Baby Doe Tabor

By Judy Nolte Temple

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Elizabeth McCourt “Baby Doe” Tabor was as famous in her day as any personality gracing the cover of a supermarket tabloid today. A beautiful divorcee, her affair and subsequent marriage with Denver silver magnate Horace Tabor earned her the cold shoulder of Denver’s elite. Their extravagant lifestyle was the stuff of legend. It was largely seen as divine justice when, overnight, the Tabor fortune was gone, leaving Horace and Lizzie destitute. When she died, frozen to the floor of a mining shack in Leadville, Colorado, in 1935, the stories surrounding her life only intensified.

Using previously unpublished excerpts from Lizzie’s own “Dreams and Visions,” author Temple tries to separate the facts of her life from the prevailing legend. Sorting through scraps and bits of paper, deciphering coded messages and illegible scribbles, took undeniable fortitude and dedication. Whether these ramblings prove that Mrs. Tabor was divinely inspired or suffering from mental illness, they do show that the real story was significantly different, and sadder, than the popular myth would allow.