Doris Struble Harmon (after first marriage), Doris Seyller (after second marriage)
Occupation(s)
Singer, pianist, dramatic reader
Years active
1910s, 1920s
Doris June Struble (June 21, 1895 – 1976) was an American pianist, singer, and dramatic reader, based in California. As a young woman, she toured North America, Australia, and New Zealand, and performed on radio; in her later years, she wrote poetry and was a popular children's hospital entertainer in Fresno.
Early life
Doris June Struble was born in Sioux City, Iowa, the daughter of Michael A. Struble[1] and Sarah June Pattenden Struble. She studied piano from childhood,[2] and graduated from Sioux City Central High School in 1913.[3] In 1914, she starred in a large church pageant in Sioux City.[4] She trained as a performer at the Columbia College of Dramatic Art in Chicago, and as a singer with Oscar Saenger in New York.[5]
Career
Struble toured as a pianist, singer, and dramatic reader on the Chautauqua circuit in the United States and Canada in the 1910s and 1920s.[6][7] She appeared in Australia and New Zealand in 1918 and 1919, as a member of the Southern Seas Sextette (an all-woman musical ensemble),[8] as a soloist, and accompanying singer Carrie Lanceley.[9][10] She performed her own works, and pieces by Edna Ferber, Mana-Zucca, Edgar Guest, Carrie Jacobs-Bond, Charles Wakefield Cadman, and other writers.[5] She was especially active in California, often seen on women's club programs and at other community events.[11][12][13] Her act also worked on radio.[14] She continued performing her dramatic readings for community groups into the 1940s.[15]
In the 1950s and 1960s, Doris Struble Harmon wrote short poems that appeared in newspapers including The Wall Street Journal.[16][17][18][19][20] In the 1970s, she was known as the "Fairy Godmother" of Valley Children's Hospital, because she would dress up in a silver cloak, a tiara, and carry a magic wand to visit the young patients to tell them stories.[21][22][23]
Personal life
Doris June Struble married Sturges Harmon of Chicago in 1923.[24][25] They had two children, James and Sarah. She was widowed in 1973, and married again in 1974, to Kennard Burdette Seyller Sr.[26] She died in 1976, aged 81 years, in Fresno, California.[21][22]
