Phoebe Isabelle Bassor Watson Rosenfeld

Rosenfeld, Phoebe Isabelle Bassor Watson (Mary Wynn) Last remaining member of "Birth of a Nation" cast dies at age 99 In an acting career that spanned about ten years, but moved her from the stage of the old Belasco Theater in San Francisco to the silent screen of Hollywood, Phoebe Isabelle Bassor Watson Rosenfeld, died Saturday, December 22, at age 99 at the Silverado Senior Living Community in Calabasas. Phoebe was born in San Francisco on March 13, 1902, and was living there at the time of the catastrophic 1906 earthquake. But shortly thereafter she received a scholarship to study dancing under Ruth St Dennis at her Los Angeles studio. There, she was noticed and signed on by agents for famed movie producer and director D.W. Griffith. It was 1914 and he was then casting for his film epic "Birth of a Nation". Phoebe was given a small but pivotal part in the film. As shown in the few minutes of her screen appearance, Phoebe and a young boy playmate cover themselves with sheets and jump out of concealment in some bushes to frighten a group of black children walking along a country road. In the scene, the frightened and fleeing children were observed by the film's hero/protagonist the Little Colonel. This became his inspiration for garbing his newly formed gang of avengers, the infamous Ku Klux Klan. Phoebe, by then using the stage name of Mary Wynn, went on to appear in many other films. For awhile, she worked in Christie Comedy one-reelers, even co-starring in one titled "Blondes". She also performed in a silent version of the Victorian play, "Charlie's Aunt" and several westerns. Also, while under contract to the J.R. Frothingham firm, she starred in the circa 1921 film, "The Man Who Smiled". But Mary Wynn left this promising career in her early twenties to marry and have children. She leaves her sister, Aida McKean, and daughters, Barbara Chase and Patricia Peterson, all of West Hills, and step daughter Janice Thomas of Reseda; also six grandchildren, ten great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. Widowed from L.A. Philharmonic violist Josef Rosenfeld in 1971, Phoebe had moved to the valley to be near her extended family. During that period she was an active member of the Canoga Park Women's Club and the Canoga Park Friends of the Library.