Marceline Desbordes-Valmore
She was born in Dowai. After the French Revolution, her father's business fell apart, so she went with her mother to Guadeloupe looking for financial help from a far relative. Her mother died there from yellow fever, and she went back to France by unknown means. At age 16, she began a career on stage in Douai, and in 1817, she married an actor named Prosper Lanchantin-Valmore.