Clarice Vance

Clarice Vance née Clara Etta Black (March 14, 1870 – August 24, 1961), "The Southern Singer" was an American vaudeville personality from the late 19th century to about 1917.

Early life and marriage

Clarice Vance was born in Ohio in 1870. She began her career in farce comedy in the early 1890s and was such a hit singing the songs interpolated into plot that she quickly won fame, singing ragtime and dialect songs as a single. When she performed with the James and Bonnie Thornton troop, he coined her, "The Southern Singer". and discovered by his wife, "former vaudeville actress Clarice Vance" to have asphyxiated himself on February 5, 1928, in their apartment at 35 East 15th St. Manhattan, New York. He was 16 years her junior.

Career Vance was known as a "coon singer", She recorded for Edison Records in 1905 (two selections) and from 1906 to 1909 for Victor. co-written by her husband; she recorded three versions of it.

Later life Vance's life after 1923 is shrouded in mystery. In the early 1920s, she appeared briefly in movies in character parts and slid into total oblivion, but according to the 1935 California voters registration, she was living in San Francisco, listing her profession as "dramatic coach" and residing at 1045 Bush Street.

From 1944 to 1951, she lived in a rooming house at 1535 Pine Street in San Francisco. From 1951 until her death in 1961, she was a patient at Napa State Mental Hospital in Napa, California. She died at this facility, aged 91, knowing only her name and that she was "an actress".