By Heather Matthews
Staff Writer

Mirror/Heather Matthews MaryEllen Stafford will play Mary Elliot, the founder of the Elliot Hospital, at the Friends of the Valley Cemetery’s fourth annual Strawberry Shortcake Festival, on Saturday, June 10.

Mary Elliot, the founder of Elliot Hospital, died in the late 1800s, but on Saturday, June 10, Manchester residents will have the chance to meet her – or at least a version of her – on her gravesite in the Valley Cemetery.

MaryEllen Stafford of Manchester will reprise her role as Mary Elliot for the third year in a row in conjunction with the annual Friends of The Valley Cemetery Strawberry Shortcake Festival.

The festival will feature live music, tours of the cemetery, all the free strawberry shortcake you can eat and five actors from the Majestic Theatre playing founding members of Manchester and some of the Queen City’s most important legacies.

“This gives everyone the chance to see who did what and who was involved with the city’s past,” Stafford said. “The history of Manchester is so rich, and it has so much more than people give it credit for. The festival really shows Manchester’s cast of characters. They are all buried right here in the cemetery, and no one knows about them.”

For more information, e-mail info@valley-cemetery.com.

– Heather Matthews, Staff Writer

Mary Elliot was born in 1823 and donated the money that founded the Elliot Hospital in honor of her husband, John, who had passed away. She died in 1880, and the hospital was erected a few years after her death.

Her mother wanted the hospital called Elizabeth’s Hospital. In those days everyone’s first name was Mary for religious purposes, so Mary always went by “Elizabeth” with her mother.

They don’t give us a lot to go on, and I haven’t been able to find very much on her on my own. I know she and John were married for quite a while before he passed away, and he was a doctor. That’s why she gave the money to build a hospital.

Q. How do you bring someone like Mary Elliot to life?

I watched a lot of BBC adaptations so I could get a good frame and basis for the character and create a character that could translate so people of today could still relate to her even if I don’t act the same way as she did.

A lot of people were so prim and proper back then, but because she was so well-known, I think Mary Elliot was less so. I see her as a Molly Brown sort of character. I think she was probably less afraid to speak her mind.

Q. What happens if a person asks you something about your character that you don’t know the answer to?

We point them to the Strawberry Fest organizers. (Laughs). We only know a little bit about each of the character’s histories. We were given a story written in the third person, but Rob (A. Robert Dionne of Majestic Theatre) turned it into a first person script.

And it’s not like we are Plymouth Plantation. We will break character and tell people that we don’t know the answer to the question, but we have people over there that can fill you in.

Q. How does the audience react to seeing the actors playing some one who is buried in the cemetery?

There’s a whole range of reactions to us. There are some people who are really into the spirit of the day. They just absorb all the info. But then there are people who are just there for the strawberries. It’s a big saucer ride for the kids, too. Some people want to know why there are dead people walking around.

Q. Is it weird playing a dead person on her gravesite?

It could be, but I like the creepy stuff. And we’re not here to frighten people. We’re here to teach people about things that they take for granted, like the Elliot Hospital and how it came to be. A lot of people know the hospital well, some of them were even born there. But when you know why it’s there, it’s a cool piece to put into the puzzle.

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