O'Brien, Adelaide Patricia, 1877-1980

Adelaide Patricia O'Brien, who often went by Patricia or Pat, was born in Sharonville, Ohio in 1877, the third of four children of Owen O'Brien and Catherine Lenanghen O'Brien. Her father, an Irish immigrant, was a U.S. Marshall, Mayer of Sharonville, and Founder and President of People's Building and Loan until his death in 1917.

O'Brien graduated from Notre Dame in Reading, Ohio, completed a business course at the Cincinnati Business College, and studied two years at the American Academy of Applied Music.

O'Brien was a successful singer and an actress in New York City for ten years. She was an associate of Paul Armstrong, managing his theatrical enterprises until they were closed out. O'Brien returned to Ohio in 1917 when her father died and became the manager of the Dayton Symphony Association.

O'Brien managed Mary Gardens' appearances on the concert stage as well as those of other notable men and women. She had taken part in and instructed for all local special concerts.

O'Brien was a correspondent, promoter, and general representative for the "New York Musical Digest" for the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, and Michigan.

O'Brien never married and lived with her sister in the Arcade in Dayton, Ohio. Her sister Angela Mae founded the O'Brien School of Elocution and Dramatic Arts in 1891 in the Arcade which closed in 1930 during the depression.

Angela Mae graduated from Notre Dame in Reading, Ohio, attended school in Washington D.C. and Northwestern University. She received her B.A. in 1927 from the University of Dayton and her M.A. in 1948, nine years after her retirement from the Dayton Public Schools. Angela was the Miami University librarian for their extension schools at Central School and Colonel White High School from 1954-59.

The two sisters resided together later in life at the Lourdes Hall of Maria Joseph Living Care Center. Adelaide Patricia O'Brien died on August 2, 1980 at the age of 103 in Dayton, Ohio.

From the guide to the Adelaide Patricia O'Brien Papers, 1913-1980, (Wright State University, Special Collections and Archives)