Marie "Rose Marie" Laraia

Marie aka "Rose Marie Hayes and her sister Maybelle Hayes were vaudeville performers and actresses who did shows throughout the Nevada gold mining towns around the turn of the century. Marie married a violinist from San Francisco named Attilio Laraia and Mabelle Married John Walton "J.W. Flood. JW Flood built the first and only movie theatre in Fallon Nevada. There is more information available on the Hayes sisters and J.W. Flood in the archives at the university Nevada Reno. This portrait was originally purchased by Dottie Mc Guinness from Marie Hayes Laraia at Marie's yard sale in Reno Nevada in the late 1970's Dottie stated that Marie had said that she was the last of her people and there was no one else for her to give it to so she was selling it along with many other beautiful things that she no longer felt she needed. Marie died in 1991 so this would have been about 20 years before she passed away. The portrait hung in the Double Eagle saloon in Fallon Nevada for many years, the bb hole in the frame was caused by Dottie Mc Ginness' son Russ, who many years ago before he died and was closing down the saloon and liquidating his parents estate, gave the portrait to me. I have had it at the museum in Fallon Nevada for a few years of and on and it has been with me since 1996. I am planning to, if I cannot locate her blood relatives planning to donate it to the museum that is in the Courthouse in Goldfield Nevada as it is one of the towns where she would have performed in 1910-1920's as it seems an appropriate place for her to continue on...