May Frances Aufderheide (May 21, 1888 to September 1, 1972)
Compositions
1908 Dusty Rag The Richmond Rag 1909 The Thriller! Buzzer Rag I'll Pledge My Heart to You 1910 Blue Ribbon Rag A Totally Different Rag A Totally Different Rag Song [1] In Bamboo Land [1] My Girl of the Golden Days [1] 1911 Novelty Rag Pompeian Waltzes	1911 (Cont) I Want a Patriotic Girl [2] Drifting in Dreams With You [3] You and Me in the Summertime [3] I Want a Real Lovin' Man [4] Pelham Waltzes 1912 Dusty Rag Song [5]    1. w/Earle C. Jones    2. w/Bobby Jones    3. w/Rudolph Aufderheide    4. w/Paul Pratt    5. w/J. Will Callahan

     May Frances Aufderheide was born into a somewhat musical family in Indianapolis, Indiana. She was born to John Henry Aufderheide, a capable violinist who chose a career in banking, and Lucy M. (Deel) Aufderheide. Some sources report varying years of birth, but the 1900 Census is fairly specific with an 1888 date, which aligns fairly well with the ages given in 1920 and 1930. John's sister May Kolmer was a talented pianist who had played public concerts with the Indianapolis Symphony, later teaching at the Metropolitan School of Music. May Frances took classical piano lessons from her aunt while in her teens, but always felt a lure to ragtime and popular music. It was likely when she was attending finishing school in the east that she set some rags down to paper. When she returned around early 1908 May was determined to have one of her pieces published. With the help of young sign painter named Duane Crabb, who drew a cover and arranged the printing, and one his friends, future composer Paul Pratt who did the musical arrangement and engraving, Dusty Rag was released.
     Crabb did not have the capability of distributing the piece beyond the boundaries of urban Indianapolis, and while May was touring Europe (as all refined girls from well-to-do families must), Dusty Rag was initially gathering dust in local music stores. Upon her return in 1908 she married young architect Thomas M. Kaufman on March 25 and they settled to the eastern part of the state in Richmond by year's end. Her desire must have been compounded when her cousin Frieda Aufderheide had The Flyer Rag published. May's father saw that she was determined to write, and spurred on in part by her ability to publish a rag on her own and by growing sales of Dusty Rag, he formed J.H. Aufderheide & Company to publish her works. John bought the Dusty Rag copyright and reissued it under his label along with her Richmond Rag. Hiring Paul Pratt to manage the enterprise, it was successful enough to garner column space in the American Musician and Art Journal in the summer of 1909. They touted May Frances as a composer with a future, noted her two pieces that were currently in demand, and told of two more that were sure to be hits. They were Buzzer Rag and The Thriller, the latter which would become her best known work.
     The Aufderheide company published other works not only by Paul Pratt, but two of May's acquaintances, Gladys Yelvington and Julia Lee Niebergall. May and her husband moved back to Indianapolis in 1911 in part because of his inability to retain work in the architecture field, and to live in a place where he had better income prospects. It was during that time that she finished her last published piano rag, Novelty Rag. The only issue from the Aufderheide company in 1912 was a song version of Dusty Rag which did not fare well. Mr. Kaufman eventually ended up working for John in the banking business as a broker, and his marriage to May reportedly remained strained in spite of financial security. In 1920 she is shown as having no occupation, not even teaching music. In 1922 the couple adopted a daughter, Lucy Kaufmann. The 1930 Census shows Thomas as an investment broker during a difficult time for that occupation. May quit playing altogether by the 1930s, and the family eventually moved to California in the late 1940s. In the 1950s Mrs. Kaufman became wheelchair bound due to arthritis, and remained so until her death. Thomas died in late 1960, and she lived in Pasadena, California another 12 years until her death. To this day, May Auderheide's rags remain among the most popular of those composed by women.

