Elizabeth Florence Dunbar

Quick Facts

Significance:

Sister of Paul Laurence Dunbar

Place of Birth:

Dayton, Ohio

Date of Birth:

March 26, 1874

Place of Death:

Dayton, Ohio

Date of Death:

May 30, 1876

Place of Burial:

Dayton, Ohio

Cemetery Name:

Woodland Cemetery & Arboretum

Sister of Paul, Elizabeth (Liza) Florence Dunbar was born at her maternal grandmother’s house on Howard Street in Dayton, Ohio, to Matilda and Joshua Dunbar. Elizabeth contracted various illnesses during her short life, and Felton O. Best suggested in a 1992 doctoral dissertation that Elizabeth’s illnesses and need for medicines exacerbated the family’s limited finances and led to confrontations between Joshua and Matilda that damaged their unstable marriage. With Matilda responsible for earning most of the family’s income and with Joshua rarely assuming paternal duties, Matilda assigned Paul (at the time between 2 and 4 years old) responsibilities for rocking and otherwise quieting Elizabeth. She died of marasmus (malnutrition) and is buried in Dayton’s Woodland Cemetery.