Early Years
Born Narcissa Florence Foster in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to Charles Dorrance Foster and Mary Jane Hoagland, Jenkins received music lessons as a child, and expressed a desire to go abroad to study opera. Her wealthy father refused to pay the bill, so she eloped to Philadelphia with Frank Thornton Jenkins, a physician. The two were married from 1885 until 1902. After her divorce Jenkins earned a living in Philadelphia as a teacher and pianist. In 1908 she began living with the stage actor St. Clair Bayfield (later her manager), a relationship that would last the rest of her life.
When her father died in 1909 Jenkins inherited sufficient funds to begin her long-delayed singing career. She took voice lessons and became involved in the musical social circles of Philadelphia and, later, New York City, where she founded and funded the Verdi Club. She began giving recitals in 1912. Her mother's death in 1928 gave her additional resources to pursue her singing career.
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