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 1869 - 1905 (36 years)
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| Name |
Elizabeth ORDWAY [2] |
- As an actress she was known as Bettina Girard. On October 21, 1885 as Elizabeth Godwin Ordway, she married Arthur Padelford (1859-1896) at St. John's Church in the District of Columbia. They were the parents of one daughter, Valerie Padelford (1887-1974). Her husband divorced her in 1889 and she embarked on a series of marriages followed by divorces. On March 21, 1901 as Elizabeth Wolf Williams, she married Francis C. Witter, a vaudeville performer at the Immanuel Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois. At the time of her death she was married to Francis Witter.
The Evening Star Monday, January 9, 1905
Death Of An Actress
A Former Washingtonian Dies in a New York Hospital
Mrs. Elizabeth Goodwin Witter, a daughter of the late General Ordway of this city, known throughout her stage career as Bettina Girard, died yesterday at the Roosevelt Hospital, New York, of acute pneumonia, aged thirty-five. Her last illness was a short one. She was received at the hospital last Saturday afternoon and her condition was a serious one.
The last engagement of Bettina Girard was with the Marriage of Kitty company, under the management of Jules Murray, which showed in the west. At Decatur, Illinois, Miss Girard left the company suddenly.
Her first appearance on the stage was in 1890, in The Seven Ages. Soon after her debut in Washington Arthur Padelford, member of a wealthy Baltimore family, met her and following a short wooing, they were married. They at once went abroad and three months later came the report in Austria the young husband had applied for and obtained a divorce. Soon afterward she went on the stage. She had six other husbands, John J. Raffael, a singer; Harrison J. Wolfe (married 1893), an actor; William G. Beach, an actor; Philip Schuyler, the well-known theatrical agent; Frank Turner (married 1900), a vaudeville performer, who was by the bedside at the last. The Betty Ordway that Washington remembers was a beautiful young girl full of life and energy and a disposition that attracted admiration. Her burial will take place in this city. She is survived by her mother and child.
The Evening Star Monday, January 9, 1905
Died
Witter. On Sunday, January 8, 1905, Elizabeth Godwin Witter, only daughter of the late General Albert Ordway.
The Washington Times
Monday, January 9, 1905
Death Overtakes Bettina Gerard
Actress Falls a Victim to Pneumonia
Daughter of Gen. Ordway
Formerly a Society Belle, She Has a Varied Matrimonial and Stage Career
A daughter of the late General Albert Ordway, the actress Bettina Gerard, died in Roosevelt Hospital, New York City, yesterday morning, of pneumonia. She had been ill but two days. Her body will be brought to Washington for burial.
Miss Gerard had been playing The Marriage of Kitty on a starring tour of the West and had been notably successful. Christmas week, when the company took a rest, the star hurried East to spend the holidays with friends in New York City. In private life, she was Mrs. Francis C. Witter and lived with her husband, a performer in vaudeville, at 208 West Forty-first Street. A severe cold, contracted on her arrival in New York, became acute Saturday morning. She was then taken to the hospital. Death came at 2 o?clock Sunday morning.
Social Success Extraordinary
While a little girl in Washington Elizabeth Ordway attracted attention everywhere for her childish beauty and vivacity. At Georgetown Convent, her beauty increased and her vivacity led to a series of mild infractions of the rules and a premature termination of her studies. She made her debut in Washington society about eighteen years ago. As her family was very highly esteemed and her personality as irresistible as that of Carmen, her social success was extraordinary. All the young men of the Capital and her father?s club friends followed in her train. Miss Ordway?s receptions were thronged by grizzled old beaux, staid legislators and dazzling young diplomats and the daughter held court as though in a French salon.
The debutante?s accomplishments were many. She spoke several languages; she was naturally a musician and her voice, a beautiful soprano, had been highly developed in the convent and by private instruction. These charms, added to great beauty and a gay nature, earned for Miss Ordway outside of Washington the same leadership she enjoyed where her family was so influential.
A Belle at White Sulphur
Her winters were spent at White Sulphur Springs, where she reigned like the belles of the early fifties. On one occasion a young attaché of the French legation was one of the group which surrounded her chair. After listening to the compliments showered on Miss Ordway by men either conspicuous in American politics or prominent in the society of European capitals, he asked diffidently: Miss Ordway, how can I become famous, as you are?
I will show you, she answered, laughing. There was a whisk of drapery and in a moment his instructress stood on her chair holding aloft her slipper and pouring champagne into it.
Drink a toast to fame, she said. The young man took the slipper from her, turned to his associates and drank the toast while the hall of the hotel rang with cheers.
