Adelaide Day Rollston
{{Short description|American poet and author (1854–1941)}}
{{Infobox writer
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| name = Adelaide Day Rollston
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| image = ADELAIDE DAY ROLLSTON A woman of the century (page 631 crop).jpg
|caption = "A Woman of the Century"
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| birth_name = Adelaide Day Kidd
| birth_date = February 23, 1854
| birth_place = near Paducah, Kentucky, U.S.
| death_date = January 7, 1941
| death_place = Paducah, Kentucky
| resting_place = Oak Grove Cemetery, Paducah, Kentucky
| occupation = {{cslist|poet|author}}
| language = English
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| spouse = {{marriage|Joseph L. Rollston|1874|1931|end=died}}
| children = 4
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Adelaide Day Rollston ({{nee}}, Kidd; February 23, 1854 – January 7, 1941) was an American poet and author.
Early life and education
Adelaide Day Kidd was born near Paducah, Kentucky, February 23, 1854.{{cite book |last1=Herringshaw |first1=Thomas William |title=Local and National Poets of America: With Biographical Sketches and Choice Selections from Over One Thousand Living American Poets |date=1890 |publisher=American publishers' association |page=478 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QQ5aAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA478 |access-date=29 June 2022 |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}} Her earliest years were spent in the countryside.{{cite journal |last1=Moulton |first1=Charles Wells |title=ADELAIDE DAY ROLLSTON, by C. J. O'M. |journal=The Magazine of Poetry and Literary Review |date=1890 |volume=2 |page=147 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kT1XAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA147 |access-date=29 June 2022 |publisher=C.W. Moulton |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}} Her parents were, William Henry Kidd (1819–1864), a physician of good standing, and Elvira (Roberts) Kidd (1823–1895). Her siblings were, Sarah, Mary Marcellus, Cincinnatus, Eliza, Fannie, Edmonia, William, and John.{{cite web |title=Adelaide Day Kidd 23 February 1854 – 7 January 1941 • LHJV-DC9 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LHJV-DC9 |website=ident.familysearch.org |access-date=29 June 2022}}
At the age of 12, her talent for writing verse began to manifest itself in brief poems published in the local press. Later, several appeared in the Saturday Star-Journal, of New York City. After the family moved to Paducah when Adelaide was 12 years old, she was educated in that city's St Mary's Academy.{{cite book|last1=Willard|first1=Frances Elizabeth|author1-link=Frances Willard|last2=Livermore|first2=Mary Ashton Rice|author2-link=Mary Livermore|title=A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life|url=https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Woman_of_the_Century/Adelaide_Day_Rollston |year=1893 |pages=621–22|publisher=Charles Wells Moulton |chapter=ROLLSTON, Mrs. Adelaide Day}} {{Source-attribution}}
Career
After completing her education, Rollston continued her contributions to the neighboring press, and frequently verses over her name appeared in The Courier-Journal of Louisville, Kentucky. They attracted little or no attention, until she found a friend and helper in the veteran of the Kentucky press, Col. H. M. McCarty, who provided her with critical review of her work. Still, her writing career was a struggle. In 1877, she began to contribute to the Current, and later received wide recognition as a contributor to Once a Week, Youth's Companion, Godey's Lady's Book, and other eastern periodicals. She also wrote several novelettes. Her poems of note included, "His Second Wife", "One Woman's Story", "A Fragment", "If I Had Known", and "The Wanderers".{{cite journal |title=Contents |journal=The Current |date=1887 |volume=VII |pages=877–880 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RavPAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA877 |access-date=29 June 2022 |publisher=Edgar L. Wakeman |language=en}} {{Source-attribution}}
Death
In December 1874, in Massac County, Illinois, she married Joseph L. Rollston (1850–1931). They had four children, Guy, Vera, Ina, and Edward.
Adelaide Day Rollston died at her home in Paducah, Kentucky January 7, 1941. Burial was in the city's Oak Grove Cemetery.{{cite news |title=Rites Held For Mrs. Adelaide Rollston |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/502374555/?terms=Adelaide%20Day%20Rollston&match=1 |access-date=29 June 2022 |work=The Paducah Sun-Democrat |via=Newspapers.com |date=9 January 1941 |page=13 |language=en}}
References
{{reflist|30em}}
External links
- {{wikisource-inline|Woman of the Century/Adelaide Day Rollston}}
{{Portal|Biography}}
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Category:Wikipedia articles incorporating text from A Woman of the Century
Category:People from Paducah, Kentucky
Category:Writers from Kentucky
Category:19th-century American poets
Category:19th-century American women writers