The Life and Death of Eleanor Dumont
The forgotten tale of America’s first female Blackjack dealer
Eleanor Alphonsine Dumont, born around 1829, made a living as one of the first professional female blackjack dealers in the United States. For the better part of three decades, she made her way across the western frontier in mining towns such as Deadwood, South Dakota to Bodie, California.
How she came to the west is shrouded in mystery. She hardly used her actual name, Simone Jules, and was likely born in New Orleans of Creole heritage.
The Gambling Lady
She burst on to the San Francisco gambling scene when she was 21 years old in the year 1849. She was exotically beautiful with deep, dark, eyes, and piles of natural curls perfectly coifed on the top of her head. She was petite, French-or at least a committed Francophile-and always dressed to the nines.
She quickly built a reputation as a skilled, or lucky, 21 player and secured a job as a dealer at the Bella Union in San Francisco. Unlike many women of that time and place, Eleanor was dignified and reserved. When the men at her table behaved bawdily, Eleanor acted unruffled.