Her First Husband
As a young girl, Miss Ordway married Arthur Padelford, a Baltimorean, young like herself and rich. They went abroad and within three months the groom was suing for a divorce. A daughter, now living in Washington, was born to them.
The developments of the divorce suit robbed Capital City society of its charm for Mrs. Padelford. She chose, then to act on the advice of numerous admirers and go upon the stage. Her debut was made in the ephemeral opera, The King?s Fool, produced at the Colonial Theatre, Chicago. The tenor of the company was Jack Rafael and despite a jagged scar on his check, the soprano fell in love with him and married him. About four months later these two were divorced.
By this time, the woman had become known as Bettina Gerard and she kept that name, in spite of five later marriages, until her death. She acted in Rice?s The Seven Ages, was the heroine of In Old Kentucky, was one of the first recruits to vaudeville and since that time had sung and acted in dozens of roles and as many companies. After her divorce from Rafael, she married Harrison J. Wolfe, an actor; William G. Beach, an actor; Philip Schuyler, a theatrical agent; Frank Turner, a vaudeville performer and Francis C. Witter, whose wife she was when she died.
Was a Bohemian
Miss Gerard was conspicuously a Bohemian. Wherever she was, both a girl and woman, she sang and danced. It was temperamentally impossible for her to be serious long and this capacity for unending laughter and merry making made her personality extremely infectious on the stage.
Half a dozen times she came back to her parents in Washington to stay, but she could never stay long away from Bohemia. Her last failure saddened her father so that he never recovered. Family entreaty and influence failed to affect her. Apparently, no one regretted her instability more than she died herself, but she seemed powerless to correct it and eventually she abandoned her home in Washington altogether. [1]
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| Birth |
1869 |
Virginia  [1] |
| Gender |
Female |
| Fact |
Daughter of Albert Ordway [3] |
| Fact |
Between 29 Nov and Dec 1900 |
Arrived on the SS. Commonwealth from Liverpool to Boston, Mass. [2] |
| Death |
08 Jan 1905 |
Manhattan, New York Co., New York [1, 3] |
| Burial |
Rock Creek Cemetery, Washington, District of Columbia [1] |
| Notes |
- The Daily Northwestern - Oshkosh, Wi - Sept 13, 1887
OTHER PEOPLE
Mrs. Padelford, a daughter of Colonel Ordway, of Washington, is the only American lady outside of the diplomatic corps who has the entree to the gossip parlors of the Austrian court.
The Daily Northwestern - Oshkosh, WI - Oct 24, 1888
WILL MARRY AGAIN
New York Courts
New York, Oct. 24 - Great interest centers in the suit for divorce of Mrs. Padelford, the beautiful daughter of Gen. Ordway, on account of a report that as soon as she obtains a decree she will marry young George Eustis, grandson and heir of the millionaire, W.W. Corcoran. Three years ago she entered Washington society and was considered the prettiest debutante of the season. There she met her present husband. Last December she left him and returned to her father's house, taking with her her month-old child. Mrs. Padelford is very beautiful, has a superb voice and is but twenty-one years old.
Daily Northwestern - Oshkosh, Wisconsin - Dec 5, 1893
CAREER OF MISS GIRARD
Once a Famous Belle in Washington Society
Washington, Dec. 5 - The recent attempt of Miss Bertina Girard to suicide has brought her forward as the subject of gossip in circles here where she was once so well known. Miss Girard is the daughter of Gen. Albert Ordway, a prominent Washingtonian. Bettie Ordway was a few years ago the belle of Washington. She has traveled down a lane of sensation with the rapidity of an avalanche. She was generally conceded to be one of the most beautiful girls in the country for several seasons, and her fame was far and wide.
Her career really began at the "White", the famous Virginia watering place, where during the progress of a noontide lawn party she recklessly took off her white dancing slipper and invited a gentleman friend to drink some white wine therefrom. The little incident was overlooked and she returned to the city where she passed a brilliant season and had a score of suitors at her feet. In the June following one bright morning she walked down Pennsylvania avenue in a ravishing gown of some soft white stuff. When she got as far as Ninth Street, there were a dozen or more men in her wake. Among them was a policeman who had been attracted by the costume which was so decoletto that it attracted the attention of the multitude. The policeman whispered something to Miss Ordway, and when she returned home a bunch of violets and a muslin handkerchief were added to her costume.
