The countess

Depending on which news story you believe, Blanche McDonald started life in Newcomerstown, Ohio, or nearby Coshocton, where her father ran a hotel. By 1897, she had married Julian Segundo, a Spanish nobleman with the title of count de Ovies. In the early 1900s, he was the Chilean consul in Pittsburgh.

As his wife, Countess Blanca de Ovies entertained members of Pittsburgh society by reading palms. She wrote a book about palm reading and criminal psychology. The Pittsburgh Press described her as a cultured pianist who spoke French, English and Spanish in a low voice.

After the count died at age 57 in 1910, his wife asked doctors to remove his heart and embalm it so it could be sent to Spain for burial in a stone sepulcher. This ancient practice, customary for nobility, was legally necessary so the widow and her children could claim the count’s ancestral estate.

Agnes Taylor, who was born in Pittsburgh in 1885, also had reason to be proud of her achievements. By 1930, the AfricanAmerican woman was employed in Chicago as a practical nurse. Ten years later, she returned to Pittsburgh to live with her sister, Stella.

Agnes Taylor was employed by Dr. Robert A. Woods, whose will provided for her unmarked grave in Homewood Cemetery. But the enterprising woman earned a second income that was likely more lucrative. During the 1940s and 1950s, she ran a “tourist home” that was listed in the Green book, a guide to hotels, barber shops, nightclubs, restaurants and hospitals. Black people who traveled used the guide to obtain services when America was segregated.

The “tourist home” once stood at 2612 Center Ave. and among the guests were Nat King Cole, the famous crooner.