Jennie "Jane" Morgan"They Surprised Their Friends; Wedding of Miss Jennie Morgan and Leo C. Bryant Quietly Solemnized". The Anaconda Standard. Feb 19, 1901. p. 5. Retrieved May 5, 2024. (December 6, 1880 – January 1, 1972) was a British-born American actress and singer whose career encompassed concert halls, vaudeville, the legitimate stage, radio, television, and film, best known as Eve Arden's absentminded landlady Mrs. Davis on the radio and television versions of Our Miss Brooks.
Early life Morgan was born in Warmley, Gloucestershire to Welsh parents on December 6, 1880,Los Angeles Times, January 3, 1972. and within a year crossed the Atlantic to be raised in Boston, Massachusetts. Upon her graduation from the New England Conservatory of Music, she began performing with the Boston Opera Company as a singer and violin player earning $25 per week.Ottawa Citizen, October 24, 1952. By 1900, she was living with her widowed father and a brother in Anaconda, Montana, where she became a frequent performer in amateur theatre productions and community events. Her father, Roderick "Rod" Morgan, worked as a blacksmith in Anaconda while her older brother, Charles, supported his family as a machinist.1900 US Census Records
Marriage
On Sunday, February 17, 1901, she married Leo Cullen Bryant, a 23-year-old native of Albion, Wisconsin,World War II Draft Registration who taught music and headed The Margaret Theatre Orchestra in Anaconda.The Anaconda Standard, February 19, 1901 The following month, the Bryants opened a music school in Butte, Montana, teaching piano and violin."Butte Notes". The Anaconda Standard. March 3, 1901. p. 7. Retrieved May 5, 2024.
A few years later, they moved their business to Nampa, Idaho, and shortly thereafter began performing on the vaudeville circuit. Leo Bryant eventually became known as a pioneer symphony violinist and innovative music teacher. The couple had a daughter, Aline (or Alice),1910 & 1920 US Census Records and remained together until Leo's death in Los Angeles on March 20, 1955.Los Angeles Times, March 22, 1955.
Career By the 1910s and probably earlier, Morgan was touring in dramas and musical comedies such as The Master Mind (1914, with Carl Rickert),The Washington Post, October 20, 1914. The Silent Voice (1914, with Otis Skinner),The National Theatre, Washington, DC timeline Her Temporary Husband (1926),Los Angeles Times, June 26, 1926. She Couldn't Say No (1930, with Charlotte Greenwood),Oakland Tribune, March 1, 1930 and Tattle Tales (1933, with Barbara Stanwyck).The New York Times, May 18, 1933.
In 1930, she began working on radio plays and series. Jane Morgan became a stock performer on the Lux Radio TheaterFairbanks Daily News-Miner, February 6, 1940. and was remembered for her work as part of the cast of Point Sublime, and on such radio plays as House Undivided as Mother Adams,The Oakland Tribune, June 2, 1937 The Walls Came Tumbling Down (1941, with Keenan Wynn), and The Horn Blows at Midnight (1949, with Jack Benny). She made regular appearances on the Jack Benny and Bob Hope radio shows, and played Hal Peary's mother on The Harold Peary Show but she was best-known as Mrs. Davis, Eve Arden's motherly landlady on the radio and television versions of Our Miss Brooks.
Death Morgan retired after the nine-year run of Our Miss Brooks on radio, television, and film came to an end in 1957.
She died at the age of 91 in North Hollywood, California, on New Years Day 1972, after a lengthy battle with heart disease. Morgan was buried at sea in compliance with her last wishes.The Oakland Tribune, January 3, 1972.
References