Jennie Scheper

Jennie Scheper Haston, Pioneer Stage Star, Dies Suddenly in New York, Jennie (Scheper) Haston, born in Washington, D.C., 1878, retired theatrical star who was among the pioneer colored entertainers abroad, died at Harlem Hospital Saturday where she had been taken three hours before, following a paralytic stroke.

While playing under the name of Jennie Scheper, she once made a command appearance before the czar of Russia. She went abroad in 1909 and toured all of Europe up to the outbreak of WWI in 1914. She served as an entertainer and did Red Cross work among the American doughboys.

She appeared on the continent with the vaudeville team of Rastus and Banks as a singer and dancer. Later she appeared in her own act in Paris and later became a drummer and organized a female band which appeared with great success at the Cafe Cecil, in Paris and also Madrid and London.

After her marriage to A.A. Haston, she made her headquarters in London and their home was always open to American Negro performers who came to that city. Her husband was for twenty years manager for the Versatile Three, which act was for many years the most prominent colored act in the British Empire. She gave up her own stage career to serve as her husband's secretary and his success was in a large measure due to her ability in this direction.

In infrequent appearances in this country she played in several of the shows produced by the late J. Leubrie Hill, and her last New York appearance was with one of these shows at the Lafayette Theatre.

The deceased was known throughout the profession for her big-heartedness and often aided financially performers of her race who were stranded. She made a hobby of collecting theatrical programs and souvenirs of all kinds that related to the stage and has a valuable collection of things of this kind.

Funeral services were from the chapel of Henry W. Payne , 233 Lenox Avenue, on Tuesday and burial was in the Frederick Douglass Cemetery, Staten Island.

Besides her husband, several distant relatives in Washington, DC., her native home, survive.

Photo: Leslie's Weekly Newspaper (July 22, 1897)
Obit:The New York Age (January 30, 1937)