Like many other indiscretions, this was overlooked, and the following year Miss Ordway selected Arthur Padelford from her score of admirers, and, after a remarkably brief engagement, was married to him. Padelford was enormously wealthy, and the following year the couple went abroad
There Mrs. Padelford met Carl Strictman, the famous Viennese tenor. Mr. Padelford was forced to return home on urgent business and left his wife abroad, hoping to be able to fetch her in a few weeks. While Mr. Padelford was in this country his wife was taken suddenly ill. Thinking she was dying, Mrs. Padelford wrote her husband a confession. When she returned home there was a divorce. Mrs. Padelford then adopted the name of Bettina Girard and went on the stage with the Duff company. She created a decidedly favorable impression with her beautiful figure and fairly good small voice.
Trenton Times - Trenton, New Jersey - Nov. 17, 1898
BETTINA GERARD AGAIN
By Telegraph to the Times
New York, Nov. 17. Elizabeth Ordway, better known by her stage name of Bettina Gerard, who was released yesterday afternoon from St. Saviour's Sanitarium, at Inwood, on an order of the Supreme Court, has declared it to be her intention to sue for a share in the estates of her husband, the late Arthur Padelford, and of her father, General Ordway. Padelford, who left an estate valued at $500,000, asserted several years before his death that he had obtained a divorce from his wife in Austria. He created a trust estate of $400,000 for his child. Bettina Gerard has retained A. H. Hummel to sue for her dower interest in the estate of Mr. Padelford on the theory that the divorce, if ever granted, was illegal.
Sanducky Star, Ohio - Dec. 7, 1898
A CHECKERED CAREER
Bettina Gerard has joined Sam T. Jack's forces and is being featured at that theater. Miss Gerard says she is whoolly restored to health both mentally and physically and declares that she only asked for a fair chance now to hold her own.
From her position as a petted Washington society favorite to becoming a burlesque actress in Sam T. Jack's Broadway theater is quite a leap, but Miss Gerard has made the jump, and in a comparatively few years.
It is not so many years ago that she, the daughter of General Albert Ordway, was the toast of the society beaux of the national capital. then came her marriage to Millionaire Padelford, a sensational divorce, her debut in opera, several other marriages and divorces, a dive into farce comedy and imprisonment in a sanitarium. Now she is a Sam T. Jack star.
The Daily Northwestern, Oshkosh, WI Sept 28, 1901
BETTINA GIRARD
She is Living in Retirement Now----
Her Marriages and Divorces Were the Talk of Two Continents.
A Denver special to a Chicago paper states that Mrs. Frances Witter, of the latter place has been quietly spending the summer at Denver. The dispatch is innocent in wording and tone and yet it recalls the life story of a woman, who has been the talk of two centuries and whose spirit got her into many difficulties and painful positions. Mrs. Witter is non other than Bettina Girard. Her career is one for the scrutiny of the psychologist.
Bettina Girard is the daughter of the late General Ordway, who died in New York in 1897, as the result of a broken heart as much as anything else. General Ordway was commander of the militia of the district of Columbia. He was wealthy, a club man and a social favorite. Bettina, or as she was christened, Elizabeth, was so beautiful that when she was sent to the convent at Georgetown the nums predicted a brilliant future made up of joy and love and well-doing. She finished her education at a private finishing school, where the society women of Washington were educated. She played and danced, and excelled in outdoor sports. In addition to this, she was a splended linguist. Her entrance into society was a brillant occasion. She was the brightest when a contest of wit was on. She was the life of a dinner. She was the one woman looked at in a ball-room. The summer following her debut, with General and Mrs. Ordway, she went to White Sulphur, Virginia's famous summer resort. At a dinner remarkable for the number of diplomats present a young attache of the French legation, who had fallen deeply in love with her, clapped his hands when a toast was proposed to her. He had taken her to dinner.
THE SLIPPER INCIDENT
"You will not listen to me," he said; " I am young, unknown. The men who pay you court are distinguished, famous. Mon Dieu, if fame would only come to me!"
"Bien," Betinna answered, "M'sieu I shall make you famous."
She sprang to the seat of her chair.
"Listen," she cried. "This gentleman will drink my health, and the health to fame."
Amid perfect silence she slipped off her satin slipper, filled it with sparking champagne and handed it to the young Frenchman. Although he blushed crimson in his embarrassment, he drank if off. Bettina snatched the slipper from him and drained another health.
It was talked of all over the country. General Ordway and his wife, scandalized, hastily left White Sulphur taking their daughter with them.
Shortly after this she met Arthur Padelford, the only son and heir of one of Boston's wealthies men. She married him. the wedding, which took place at St. John's church in Washington, was attended by all of the best social set.
"A good thing," said her friends; "the girl will now settle down."
