Historic Portrayal: 1800s Lakeside Lady

Thanks to Women in History Ohio, a nonprofit dedicated to the education of all people through the dramatic re-creation of the lives of notable women in history, we will be visited by 1800s Lakeside Lady Loretta Egan Bruce, portrayed by Anne McEvoy. This Historic Portrayal will take place at a special time at 7 p.m. Monday, Aug. 26 in Orchestra Hall.

Bruce was a faithful Lakeside visitor from the mid-1870s well into 1920s. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1860, her family moved to Cleveland when her father, an abolitionist, found work on the docks along the Cuyahoga River.

McEvoy will share Bruce’s recollections of some of her earlier camp experiences as a young girl (including the coming and going on various steamships and trains), tell a few stories about some of Lakeside’s more colorful speakers and guests, note the remarkable changes to Lakeside, and reflect on the significant spiritual, educational, cultural, social and personal experiences in one woman’s life set against the unfolding of some of the most dramatic periods in American history.

McEvoy joined Women in History Ohio in 1998. She is a full-time writer/editor for the Creative Division of American Greetings, Inc.

Her background is in theater, receiving a bachelor’s in speech and drama from Ursuline College and working for over 40 years in the varying capacities of director, playwright, composer, lyricist, choreographer and actor in professional and community theater in the greater Cleveland area.

In 1975, she co-founded Cornucopia, Inc, a non-profit organization that offers vocational opportunities, job training and placement to mentally and physically challenged adults.