FORTUNES LOST

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22490, 6 August 1936, Page 9

FORTUNES LOST

OLD MATCH-SELLER DEATH OCCURS IN LONDON "Old Kate," a match-seller in Aldwych, London, or Kate Lucille Foote, as she was once known, has died in a London County Council institution. She was familiar to thousands who every day passed her pitch, just where the omnibuses halt at the corner of Aldwych and the Strand. She sat there in sunshine or rain, swathed in clothes, with a red flannel scarf about her neck, her face toward the Gaiety Theatre, the successor of that where once lights had flashed her name, for she had been an actress, and she had also travelled extensively, entertained lavishly and been well known in Continental casinos. During the 11 years she occupied her pitch she made many friends and through them gossip of the theatre still filtered through to her. Kate was the daughter of an American colonel. She first went on the stage when she was 20, and from parts in an American three-shows-a-day circuit was soon playing leading roles in well-known theatres. She was with George Edwardes in London for three or four years.

Kate was married three times and each of her husbands left her a fortune. Her last husband left her £25,000. Some time afterwards she went to the Monte Carlo casino with a party of friends, won thousands of pounds, lost them again, and returned to London with little money but the bare fare. She sought work in rain and, at last, already grey-liaired, sho became one of London's match-sellers. "1 have been a fool," was how sho summed-up her life. Early this year Kate was ill, but twice sho returned to her pitch. The 'matron of Cecil House, Waterloo Road, where Kate lived, stated: "She was about 70 years of age, and she had been ill for some time. She kept her dignity to the last. From time to time one of her regular customers, knowing that her health was breaking down, would send her home in a taxi and if any special gifts came our way they would be set aside for Kate." Old Kate left about £2, with instructions that on her death it should be sent to a friend of hers. Other pathetic relics included soveral boxes of matches, and her snuff-box, but there was nothing in her possessions relating to her earlier days.