Volga Hayworth

Volga Margaret Hayworth (August 8, 1897 – January 25, 1945) was an American dancer and vaudevillian. A popular showgirl on Broadway, she was the mother of actress Rita Hayworth, who used her mother's maiden name as her professional surname.

Biography Volga Hayworth was born on August 8, 1897, in Washington, D.C., the daughter of Allynn Duran Hayworth and Margaret O'Hare. Her mother immigrated to the United States from Ireland, and her younger brother was actor Vinton Hayworth. She studied music and dance as child with William J. Oates. In 1910 she began performing in vaudeville at Chase's Theater in Washington D.C. as a member of Miss Cora B. Shreve's juvenile performers in the show The Follies of the Planets. The Washington Post described her as a "bright vivacious little star." At the age of 16 she ran away from home to pursue a career on the stage.

Volga worked as a member of Anna Held's theater troupe; performing in the ensemble of Sigmund Romberg's musical Follow Me at the Casino Theatre in the 1916-1917 Broadway season. After this she worked as a chorus girl in the Ziegfeld Follies, She met her future husband, the Spanish-born dancer Eduardo Cansino, in 1916 when he came to audition for Florence Ziegfeld. They married him in 1917. They had three children. She and her husband formed a vaudeville act, The Dancing Cansinos. This act was also featured in the Broadway revue The Greenwich Village Follies at the Winter Garden Theatre in 1923-1924. She and her husband also operated a dance school in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

Volga Hayworth Cansino died in 1945, at the age of 47, from peritonitis from a ruptured appendix in Santa Monica, California.

Immediate family Husband: Eduardo Cansino, born on – died on Rita Hayworth, born Margarita Carmen Cansino on October 17, 1918 – died on Rebecca Welles, born on December 17, 1944 – died on Marc McKerrow, born on March 31, 1966 – died on Yasmin Aga Khan, born on December 28, 1949 Andrew Ali Aga Khan Embiricos, born on – died on December 4, 2011 (aged 25) Eduardo Cansino Jr., born on – died on Richard Cansino, born on August 10, 1953 Vernon Cansino, born on – died on March 23, 1974 (aged 51)