Evelyn Hoey

Evelyn Hoey (December 15, 1910 – September 11, 1935) was a Broadway theatre torch singer and actress.

Life and career

Hoey was noted for her performances in Fifty Million Frenchmen and Good News. She began performing at the age of 10 in Minneapolis. As an adult she appeared in London, England and Paris, France. She had one movie credit with a role in the 1930 comedy Leave It To Lester. The film was directed by Frank Cambria and co-starred Lester Allen and Hal Thompson.

Mysterious death

Hoey was found shot to death in an upstairs bedroom of oil heir Henry H. Rogers III's Indian Run Farm house, Wallace Township near Downingtown, Pennsylvania in 1935. A bullet was discharged in her brain on the night of September 11. She had been a guest at the home for a week. Others present there during this time were Rogers, photographer William J. Kelley, a Japanese cook, George Yamada, a butler, and Rogers' chauffeur, Frank Catalano. Hoey's body was removed to a morgue in Downingtown. Later the body was taken to the county hospital in West Chester, Pennsylvania for an autopsy.