Olivebelle Hamon as a child violinist, from a 1920 publication.

Olivebelle Hamon, also known professionally as Loma Worth (September 2, 1909 – August 20, 1987), was a child musical prodigy, heiress, vaudeville performer, and licensed pilot, with a headline-making personal life in adulthood.

Early life

Olivebelle (or Olive Belle) Hamon was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, the daughter of Jacob Louis "Jake" Hamon and Georgia W. Perkins Hamon. Her mother was a cousin to Warren G. Harding.[1] Her father, an oil millionaire charged with bribing Senator Thomas P. Gore,[2] was killed in 1920 by his nephew's wife Clara Smith Hamon, who was acquitted in the ensuing high-profile trial.[3] Her only sibling was Jake L. Hamon, Jr., who followed his father into the oil business.

Career and personal life

Olivebelle Hamon was famous from a very early age as a violinist in Chicago,[4] a standout student of Rudolph Reiners.[5] In 1922 she gave a stunt recital, playing her violin while walking up and down 33 floors of external stairs at the Wrigley Building,[6] as a benefit for Camp Algonquin, a YMCA "fresh-air" camp on the Fox River.[7]

She also began flying very young, with lessons well underway by age 10.[8] In 1930, she was denied permission to make a stunt flight from London to Cape Town.[9] In 1930 she participated in the National Women's Air Derby, flying from Long Beach, California to Chicago.[10] She earned her federal flying license in 1932, after the death of pilot Robert Short, a man she planned to marry.[11][12]

As an adult, she used the names "Freddy Worth"[13] and "Loma Worth" for a show business career as an actress and "one-woman band". Any inheritance from Jake Hamon had been long since lost to extravagance and mismanagement,[14] but not before she acquired a personal airplane[15] to fly between performing engagements.[16]

Much of her fame was derived from her eventful personal life rather than her stage work.[17] Olivebelle Hamon was reported to have a busy roster of suitors, including Pete Llanuza, a newspaper cartoonist in his fifties.[18] She was engaged in 1930,[19] but insisted it was only a lark, because "the stage and aviation have got me."[20] She sought at least three more marriage licenses in 1932,[21] before marrying J. Lawrence Waters of Valdosta, Georgia that year.[22] Her marriage to Waters did not last. In 1938 she married Chicago musician Leo Cooper; they divorced in 1946. She soon married a third time, to Chicago businessman William Augsburger, in 1947;[17] they divorced within a year.[23][24]

Olivebelle Hamon died in 1987, aged 78 years in Portland, Oregon. Her remains were buried in the same plot as her father, mother, and brother, in Ardmore, Oklahoma.

References

  1. ↑ "Olive Belle Proudly Shows 'Apology' by Leonard Wood Jr." Boston Daily Globe (March 16, 1924): 48.
  2. ↑ Ron J. Jackson Jr., "Deadly Affair" NewsOK (December 2013).
  3. ↑ Laton McCartney, The Teapot Dome Scandal: How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House and Tried to Steal the Country (Random House 2009): 57-59. ISBN 9780812973372
  4. ↑ Mary Carver Williams, "Important Event at the Blackstone" Music News (March 19, 1920): 35.
  5. ↑ Agnes Beldon, "Chicago Musical College" Music News (April 7, 1922): 25.
  6. ↑ "Olivebelle Hamon, stunt violinist--outtakes" Filmed on October 13, 1922, Moving Image Research Collections, Digital Video Repository).
  7. ↑ "Will Play Violin All Way Up Wrigley Stairs and Back" Chicago Tribune (August 29, 1922): 17.
  8. ↑ "Young Girl Flies High" Maywood Herald (August 27, 1920).
  9. ↑ "British Ban Hop by Woman" The New York Times (November 25, 1930): 18.
  10. ↑ "In Air Race" Chillicothe Constitution-Tribune (August 20, 1930): 16. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  11. ↑ "Short Death Ends Romance" Los Angeles Times (February 27, 1932): A1.
  12. ↑ "Short's Pupil Wins Wings" Los Angeles Times (March 9, 1932): A2.
  13. ↑ "Why Jake Hamon's 'Baby Gal' Shunned Notoriety and Millions to 'Go it Alone'" The Times (February 28, 1926): 54. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  14. ↑ Terrel de Lapp, "Jake Hamon's Women" Los Angeles Times (April 17, 1932): J16.
  15. ↑ "Flies to her Work" Record-Argus (March 24, 1933): 7. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  16. ↑ "Tale of Oil King's Daughter Who Saw his 13 Millions Dwindle to Pittance" The Philadelphia Inquirer (November 2, 1930): 108. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  17. 1 2 Warren Hall, "Olivebelle's Evil Star" Atlanta Constitution (June 29, 1947): SM10.
  18. ↑ "New Faces Complicate Race to the Altar with Olive Hamon" Seattle Daily Times (September 18, 1932).
  19. ↑ "Daughter of Hamon to Marry" Los Angeles Times (September 17, 1930): 4.
  20. ↑ "Daughter of 'Jake' Hamon Prefers Acting to Wedding" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (September 25, 1930): 2. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  21. ↑ "Olive Hamon Gets Marriage License--3rd" Star Tribune (December 3, 1932): 1. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
  22. ↑ "Native Valdostan Latest Aspirant for Husband of Olive Belle Hamon" Atlanta Constitution (December 3, 1932): 4.
  23. ↑ Alma Lind, "The Hamon Harvest of Unhappiness" Atlanta Constitution (August 8, 1948): SM4.
  24. ↑ "Wealthy Woman Asks Divorce in Chicago" Lubbock Evening Journal (May 12, 1948): 2. via Newspapers.comOpen access icon
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