SENATOR AL ADAMS DEATH.
SUDDEN END OF A REMARKABLY DIVERSIFIED
PUBLIC CAREER.
Alvarado Adams, the stage manager of the Coliseum theatre, while going down Fifth street yesterday about 11:30, stopped in front of the Lindell hotel, and was by some of the guests observed to be acting as if suffering from a sun stroke. Suddenly he began vomiting blood in large quantities, and at once started across the street toward the drug store on the corner of Fifth and Wyandotte streets. He bled profusely and his path was marked by a trail of blood. Entering the drug store, he reeled against the counter, gasped once or twice for breath, and then fell to the floor dead.
"Senator" Al Adams, as he was generally called, was well known in all the large cities throughout the country. His career was a checkered and somewhat remarkable one. He was born in Louisville, Kentucky, July 10, 1841. In 1861 he joined the Confederate army, and was a guerilla under Morgan. He was captured in Zanesville, O., and taken to Chicago as a prisoner of war. He remained there for nearly a year during which period he was employed in the hospital where he became interested in the study of medicine, and when released he immediately went to Louisville, his home, and entered the medical university, where he graduated in 1864.
He then went to Frankfort, Ky., to practice his profession, but got interested in politics and in 1869 was elected a democratic state senator from the ninth district of Kentucky. He served on term as senator with credit to himself and his district. After his term of office had expired he suddenly left home, and forever abandoning the practice of his profession went to New York, and commenced an engagement in the Bowery as a stump orator. His imitations as such were remarkably successful and he at once adopted the stage as his profession. There is scarcely a minstrel company or vaudeville theatre on the American continent that did not know Senator Al Adams. His friends say he was beloved by all who knew him, and was a genial, sociable fellow, with diversity of talent that was wonderful. He leaves a divorced wife and a daughter in Cincinnati, O.
The funeral will take place to-day at 10 a.m. from 142 Grand avenue. The funeral will be headed by the Coliseum band and will be largely attended by his friends in the profession.
The Kansas City Times
Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri
Vol XXXIII, No 18, p8, c3
Sun 18 Jul 1886

SENATOR ADAMS' FUNERAL
The funeral of Senator Al Adams, late stage manager of the Coliseum, took place as anounced yesterday at 10:30 o'clock, from Matthews undertaking establishment on Grand avenue, headed by the united bands of the Coliseum and Walnut street theatres, twenty men strong. The procession, composed of members of he theatrical profession and friends of the deceased, proceeding to the Union cemetery, where Fred Limonson of the Coliseum delivered a eulogy over the deceased, and closed the ceremony with a very eloquent prayer. The expenses of the funeral were borne by the friends and professional brethern of the deceased.
The Kansas City Times
Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri
Vol XXXIII, No 19, p8, c2
Mon 19 Jul 1886

From Missouri Record of Death Transcript:
Jackson County, Roll C19509
• Adams, Al
• Male
• White
• Age: 43
• Died: 17 Jul 1886
• Married
• Born: US
• Place of death: 52 Yd [sic; probably 5th and Wyandotte]
• Cause of death: Rupture of A?t [sic; possibly rupture of aorta]

All cemetery records were destroyed in a fire in the sexton's cottage in 1889 so it is impossible to determine where Adams was buried; no gravestone was reported in the 1933 or 1986 inscription surveys nor the 2011 photographic survey of the cemetery.

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