Just in case anyone was wondering what happened to Agnes after she made sure her children were relocated to safe places and she kind of dropped off the face of the earth I can tell you where she ultimately ended up.
The last we knew she was on stage in SLC in February of 1910. Her daughter said she was in Phoenix in 1912, but I can't find any evidence that she was there. In 1917 her son indicated on his WWI draft registration that he was helping to support his mother, but it wasn't required to list her location so I don't know where she was then.
But I finally caught up with her in the 1920 census back in Pittsburgh.
1920 US Census
Pittsburg, Pennsylvania
Wait a minute! That's Agnes Norman not Agnes Loftus let alone Agnes Ickes. So how do I know that's the right Agnes? Aside from the fact that all the other census information exactly matches her, I also know it's her because of this...
Salt Lake Tribune
August 30, 1943
So why did she change her last name to Norman? I don't think she became Agnes Norman by getting remarried since in the eyes of the Catholic Church she never really got divorced. Maybe she still didn't want Horace finding her, but at this point, doubtful. But, realistically, if your first name was Agnes and you're an aspiring actress, and your last name choices were either Loftus or Ickes wouldn't you choose something else?
And it's possible she had just recently changed her last name to Norman after it appeared here in the newspaper. Or this could be a different Agnes Loftus and she needed to create her own identity. I don't know - lot's of things are possible.
Pittsburgh Gazette Times
December 30, 1919
By 1925 she had moved to Manhattan. She rented a room or a small apartment from the Solomon family, Italians, at 335 West 58th Street. She no longer considered herself an actress but a retail saleslady in a millinery shop.
1925 New York State Census
1930 she's still at the same place.
1930 US Census
New York, New York
By 1940 the Solomons had moved to 69 West 89th Street and Agnes moved with them.
1940 US Census
New York, New York
This is what her block on West 89th Street looks like today.
She was on the upper west side of Manhattan right between Central Park and Broadway.
I know Aunt Alle went to visit her. She wrote in a note to my dad, "Your Grandma then Agnes Loftus Ickes and I were in West Point and all points of interest in New York City, some she had never seen, I visited with her for a week in 1939 when I went to Pennsylvania and stayed 3 months."
I'm sure she must have had other family members and other visitors come to see her in New York from time to time, but my heart kind of breaks that she was separated from family and lived almost all of her adult life as a lodger in someone else's home.
Agnes died in Manhattan 17 July 1948. She was 75. She was unceremoniously buried on Hart Island.
All original content, images, commentary, etc. copyright © by Joy Denison 2015-2016. All rights reserved. All writings, poems, speeches, essays, images, scans, likenesses, etc. by Adam Ickes (b 1845) as well as personal histories, images, and all other content by all persons referenced and discussed within the pages and posts in this blog may not be copied, shared, or reproduced in any way without expressed permission by the owner unless included here from other referenced sources or are historical records already considered to be in the public domain.
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