Florance, Beatrix Elizabeth Mizer (1875-1963) (“Trixie,” “Trix”). Cather’s childhood friend. Beatrix Mizer was born in Ohio in a German-American family. They moved to Red Cloud, NE, in 1884. Cather later recalled that when she first enrolled in school in Red Cloud, “Trix Mizer was the prettiest little girl I had ever seen.” They acted together in an 1888 production of “Beauty and the Beast” at the Red Cloud Opera House. Mizer graduated from Red Cloud High School in 1893 and studied voice at the Chicago Conservatory of Music 1897-1898, qualifying as a music teacher, and at the Chicago College of Music 1899-1900. She married Sidney Florance in 1903. In 1909 the couple moved to Red Cloud, where they settled and raised a family. Beatrix’s Chicago musical studies and return to Red Cloud may have inspired elements of Cather’s novel Lucy Gayheart (1935). Cather’s correspondence with both Florances began as early as 1914 and extended through the 1940s.

Fremstad, Olive (1871-1951). Swedish-American opera singer. Born in Sweden, Ann Olivia Rundquist was adopted by a Scandinavian-American couple, the Fremstads, who raised her first in Kristiania (now Oslo), Norway, and then in Minnesota. She moved to New York City to study piano in 1890 and then to Germany to study voice with Lilli Lehmann. After a successful career in Europe as a mezzo-soprano, she made her debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1903, where she specialized in singing soprano roles in operas by Richard Wagner. Willa Cather first met Fremstad in 1913 while researching “Three American Singers,” an article for McClure’s Magazine in which Cather clearly prefers Fremstad as “the most interesting kind of American” over Geraldine Farrar and Louise Homer. Through 1916 Cather and Fremstad were in close and regular contact in person and through letters, although Cather’s letters to Fremstad have not been located and their friendship evidently cooled. Fremstad inspired many aspects of the story, personality, and career of Thea Kronborg, heroine of The Song of the Lark (1915), and she approved of the novel, although Cather did not want readers to identify the character too closely with her. Fremstad married and divorced twice. During the period Cather and Fremstad were in regular contact Fremstad lived as a couple with Mary Watkins (later Cushing) who, after Fremstad’s death, published a biography of her, The Rainbow Bridge (1954).

Farrar, Geraldine (1882-1967). American opera singer. Born in Melrose, MA, to a professional baseball player father and an amateur singer mother, Geraldine Farrar began formal study of voice in Boston in 1894 and then studied in New York City from 1897 to 1899, when she, accompanied by her parents, left for study in Europe. Her operatic career began in earnest in 1900, and she made her American debut at the Metropolitan Opera in 1906 in Roméo et Juliette. As a regular opera goer in New York City, Cather often heard Farrar sing at the Met, and she met her when researching “Three American Singers: Louise Homer, Geraldine Farrar, Olive Fremstad” (McClure’s Magazine December 1913). Cather comments on Farrar’s noted talent for acting, as well as singing, her operatic roles, and her indebtedness to French actress Sarah Bernhardt, who took Farrar under her wing in Paris. Elements of Farrar’s personality and career may have inspired aspects of Kitty Ayreshire, featured in Cather’s stories “A Gold Slipper” (1917) and “Scandal” (1919). Farrar retired from the operatic stage in 1922 but continued her regular concert touring in her personal Pullman rail car, bringing operatic music to small towns and working class audiences. She also acted in silent film versions of operas and was a popular recording artist. References in Cather’s letters suggest that Cather saw Farrar socially in New York City and may have corresponded with her, but no letters are known.

Mackenzie, Cameron (1882 -1921). American magazine editor and journalist. Born in Wilkes-Barre, PA, Cameron Mackenzie graduated from the Lawrenceville School, which his father founded, and studied at Yale University for a year before enrolling in the New York University Law School, from which he graduated in 1907. In 1907 he also married Elizabeth McClure, daughter of S. S. McClure. His father-in-law put him on the editorial staff of McClure’s Magazine, where he worked with Cather. In 1912 he and Frederick Collins wrested control of the magazine from S. S. McClure. Mackenzie resigned from McClure’s in 1915, subsequently writing two novels and serving as a correspondent for the London Morning Post during World War I. He died unexpectedly of pneumonia on board the Cunard liner Aquitania shortly after the ship departed London for New York City.

Geoghegan, Seamus (?-1914). Irish soldier. Born in Dublin, Ireland, to Sophia Purser Geoghegan and Samuel Geoghegan, Seamus Geoghegan was killed in action while serving as a soldier during WWI. His death prompted his brother Harold, Jack Cather's professor at Carnegie Institute of Technology, to return to Dublin, Ireland. No further information is available about this person.