Olivebelle Hamon
American child musical prodigy and heiress
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Olivebelle Hamon, also known professionally as Loma Worth (September 2, 1909 – August 20, 1987), was a child musical prodigy, heiress, vaudeville performer, and licensed pilot, with a headline-making personal life in adulthood.
Olivebelle Hamon | |
|---|---|
 Hamon as a child violinist, from a 1920 publication | |
| Born | September 2, 1909 |
| Died | August 20, 1987 (aged 77) |
| Other names | Loma Worth |
| Occupations | Violinist, vaudeville performer, pilot |
| Parent(s) | Jacob Louis "Jake" Hamon, Georgia W. Perkins Hamon |
| Relatives | Jake L. Hamon, Jr. (brother) |
Early life
Olivebelle (or Olive Belle) Hamon was born in Lawton, Oklahoma, the daughter of Jacob Louis "Jake" Hamon and Georgia W. Perkins Hamon. Her mother was a cousin to Warren G. Harding.[1] Her father, an oil millionaire charged with bribing Senator Thomas P. Gore,[2] was killed in 1920 by his nephew's wife Clara Smith Hamon, who was acquitted in the ensuing high-profile trial.[3] Her only sibling was Jake L. Hamon, Jr., who followed his father into the oil business.
Career and personal life
Olivebelle Hamon was famous from a very early age as a violinist in Chicago,[4] a standout student of Rudolph Reiners.[5] In 1922 she gave a stunt recital, playing her violin while walking up and down 33 floors of external stairs at the Wrigley Building,[6] as a benefit for Camp Algonquin, a YMCA "fresh-air" camp on the Fox River.[7]
She also began flying very young, with lessons well underway by age 10.[8] In 1930, she was denied permission to make a stunt flight from London to Cape Town.[9] In 1930 she participated in the National Women's Air Derby, flying from Long Beach, California to Chicago.[10] She earned her federal flying license in 1932, after the death of pilot Robert Short, a man she planned to marry.[11][12]
As an adult, she used the names "Freddy Worth"[13] and "Loma Worth" for a show business career as an actress and "one-woman band". Any inheritance from Jake Hamon had been long since lost to extravagance and mismanagement,[14] but not before she acquired a personal airplane[15] to fly between performing engagements.[16]
Much of her fame was derived from her eventful personal life rather than her stage work.[17] Olivebelle Hamon was reported to have a busy roster of suitors, including Pete Llanuza, a newspaper cartoonist in his fifties.[18] She was engaged in 1930,[19] but insisted it was only a lark, because "the stage and aviation have got me."[20] She sought at least three more marriage licenses in 1932,[21] before marrying J. Lawrence Waters of Valdosta, Georgia that year.[22] Her marriage to Waters did not last. In 1938 she married Chicago musician Leo Cooper; they divorced in 1946. She soon married a third time, to Chicago businessman William Augsburger, in 1947;[17] they divorced within a year.[23][24]
Olivebelle Hamon died in 1987, aged 78 years in Portland, Oregon. Her remains were buried in the same plot as her father, mother, and brother, in Ardmore, Oklahoma.
