Background
She was born Edith Barnes on March 22, 1892, in Saint Louis, Missouri and studied in Boston, Philadelphia, and Paris.
She was born Edith Barnes on March 22, 1892, in Saint Louis, Missouri and studied in Boston, Philadelphia, and Paris.
She made her singing début on January 27, 1912, as Nedda in Pagliacci with the Boston Opera Company. During the next three years, she sang in Europe at Nice, Marseilles, and Paris. In 1914 she was singing at the Opera Comique in Paris when the war terminated her engagement.
Returning to America, she made her debut at the Metropolitan as Sophie in Der Rosen-Cavalier on November 20, 1915.
In 1921 she became one of the leading singers of the Chicago Opera Association. She remarried Polacco on May 15, 1931.
They divorced in 1937. She died of a stroke in San Diego, California on November 26, 1973 at age 80.
From 1917 to 1919, she was a member of the Metropolitan Opera Company.
