PHOTO DESCRIPTION: A photograph of Callie Leach French standing with her hand on drapery in her mid-20s and photo believed to be taken at New Orleans. At this time, she was the featured tightrope artist, singer, and comedienne; she also assisted her husband, Capt. A. B. French, in the main magic acts and minstrel roles. Callie's unique personality and abilities were once described by her closest friend, Ida Fitch McNair, a showboat star in her own right on French's New Sensation, as always being cheerful and level headed. No emergency was too much for Callie's lightheartedness, sincere smile, and sensible calmness. She was born near Salt Creek, Jackson County, Ohio; the daughter of Robert Ward Leach on November 20, 1861. Callie and A. B. French were married in Washington Court House, Ohio on June 18, 1878, only a few months before the first New Sensation was built. Coached by her husband, Callie learned to walk a tightrope in the summer of 1879. She put together a singing and balancing act, and learned to play several instruments, particularly the calliope. She assisted her husband in starting his first showboat, before becoming a regular performer. During his occasional trips away from the boat, Callie directed the shows, piloted the boat, and managed all the affairs of daily operations. In 1888, she was granted her pilot's license for the rivers between New Orleans and Cincinnati; and by 1895, the license was extended to all western rivers. Also in 1895, Callie obtained her Master's (Captain's) license, shortly after she took full time responsibility for one of the two New Sensations. She commanded river boats for nearly twenty years, until 1907, and never damaged or lost one of them. Known as Aunt Callie to a wide expanse of acquaintances, she kept a friendship book to mark the greetings she received along the thousands of river miles during her thirty years as the "heart" of five showboats to bear the name of French's New Sensation. After Capt. French's death in 1902, Callie continued to operate the fifth New Sensation until it was sold to Capt. E. A. Price in 1907. She settled permanently, joined by her showboat family the McNair foursome, in the vicinity of Columbia, Alabama. Callie later married again to Charlies Hugh Tomlinson in 1914. She died in 1935, where she was buried in the cemetery near the center of Columbia