The Herald Democrat in Leadville, Colorado, recently published "Colorado author revisits life and legend of Silver Dollar Tabor in new novel." The article is ahead of author Rebecca Rosenberg's upcoming Colorado book tour for her latest historical fiction, Silver Echoes.

We share the article by Allison Brown below:

Award-winning historical novelist Rebecca Rosenberg will speak at the Tabor Opera House on Sunday, Aug. 31, to share the story of Rose Mary Silver Dollar Tabor, a silent film starlet whose life was marked by ambition, tragedy and scandal.

The appearance is the first in Rosenberg’s Colorado Book Tour for her latest novel, “Silver Echoes.”

While many Coloradans know the story of the Tabor family — a rags-to-riches and back-to-rags tale marked by both philanthropy and scandal — there is less information about the youngest daughter, Rose Mary Echo “Silver Dollar” Tabor. Rosenberg’s novel suggests that much of what has been said about Silver Dollar may not be accurate.

Using previously untapped sources, including letters Tabor wrote to her mother, Rosenberg sheds new light on Silver Dollar’s mysterious life and death.

“Silver Echoes is based on a true story about the silent film starlet Silver Dollar Tabor, and how she has to flee Denver to protect herself and her mother, Baby Doe, from an attacker,” Rosenberg said. “A lot of this history about Silver Dollar is not really known because no one really wrote a lot about her, but I have letters from my sources.”

In the novel, Tabor transforms into an alter ego, Echo LaVode, while moving through Chicago’s Prohibition-era speakeasies in the 1920s. A parallel storyline follows Baby Doe in 1932 as she struggles to hold on to the family’s Matchless Mine while searching for the truth behind her daughter’s death.

Rosenberg said her research uncovered evidence suggesting Tabor may have struggled with dissociative identity disorder.

“In all these letters to her mother, Silver Dollar asks her mother to write her back as a different person, as a different name,” she said. “Sometimes she asks her to write her back as Echo LaVode, sometimes Mrs. Robinson.”

Rosenberg said the letters point to something more complex than the dismissive labels often attached to Tabor.

“She has been called a floozy, a drunkard, a drug user,” she said. “But these letters show a woman who was fractured and deeply struggling, not just the caricature history made her out to be.”

The story is a personal one to Rosenberg, who said she has long been captivated by the Tabor family.

“I moved to Colorado when I was five years old, and I heard about Baby Doe right away. I started buying all the little brochures that were written on her,” she said. “Over the years, I always wanted to see anything about Baby Doe Tabor.”

That interest led her to write “Gold Digger: The Remarkable Baby Doe Tabor,” which earned Rosenberg two national gold awards. Her research included studying Baby Doe’s diaries and letters, visiting historic sites in Leadville and Central City and reviewing rare books and newspaper accounts.

While researching for “Gold Digger,” Rosenberg said she was “haunted” by the image of young Silver Dollar, raised alone by the disgraced Baby Doe in a small shack after the family’s fortune collapsed. As she learned more, Rosenberg said she was struck by both Silver Dollar’s potential and the tragic way her life ended.

“She was incredibly talented,” Rosenberg said. “She wrote poems, she wrote plays, she wrote songs, she wrote a novel and she was a dancer and a singer and an actress. If she had any help at all along the way, she would have been a star.”

The Tabors were once celebrated for their philanthropy and contributions to Colorado, Rosenberg said, but much of that was overshadowed by scandal. Through her novels, she hopes to restore some balance to their legacy.

“My mission is really to clear Silver Dollar’s name,” Rosenberg said. “She deserves to be remembered as more than the tragedy that befell her.”

The Leadville event will include a presentation with visuals and an open discussion. The Tabor Opera House will be open for tours beforehand and will serve alcoholic beverages during the program. Rosenberg said she couldn’t imagine a more fitting venue to kick off her book tour.

“The people of Colorado, they know the history, and they will have their own opinions of it,” Rosenberg said. “This is a totally different take on Silver Dollar, and I mean it in great respect of her talent and her mother’s relationship.”

Read the article here.