Laura Keene

Famed actress Laura Keene, shown here in an 1865 photograph, played the female lead of Florence Trenchard in Our American Cousin, a role that had helped make her career years earlier. April 14th was Keene’s farewell and benefit performance at Ford’s and marked the end of a two-week run during which she and her company had presented a variety of plays. Keene’s off-stage role on that night is the subject of some debate because eyewitness accounts vary. Keene claimed that she rushed to the President’s box and cradled his head in her lap, staining her cuffs and dress with his blood. The memoirs of several other eyewitnesses support her account. But others who were there say nothing about her presence or state simply that she was not in the box at all.