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Dentist Dr. Mervin B. Rimes (b.
1867 and his wife,Bertha Rimes (b. 1867), took their
three sons to the Mr. Bluebeard matinee at
Chicago's glittering new Iroquois Theater. Ten year old
Myron L. Rimes (b. 1893), six year old Martin L Rimes (b. 1897)
and five year old Lloyd B. Rimes (b. 1898)
were probably spellbound by the aerial dancers and
Eddie Foy's antics.
At home their grandmother, Percis Jackson Luff (1835–1918), looked after their little
sister, Ora R. Rimes (1900–2002).
By days end the entire
theater party of five had perished in America's worst theater disister, leaving three year
old Ora an orphan.
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Myron and Martin had attended the
Lewis-Champlin school with two other Iroquois
theater victims —
Francis Lucile Oakey and Eva Hire.
Francis's father was also a dentist and
according to a dental trade magazine the Oakey and Rimes family attended the
theater together. (I've found some other trade
paper eulogies that were not accurate but this one
at least does not confuse the Oakey and Oakley
families.)
Bertha and Mervin had married
in 1891. By 1900 he was prosperous enough to
afford a Swedish servant.
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In the years after the fire
Percis and her daughter,
Margaret Luff, raised Ora Rimes. She grew up
to graduate from college, marry Francis G. Kinglsey,
with whom she had a daughter, also named Ora.
Her husband, a wealthy and influential businessman,
was a principle in Milliken Textiles, a financial
adviser to the Manhattan Project and co-producer of
the annual Milliken Breakfast TV Show. She lived a long life.
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