At almost 25, Junius Booth left England after abandoning his wife and small son in favor of a Covent Garden Theatre flower girl. When 18 year-old Mary Ann Holmes entrusted her future to him she could not have guessed what lay ahead. She quietly endured Booth's long absences from home, his erractic behavior and his marriage to another woman. Finally, after 30 years together, they wed in 1851, on John Wilkes Booth's birthday.
She was the stable presence in the Booth home, a private, bookish person but indulgent with those she loved. She admitted that John was her favorite child, and in her opinion, the best-looking.
"The Civil War, The Assassination", Time - Life books, pages 16 -17
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