Miss Excelsa. A cerise-colored rambling rose by the name of Excelsa was then planted along the fence next to the mass grave of Earthquake victims where Miss Excelsa is buried. The event ended with the scattering of rose petals on the large granite monument dedicated to the Earthquake victims, which sits atop the cement-covered mass grave.
The 7th unknown earthquake victim is a little girl from the Ramona Lodging house. She is believed to be buried in the mass grave with Mrs. Cecile Heath a/k/a Miss Excelsa. She was included in the Coroner’s Inquest along with the other 6 unknowns.
Source: Sandy Frary, SRRC cemetery archivist
Note: Chas. W. Palmer, also, listed on the group marker is actually buried at Chanate in Santa Rosa.
Inscription
In memory of those who died in the disaster of April 18, 1906. Mrs. C. Heath - Josephine Ely - Marshall Ely - John Murphy - C.A. Trudgeon - Chas. W. Palm - Nicholas Stampfli - John Murphy - Frank Downing - Four persons unknown - Nos. 1 - 4- 6 - 7.
Sponsored by Ancestry
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