Meet The Characters: Elizabeth Cole

Get to know the people...get to know the story. And join us in September for auditions in Fergus Falls, MN!

ELIZABETH JACQUELINE (HARRINGTON) COLE – AGE 47


HISTORY
- Born April 26th, 1885 in Cook County, Illinois
- Daughter of: Dr. Merlin Gary Harrington & Celestine Caroline (Bower) Harrington

o Siblings: NA

PERSONAL DESCRIPTION
- Occupation: minister’s wife
- Location: Rock Valley, Iowa (Sioux County)

- Personal interview: “Arden means well. I support him. I do. Though I wish that I could see my parents again.”
- Character profile: Elizabeth, a single child of a wealthy doctor, grew up in the luxury and limelight of Chicago at the turn of the century. Unaware of the dark parts of the city, she delighted in glittering coming-of-age parties, social dances, and birthday costume balls. She lovingly draped her arm through her father’s any chance she could get and enjoyed parading around the city with her beautiful parents. She attended finishing school and learned how to perform as a respected, eligible young lady. She met Arden at a seminary gathering, where her father spoke for a retirement luncheon. She had never seen anyone so handsome, and yet knew he was as penniless as the simplest of maids at home. He was daring. Secretive. And spiritually elegant. She hung on his every word and would meet him privately at the corner of her street whenever she could. Without so much as a word to her parents, they were married by the judge in the summer of 1920 and hurriedly sped off to the nearest Indian reservation in Minnesota for what Arden claimed as the “spiritual opportunity of a lifetime to convert the rejected.” From there they traveled all over the country and finally settled in Rock Valley, Iowa. She hasn’t seen her parents since and would never admit to anyone that Arden didn’t turn out to be the hero of ministers after all.