After several forgotten shows, she starred in her most memorable role in George M. Cohan’s 1906 Forty-five Minutes from Broadway, where she introduced two of its hit songs: “Mary’s a Grand Old Name” and “So Long, Mary.” After marriage to a wealthy industrialist later that year, she semi-retired.

Templeton returned to the stage in a 1912 Weber/Fields’ production and revivals of H.M.S. Pinafore. She made her only film, Broadway to Hollywood, in 1933 and later that year appeared in her final Broadway show, Jerome Kern’s Roberta, where she introduced “Yesterdays.”

In 1942 she was unrealistically portrayed by Irene Manning in Yankee Doodle Dandy. In real life Templeton was short, had a deep, seductive voice, an abrupt manner, and feisty personality.

- Sandra Burlingame