100 years ago in Spokane: Just like today, a well-known athlete and actress married impetuously

From our archives, 100 years ago

The city was abuzz with talk of a celebrity marriage – or what passed for one in 1916 Spokane.

Hugh Pace, one of the city’s top amateur baseball players, tied the knot with Miss Edith Guerin, better known by her stage name of Dimple Kelton.

She was a well-known stage actress, currently a leading lady in the Lawrence Stock Company at San Francisco’s Wigwam Theater.

Pace was the treasurer of Spokane’s Auditorium Theater, and he had met Dimple Kelton several years ago when she was in Spokane in a touring show. They had apparently kept in touch, even though Miss Kelton’s stage work took her away from Spokane.

When she had a break in her schedule, she took a vacation to Spokane. While in town, Pace and Kelton went out for an automobile ride with another couple. During the ride, “the conversation drifted to marriage” and the other couple “asked them when they intended to be married.” They reminded Pace and Kelton that a marriage license could be secured in Coeur d’Alene at any hour of the night.

Pace immediately “headed his machine for Coeur d’Alene. They arrived there at about 11 p.m. They got “both the county auditor and the minister out of bed to issue the license and perform the ceremony.”

The bride “announces that she intends to give up the stage life and that they will commence housekeeping at once.”