Born Mary C Reynolds in Tioga, Pennsylvania. She was little more than a teenager when she persuaded her father to allow her to join the Hyers Sisters Act in 1882. The very next season she was married to Sam Hyers, (Anna and Emmas dad) then 53yrs old and manager of the company. For some insane reason there is info out there saying she is one of the Hyers Sisters ... this is false. At one point she was part of the act but she was NOT Anna or Emmas sister. She was the girls (extremely young) stepmom. Folks, do your research! May Hyers was a contralto singer and thus in direct competition with her step-daughter, Emma Louise. As the young wife of the company manager, it is possible that her sudden acquisition caused a rift between Sam Hyers and his daughters, by the Spring of 1883 the sisters (Anna and Emma) had left their fathers company which thereafter was called by his name, the S.B. Hyers Company. Trivia: She was the first African American female singer to make recordings ... the records were cut as brown wax cylinders. Unfortunately, none of her recordings survived.
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 17:52:46 +0000
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