The honeymoon was spent in Europe. They wandered happily down the Rhine, across the Alps, went into Italy and the wild spirit of the maiden seemed to have become tamed in the bride. In Vienna a child was born to them. It was over this child that they had their first quarrel. Padelford left her in Vienna, returning to this country. Many rumors followed him. As if to bring disgrace upon the name of Padelford, she decided to go upon the comic opera stage. In her debut she shared the honors with Henry Dixey. She was only twenty-one.
MARRIAGES AND DIVORCE
Divorced, she married aman named Gerard. She dropped the name of Padelford on her advertising matter upon the payment of $50,000 in cash from her former husband. And then, in quick succession, came marriage and divorce, marriage and divorce. Separating from Girard, she married Jack Rolface, a tenor who had been stabbed nearly to death a few months before by Robert Monroe. Then she became the wife of John Harrison Wolff, an actor. Then came William Beach, another actor. A Divorce suit was brought by Mrs. Philip Schuyler in which she figured as co-respondent. When it was ended Beach was divorced and Bettina added Schuyler to her already long list of names. Her father Ordway, offered her an annuity of $1,000 for life to leave the country. She went to London with Schuyler, and collapsed physically when she made her debut.
THE LAST CHAPTER
She returned to America and went into a private sanitaium, dissipation having so weakened her. It was in November of 1897 that General Ordway, Mrs. Ordway and Miss Padelford, Bettina Girard's daughter, returned from Europe to New York. They found Bettina lying deserted by her friends in Bellevue hospital. The old general shook his head when a reconciliation was mentioned; but Mrs. Ordway, the mother, pleaded with him, sobbingly. November 21 General Ordway died at the Hoffman house. Before he passed away, and due to the pleading of his wife, he permitted an interview with Bettina, and was making plans for a return to washington with her and a reunion of the family when he died.
Bettina finally recover her health and reently in Chicago she married Francis Witter, a youth just entering upon a promising theatrical career.
The Daily Review - Decatur, Illinois - Monday Jan 9, 1905
BETTINI GIRARD DEAD
Bettini Girard, an actress, a daughter of General Ordway of Washington, died Sunday in Roosevelt hospital at New York of acute pneumonia. She suddenly left "The Marriage of Kitty" compnay recently and came to New York.
She had a strange career.
Born of a good family 35 years ago, educated in convents and private schools, she made her debut in Washington. She was exceedingly beautiful of the face and form. Soon after her debut she married Arthur Padelford. They went to Europe on their honeymoon. When they reached Austria the husband secured a divorce. Elizabeth then went on the stage to begin a career of variations. One week she would be brilliant and vivacious, but the next she would be sick, some times being forced into a hospital on account of her mode of life.
Bettina Girard, her stage name, was married to seven men as follows; Arthur J. Padelford, millionaire, John J. Raffael, singer, Harrison J. Wolfe, actor, William G. Beach, actor, Philip Schuyler, theatrical agent, Frank Turner, vaudeville performer, and Francis C. Witter, vaudeville performer.
Mr. Witter, her husband, was with her at death. By his direction the body was sent to Washington for burial.
Coroner's Physician Weston made an examination of the body and decided that the woman died of acute pneumonia.
Bettie Ordway-Padelford.
Wedded to the Stage and Pleased with the Success of
Her Efforts.
(excerpts)
Washington Post
February 25, 1890
Pretty Mrs. Padelford, formerly Bettie Ordway,
never looked more charming than she did yesterday
afternoon seated in the parlor of her father's cosy
residence on Twentieth street. Her stage life has, if
anything, added to her attractiveness, and she is
still the same sparkling, vivacious little brunette
who was so well known in society circles here a few
years ago. .
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| Person ID |
I42033 |
Main Tree |
| Last Modified |
19 Mar 2022 |
| Family 1 |
Arthur PADELFORD, b. 1859, Savannah, Chatham Co., Georgia d. 9 Jun 1896, Paris, France (Age 37 years) |
| Marriage |
21 Oct 1885 |
St. John's Church in the District of Columbia [1] |
| Family ID |
F11137 |
Group Sheet | Family Chart |
| Last Modified |
19 Mar 2022 |
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| Photos |
 | Elizabeth Godwin Ordway
Elizabeth G. Ordway, was known as Bettina Girard, was an actress. An Old publicity photo, she is in costume.
Photo added by: Mashey Niblick |
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| Sources |
- [S02329] Find A Grave Website.
- [S01788] Ancestry.com: Immigration - Boston Passenger Lists, 1820-1943.
- [S01784] Ancestry.com: Historical Newspapers.
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