LOUISE DE MORTIE.
Although born free, in Norfolk, Virginia, Mrs. De Mortie’s education was limited. This, however, she strove to improve by studying when the time for her school days had passed. She came to Boston in 1853, we believe, and made it her home. In the autumn of 1862, Mrs. De Mortie began as a public reader in Boston, and her rare ability, eloquent rendering of the poets, pleasing manner, and good sense, gained for her a host of admiring friends, among whom were some of the leading men and women of the country, and a successful public career seemed to be before her. But hearing of the distress and want amongst the colored children of New Orleans, left orphans by the war, she resolved to go there, and devote herself to their welfare. Although urged by her relatives and friends at the North to leave New Orleans until the yellow fever had ceased, she refused to desert her post, saying that her duty was with her helpless race.
In 1867, Mrs. De Mortie undertook to raise the means to build an Orphan Home, and succeeded in obtaining the amount required for the erection of the building. But her useful career was cut short by the yellow fever. She died on the tenth of October, 1867, in the thirty-fourth year of her age. She bore her illness with Christian fortitude, and in her last moments said, with a childlike simplicity, “I belong to God, our Father.”
The announcement of her death was received with regret by her large circle of friends at the North, while the newspapers of New Orleans, her adopted home, spoke of her in the most eulogistic terms.
Mrs. De Mortie was a remarkably gifted and brilliant woman. In personal appearance, she was somewhat taller than the middle height, with a Grecian cast of countenance, eyes dark and sparkling, lips swelling, forehead high, refined manners, and possessing energy which always brings success. In fact, it may be truthfully said, that Louise De Mortie was one of the most beautiful of her sex.