Crow was bornApril 3, 1839 in St. Louis, Missouri. She was the daughter of Wayman Crow, a businessman, politician, philanthropist, and founder of Washington University, and Isabella Buck Conn. She had three sisters: Cornelia Carr, Mary Emmons, and Isabella Kealhofer as well as one brother, Wayman Crow Jr.
Career
Emma Crow did not pursue her career until later in life when she wrote two books. The first, Insight; a Record of Psychic Experiences: a Series of Questions and AnswersDealing with the World of Facts, and the World of Ideas and the World of Realities Among Death, was published in 1918 and the second, Shadows in the Glass, was published in 1920.
Personal life
Emma Crow met actress Charlotte Cushman in St. Louis, Missouri in 1858. Cushman had come to St. Louis for a two week engagement where she planned to meet Emma’s father, her friend Harriet Hosmer's patron, in order to receive financial advice. Emma saw Cushman as Romeo in Romeo and Juliet and wrote in her diary that she was the “incarnation of the ideal lover”, even though Cushman was twenty-two years her senior. Emma’s father introduced the two women shortly after and for the remainder of Cushman’s engagement Emma stayed in her company. Together they took long rides in the afternoons along the Mississippi and visited in Cushman’s dressing room before her performances. By the time the two weeks were up Cushman was calling Emma her “little lover”. However, Cushman was already “married” to another woman with the same first name, Emma Stebbins. In order to keep Emma close to her and her “wife’s” jealous at bay, Cushman encouraged Emma to marry her nephew and adopted son, Ned Cushman. Although Emma’s father was initially hesitant, Cushman convinced him of Ned’s competence and Emma and Ned were married on April 3, 1861. Emma had five boys with Ned: Wayman Crow Cushman, Allerton Seward Cushman, Edwin Charles Cushman, Victor N. Cushman, and Guy Cushman. However, their marriage couldn’t compete with the passion Emma felt for Cushman as they continued to exchange loving letters until Cushman’s death.
