Forrester, Izola L. (Izola Louise), 1878-1944

Writer and member of a theatrical family, Izola Louise Forrester was born November 15, 1878, in Pascoag, R.I. Her mother, Ogarita "Rita" Booth (1859-1892), was an actress who believed herself to be the daughter of Izola Martha Mills (1837-1887) and John Wilkes Booth (1838-1865). Her father was George Wallingford Hills (1853-1924), a Harvard College student. Her parents never married. In 1893 Izola Forrester was adopted by George and Hattie Forrester and she lived with them until her marriage in 1899 to artist Reuben Robert Merrifield (1860-1932). They had five children: Arthur (1901-1983), Rita (1903-1921), Richard (1905-1977), Beatrice (1906-1907), and Dorothy (b. 1908). Around 1913 she married playwright Mann Page (1888-1961). They had three daughters: Izola (1914-2004), Marjorie (b. 1916), and Rosamond (b. 1918). The author of This One Mad Act: The Unknown Story of John Wilkes Booth and His Family (1937), Forrester also wrote The Remittance Man (1914), The Dangerous Inheritance or The Mystery of the Tittani Rubies (1920), as well as a number of books for children, including the Greenacre Girls series and the Polly Page series. Her stories and articles appeared in numerous periodicals, including the Saturday Evening Post, Farm and Fireside, and the New York World. Forrester also wrote several silent movie screenplays, including The White Moth and a Café in Cairo. She died in Keene, N.H., in 1944.