Cantatore and Brophy connection?

[Susan Higginbotham]

I have an article about the correspondence between John Tyler, Jr. and Brophy in a forthcoming issue of the Surratt Courier. Mrs. Cantatore was Sarah Waggaman, a niece of President Tyler who had married John Baptiste Cantatore. (After being widowed, she became a nun.)

Brophy was on intimate enough terms with the Cantatores to refer to them as ""Cousin Sallie" and "Mr. C." in a letter to John Tyler, Jr. In the same letter, written in 1868, he refers to Anna Surratt and her future husband on a first-name basis, which suggests that John Tyler, Jr., was friends with the couple as well. Indeed, John Tyler, Jr., also corresponded with William Tonry, Anna Surratt's husband.

None of this answers your question about a tie between Sarah Cantatore and the Surratts, but I would guess either that she had become friendly with the family through Brophy or was at the funeral as a stand-in for Brophy's wife.