Biography - Patia Power

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Tyrone's mother was the beautiful and talented stage actress, Helen Emma Reaume Power, who held the stage name of Patia Power. She was born in Indiana on March 1, 1882, to Charles W. Reaume and Adelaide Schuster Reaume. She spent a good deal of her growing up years in Kentucky.

According to an article written the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, October 10, 1920, she had been friends with Tyrone Power, Sr.'s first wife, Edith Crane, for a few years. A year or so after Edith's death, she married Frederick Tyrone Power. After the Powers were married, they began making stage appearances together. In 1917, they appeared together in the silent film, The Planter. The only other record of a film appearance for Patia Power is 1915's A Texas Steer.

The first couple years of their marriage, the Powers lived in Cincinnati, and Frederick Tyrone would find himself often in New York to work on stage. After their second child, Anne, was born, they moved to San Diego. Mrs. Power worked in regional theater in the area, while her husband would make movies and go to New York to do Broadway shows. As the years passed, trouble came to the marriage, and the Powers were divorced around 1920, when Tyrone was about six.

M rs. Power continued to work in regional theater. The most important part of Mrs. Power's life, however, was not her career. Taking care of her children was most important. Soon after she obtained a divorce, Mrs. Power talked about raising her children. She said, "I am bringing my children up with the belief that the principle back of everything is love. Even behind the mask of unpleasantness there is always the great guiding force of love by the attitude of thought."

With her son, at about age 12.

In 1923, Patia Power returned to Cincinnati with her children, where she became a drama and voice coach at the Schuster-Martin School of Drama. Frederick Tyrone Power, very busy with his career, came back for short visits from time to time, but Patia Reaume was left to raise the children on her own.

Patia Power had the difficult task of raising her two children on her own and supporting the family with a small income. She taught her son much that would later serve him in his career. A dramatic coach, she taught him how to control his voice and to enunciate every word. His voice would later be one of his finest attributes as an actor, both on stage, in films, and on the radio.

1937 - the early years of her son's movie stardom After Tyrone's dad died in Hollywood in 1931, Ty wanted to stay there to try to break into the movie business. Mrs. Power and his sister, Anne, moved to a home in Santa Barbara, hoping to be around if he needed her. As it turned out he was back and forth between Chicago, New York, and Hollywood. At last, though, he landed his contract with 20th Century-Fox, and, for a time, she lived with him. When he married, however, she moved into her own apartment. Ty and his mother had a wonderful relationship. He seemed to be as proud of his mom as she was of him. She would often go to his premieres during the years when she was in good health. She was there for his triumphant opening in London of Mr. Roberts in 1950. Patia Power had a stroke a couple years before Tyrone had the fatal heart attack in November 1958. She died on September 29, 1959 in Canterbury, N.H., at the home of her daughter, never knowing that her son had preceded her in death, as her family had felt that the shock would be too great for her.