Elizabeth Poe

Elizabeth “Eliza” Poe, formerly, Hopkins, nee, Arnold, Jr. (1787, at, London, England - December 8, 1811, at, Richmond, Virginia), was an American theatre actress and the mother of Edgar Allan Poe. Edgar’s father, David Poe, Jr., abandoned his family when Edgar was a year old. After David, abandoned his family, Eliza struggled to both raise her three young children, and participate in dozens of roles in theaters from Boston to Charleston. She succumbed to the ravages of tuberculosis, while touri