Isabelle Ahearn O'Neill (â€") was a stage and screen actor of the
silent film era, a suffragist, and the first woman elected to the
Rhode Island Legislature. She also served in the state Senate and,
under President Franklin Roosevelt, in the Federal Bureau of
Narcotics. She was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of
Fame in .Isabelle Florence Ahearn was born in in Woonsocket, Rhode
Island, the youngest of thirteen children of Mary J. (O'Connor) Ahearn
and Daniel Ahearn. She was raised in Providence, Rhode Island, and was
educated at the Boston College of Drama and Oratory. She also took
physical education classes at Harvard University.She married John
Aloysius O'Neill in ; they had one child who died as an infant. The
couple separated after three years but did not divorce because she was
a Catholic.O'Neill began her career as a teacher, founding her own
Ahearn School of Elocution in , at the age of . Her students gave
recitals at the Providence Opera House. Ahearn also worked as an actor
for nearly two decades (â€"), taking both lead and supporting roles in
primarily summer stock and vaudeville shows in Rhode Island and New
York. In , she began to take roles in silent films like Joe Lincoln's
Cape Cod Stories (Joseph C. Lincoln's Cape Cod Stories) made by the
Providence-based Eastern Film Corporation.
silent film era, a suffragist, and the first woman elected to the
Rhode Island Legislature. She also served in the state Senate and,
under President Franklin Roosevelt, in the Federal Bureau of
Narcotics. She was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of
Fame in .Isabelle Florence Ahearn was born in in Woonsocket, Rhode
Island, the youngest of thirteen children of Mary J. (O'Connor) Ahearn
and Daniel Ahearn. She was raised in Providence, Rhode Island, and was
educated at the Boston College of Drama and Oratory. She also took
physical education classes at Harvard University.She married John
Aloysius O'Neill in ; they had one child who died as an infant. The
couple separated after three years but did not divorce because she was
a Catholic.O'Neill began her career as a teacher, founding her own
Ahearn School of Elocution in , at the age of . Her students gave
recitals at the Providence Opera House. Ahearn also worked as an actor
for nearly two decades (â€"), taking both lead and supporting roles in
primarily summer stock and vaudeville shows in Rhode Island and New
York. In , she began to take roles in silent films like Joe Lincoln's
Cape Cod Stories (Joseph C. Lincoln's Cape Cod Stories) made by the
Providence-based Eastern Film Corporation.
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