Tallulah - An Adopted Delmarva Diva: A.M. Foley

Tallulah: An Adopted Delmarva Diva

by A.M. Foley

“Conscience isn’t like a liver, you can get on without it.” ~ Tallulah Bankhead

Two dazzling daughters of the Deep South ~ Eugenia and Tallulah Bankhead ~ blazed across the skies of the United States, Europe and North Africa before coming to rest in bucolic St. Paul’s Cemetery in Kent County. At least, one hopes they found rest. Their lifelong sibling rivalry bodes ill for seeking side-by-side eternal peace.

Their parents, on the other hand, made a great pair. Mother, Adelaide, betrothed to a landed Virginian, had visited Alabama and met William Bankhead. William recorded in his diary, “It was truly a case of love at first sight.” Ada’s family couldn’t object too strenuously to William, graduate of Georgetown University’s law school, son of Congressman John Bankhead. Ada’s father presented the newlyweds a handsome carriage and two chestnut mares. William followed his father into politics, winning an Alabama leg-

islative seat. His and Ada’s daughters arrived in January 1901 and 1902. Sadly, neither got to know their mother, who died of peritonitis two months after Tallulah’s birth. Losing Ada threw William into prolonged mourning, a yearslong attempt to drown his sorrow. Tallulah came to feel responsible. She lived with a belief that Father favored Eugenia. Eugenia, on the other hand, felt Tallulah was the fair-haired favorite of Grandfather Bankhead, their substitute father in early years.

Grandfather Bankhead spent thirty-three years in Washington in the House of Representatives, Adelaide Eugenia Bankhead

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then in the Senate. Never called “Senator Bankhead,” down home he was “Captain John” for youthful service to the Confederacy. While the captain’s son grieved for Ada in Huntsville, the girls spent ten years with Aunt Marie in Montgomery or, when Congress was in recess, with their grandparents in Jasper, Alabama. Finally, the captain recalled William to Jasper to join the family law practice.

Not naturally drawn to the law, William had been a frustrated thespian as a student. Thus, he so appreciated little Tallulah’s early gift for mimicry. Coming home nights in his cups, he would fetch her downstairs to stand center stage on the dining table singing William Bankhead with Eugenia and Tallulah.