[4] May attracted such attention that at end of her first full season in 1901, whilst still only a teenager, she was engaged by Frank L. Perley as one of the principals for his touring company for the musical comedy The Chaperons.

Next she was engaged as understudy for the great Alice Nielson in San Francisco and in 1902 had the opportunity to accompany her to London but demurred on that occasion due to a fear of the sea crossing.

In April 1904, May was engaged to replace Bessie Wynne in the role of 'Sir Dashemoff Daily' in The Wizard of Oz and in September of that year followed that same actress in Babes in Toyland.

Worse, she alleged that he frequently beat her, always being careful to restrict his blows to her torso so as not to leave marks that might give away his abuse or impair her ability to earn money.

Continuing her career on both sides of the Atlantic, she was in France shortly before the outbreak of the Great War and escaped the German invasion by the margin of only a few weeks.

[6] In 1918, De Sousa appeared in a touring theatrical production in Australia, Goody Two-Shoes, produced by George Tallis for the J.W.

Her husband died in 1941, and in 1943, following a seven-month imprisonment as a civilian internee under the Japanese in Chapei Civil Assembly Center, in Shanghai, China, she returned to the United States on the Gripsholm[7] and took a job in Chicago as a scrubwoman in the public-school system.