Lucian Porter Gibson left us with only three known compositions, and a lot of question marks as to who he was. Very little is available, but the author has pieced together a probable narrative from what facts are accessible. He was a mulatto born in Saint Louis, Missouri, in 1890 to William Henry Gibson, Jr., and Nellie Porter, who had married in November of 1882. Both parents were teachers, working in the Saint Louis School System. Nellie was a college graduate and a pioneer black educator as well as an active contributor to the black community. The disposition of his father is unknown, and a picture of William Gibson from this time suggests he was perhaps terminally ill and did not survive too long after Lucian's birth. However, William was listed in the 1893 Gould's Saint Louis directory as engaging in music - either teaching or playing - and Nellie was at a different address, so they were likely separated at that time. The 1895 directory showed Nellie at the same address as 1893, and listed as the widow of William H. Gibson.

As of 1900 Lucian and Nellie were living with Nellie's parents, James and Lucy Porter (sometimes seen as Lucie), suggesting that Lucian (a multi-gender name) was named after his maternal grandmother. It can be assumed that his grandparents likely had a piano in their home, more than just a status symbol at that time, and usually an essential piece of recreational furniture. Lucian also probably had access through his mother's school connections or as a student. As with most children, he likely received some minor music education in the Saint Louis schools. Certainly, living there as a teen when the 1904 Lewis and Clark Exposition was in town he probably wandered off to the non-admission Amusement Pike, as did so many other Saint Louis youths, and was able to hear the strains of ragtime throughout the Pike and in many of the Saint Louis neighborhood drinking establishments.

In 1909 Lucian was married to Sarah Bartilow "Sadie" Dunbar of California, who had moved to Saint Louis with her family before 1900. He also got a job as an elevator boy in an office building at a time when elevators were still far from automatic. Sadie, two years his senior, had a hairdressing business in their home. Whether they also owned a piano is unknown, but Lucian likely had access to one somewhere, enough to keep up his performance skills. His mother again may have been able to provide him with one, as she had remarried to real-estate entrepreneur and barber John A. Agee in 1908, and Saint Louis listings show several properties in both John and Nellie's names. Mr. Agee died in 1912 at age 61. Lucian and Sadie had one child, Dunbar Porter Gibson (4/22/1911), who lived until 1989.

There are no stories readily found in social columns that Lucian performed in any of the Saint Louis venues, but so many pianists were filling in after the migration of many of the top players to Chicago and New York around that time that this is a probability. Gibson evidently had some level of notation skills, or access to somebody who did. In late 1911 he penned the very creative and somewhat eclectic Jinx Rag, a fan tribute to the Saint Louis based comic strip Penny Ante (aka Eddie's Friends) which had a character named Jinx, drawn by Jean Knott. Somehow he managed to get a vanity run done of the sparse arrangement. A better rendition of it arranged by Saint Louis composer Artie Matthews, who filled in the arrangement along the lines of his famous Pastime Rags, and with a cover drawn by cartoonist Knott, was copyrighted and self-published it in 1911. The piece was reissued in 1915 by publisher John Stark under his logo. Gibson also completed and self-published the little-known moderately syncopated follow-up song with lyrics in 1912, Beware, Beware, Jinx Will Get You if You Don't Take Care. It was likely printed and distributed by another Saint Louis house, Buck and Lowney, as per an advertisement on the back cover.

The success of the reissued Jinx Rag was followed in 1916 by the Matthews-arranged Cactus Rag. It featured an unusual 24 bar opening strain. Whether Gibson was influenced by Matthews' rags or Matthews' arrangements made it sound that way may never be known, but the collaboration was certainly a worthy and challenging effort. It also garnered a reprint in Axel Christensen's Ragtime Review magazine of February, 1918, a pretty high honor even if it was potentially paid advertising. Given Stark's propensity towards both honoring the composer but minimizing reverse revenue, Gibson was likely given the usual $25 to $50 for each of his piano rags with no royalties.

By 1917 Gibson was single again, living with his mother (who may have been simply on a long term visit) in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and working for the Great Northern railroad. His draft record also showed a claim that he was supporting a child, but the disposition of his marriage is also not properly known, whether as a separation or a divorce.

Lucian and Bernice Gibson
in the late 1940s.

They were definitely divorced by 1920 as Sadie was now remarried to William H. Barrett, living with her parents and Dunbar. His mother was back in Saint Louis in 1920 showing still as widowed. Lucian was found still rooming in Saint Paul for the Janaury, 1920 enumeration, his occupation listed as a Pullman Porter. It is likely that since his mother was back home in Saint Louis that he was not too far behind. By 1930, Gibson was back living with Nellie and his wife, Corinda L. Ihler from Iowa, whom he had married in November of 1923 in Minnesota. He had settled down somewhat as he was approaching 40, and was listed as a waiter in a club, possibly the Bath & Tennis Club which was noted on his death certificate. It could be hoped that he was also occasionally called on to perform, but there is no concrete evidence of this either way.

For the 1940 enumeration in Saint Louis, Lucian was now listed as the head of household, was single once more, and residing with his mother. He was still working as a waiter in a Bath & Tennis Country Club, and Nellie, age 77, was still teaching in the public schools. His 1942 draft record showed him as employed by the Glen Echo Country Club in Normandy, Missouri, a suburb of Saint Louis, and residing with his mother at 2818 Semple Avenue near downtown Saint Louis where they had been since the mid-1920s. Nellie Gibson Agee died in 1944. At some point between 1942 and the late 1940s, Lucian was married to Bernice Gibson. According to information relayed from a neighbor who knew them while growing up, he owned a nice Packard automobile, and was working as a chauffer for hire for the same country clubs where he had been working in service positions. She also provided the photograph of Lucian and Bernice displayed here, and recalls having played with Butch and Sandy, likely the children of Dunbar, whenever they came to visit. The 1950 census showed Lucian working as a stock clerk for a wholesale hosiery firm, and Bernice with no occupation.

There is no definitive public record of Lucian after this time other than his Missouri death certificate and the cemetery records at Saint Peter's Cemetery in Saint Louis. The cause of death was a myocardial infarction from a dissection aneurysm and arteriosclerosis just two weeks after he turned 69. Bernice died in September of 1969, a decade after Lucian passed, and is buried at his side as is his mother. Fortunately Lucian Porter Gibson is not totally lost to history, thanks to the efforts of Matthews and Stark. If anything more surfaces in future searches on the composer, it will be duly added to this biography.