Eddie Dowling, 1889-1976, was born in Woonsocket as Joseph Nelson Goucher. As the fourteenth of seventeen children, he used his Irish mother Bridgette’s maiden name of Dowling during a brilliant Broadway career as actor, composer, producer and Pulitizer Prize-winning playwright. Dowling’s work helped to bring the American stage to a new level of aesthetic maturity and international renown. Dowling sought the 1934 Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat from Rhode Island. Eddie Dowling died in Smithfield in 1976, aged 86.