Mrs. Edward Knight

Mrs. Edward Knight, née Mary Ann Povey (1804–1861) was an English-American singer and actress in comic opera.

[1][2][a] She was described as "especially good in comic opera", and as time went on she portrayed an increasing range of characters and became affiliated with the Park Theatre.

[3] At age 12 she became a student of Mr. Tom Cooke and made her stage debut as a singer at Drury Lane Theatre in 1817.

[2] When she arrived in the United States in the 1820s, she "stood at the very summit of popular regard, and her songs were certainly given with a spirit and expressiveness at that time entirely unrivalled... As an actress in comic opera, she was superior to any contemporary star; and in later life, in a broader range of chambermaids, country girls and elderly spinsters, she acquired a deservedly high repute.

Four years later, she returned to England after becoming partially blind as a result of a disease caused by excessive weeping.