Author: O'Keeffe, Adelaide D.
Biography:
O'KEEFFE, Adelaide D. (1776-1865: ODNB)
Her relationship to her father determined the course of her life. He was John O'Keeffe (q.v.), an Irish actor and dramatist. She was born in Dublin, one of his three children with his Protestant wife, Mary Heaphy; of the other two children, both boys, one died in infancy and the other died young in 1804. In 1781, when their mother became involved with another actor, their father took the children to London, where he found work in the theatres, and then sent them to school in France. Adelaide was removed from her convent school in 1788 to be her father's amanuensis and care-giver, for he was losing his sight and at last became completely blind. (One of the supporters of a petition on her behalf to the RLF many years later mentions an early engagement that was broken off because he could not manage without her.) She began writing novels in the late 1790s, about the time her father gave up the stage, and had even greater success with poetry for children, beginning with her contributions to the Original Poems for Infant Minds of Ann and Jane Taylor (qq.v.)--contributions for which she did not in her lifetime receive the recognition or the payment she deserved. The O'Keeffes moved to Chichester in 1815 and to Southampton in 1830. There John O'Keeffe died. In 1834 Adelaide brought out an edition of his works with an affectionate memoir and then continued to produce fiction and poetry from addresses in the south of England until 1854: her last novel was The Broken Sword. After the loss of her father's pension, though she had a small pension of her own, she struggled to make ends meet. The RLF made several modest grants between 1833 and 1865. After her death at Brighton in 1865, the estate returned three pounds that they were not allowed to use for funeral expenses. Her gravestone in Brighton Extra Mural Cemetery was rediscovered in 2021. (ODNB "O'Keeffe, Adelaide" and "O'Keeffe, John" 20 May 2020; Blain; RLF; Donelle Ruwe in Irish Women Poets of the Romantic Age online 31 May 2020; Lynda O'Keeffe, "Finding Adelaide O'Keeffe in 2021," georgianera.wordpress.com 19 Apr. 2022)
Other Names:
- Adelaide [O'Keeffe]
- Miss O'Keeffe
- Miss O'Keefe
- Adelaide