Henriette B. Blanke-Belcher Melson (February 16, 1882 to March, 1958)
Compositions
1901 Lazarre: Waltzes 1902 Hearts Courageous: Waltzes Francezka Waltzes Cubanola: A Spanish Love Serenade 1903 Under the Rose: Waltzes Peggy O'Neil Waltzes I'm Longing For You Every Day My Wigwam Queen [2] Songs We Used to Sing [2] Colleen: An Irish Love Song [3] 1904 My Lady of the North: Waltzes 1905 Hearts' Haven Waltzes [1] The Little House that Love Built [4] Fare Thee Well Annabelle [7] 1906 When the Mocking Birds are Singing in     the Wildwood [1] When the Violets Whisper Marie [1,4] Stingy Moon: Intermezzo [1] Stingy Moon: Song [1,5] 1907 The Enchantress: Waltzes [1] In the Good Old Irish Way: A Celtic     Waltz Song [1,5] 1908 The New Barn Dance [1] Marsovia: Waltzes [1] I Will Try [1,6] There's Nothing in the World Like     Love [1,7]	1909 Ain't You Coming Out Tonight [1,8] Honey-land [1,8,9] Lonesome Land [1,10] 1910 Maxine: Waltzes [1] Love Dreams [1] Telling Lies [1,11] A Withered Rose [1,12] Put Your Head on My Sholder [13] 1911 Just as Long as the Swanee Flows [1] My Irish Girl [1,13] There's a Ring Around the Moon [1,13] Polaire (c. 1911) [1] Where are the Roses of Yesterday [14] 1918 Loyalty Waltz [1] 1922 Butterfly Waltzes [15]    1. As Henrietta B. Blanke-Belcher    2. w/James O'Dea    3. w/Eddie Dustin    4. w/Arthur J. Lamb    5. w/Will Healen    6. w/B.B. Ellison    7. w/Edward Madden    8. w/Ren Shields    9. w/Stanley Murphy    10. w/Bartley C. Costello    11. w/Irving Berlin    12. w/Scarlett LeRoy    13. w/Alfred Bryan    14. w/Willoiam W. Parquet    15. as Henriette B. Blanke-Melson

     Henriette Blanke is not one of the prominent figures of ragtime composition by any stretch, focusing largely on waltzes and mood pieces during her decade-long career. However, her presence as a woman composer in the ragtime era and the considerable sales of her works cannot be ignored, thus her inclusion in this set of biographies. Also, recent searches by the author have uncovered a lot more information about her than was previously known, which helps to fill in her overall story a bit better.
     Henriette was born to Max and Dora Blanke (often spelled Blank) in Kansas City, Kansas. Max was a Romanian immigrant and Dora a New York native of German immigrant parents. They married when Dora was 17 to Max's 25, and the pair lived briefly in Humboldt, Nebraska where Max worked in a restaurant. The couple moved to Kansas City by late 1881, and Henriette was born soon after. Note that up through around 1910 the actual birth year of 1882 was cited, but later in life she preferred using 1883, which is a typically mild deflation of age frequently found among composers at that time. Henriette was followed by younger sister Lena in 1884. The family had moved back to Nebraska by 1888 when daughter Pearl was born, and the Blanke's last child, Celia, was born in Illinois in 1891. They subsequently moved again to Detroit, Michigan, where Max died in the mid 1890s. In the 1900 Census Dora is shown a widow living with her four daughters in Detroit.
     Henriette had obviously received both public school and private training in music. Most girls of that time received training in piano and some other instrument, usually stringed, so with a houseful of girls there was possibly a houseful of music. By age 17 she had secured a job with Whitney-Warner, at that time the largest of the Detroit music publishers. Continuing to receive training in composition, harmony and theory after hours, it was said she quickly worked her way to "a responsible position," likely as either a pianist and music demonstrator or as an arranger. In the 1900 Census Henriette is listed as a musician.
     In 1901, dairy farm magnate Jerome H. Remick decided to get into the music publishing business, and one of his first acquisitions was Whitney Warner and all of its assets. He then made a call for new compositions for the catalog, and Miss Blanke answered the request by composing Lazarre: Waltzes. It hit the shelves running and the first printing, presumably of 2000 to 5000 copies, sold out in less than two weeks, requiring a second run. There were more reprints in its future as Lazarre was one of the more popular waltzes in the Remick catalog over the next decade. It also launched Henriette's career as a composer.
     The following year saw at least three entries from Henriette, who was in the beginning billed (as many women were) as the non-gender specific H.B. Blanke. Two were similarly successful waltzes - a classic form considered by some to be a respectable alternative to the still new ragtime music. The third, Cubanola, was a Spanish serenade, showing that Henriette was in touch with current trends and tastes as well. She also continued to work in the main Detroit office of Remick as the owner was starting to branch out to New York City. In 1903 more waltzes were forthcoming, but so were her first songs, penned with lyricist James O'Dea. One of them, My Wigwam Queen, was a result of the recent trend towards "Indian-themed" pieces which was started by one of Remick's primary managers, Charles N. Daniels, with his 1901 composition Hiawatha.
     The year 1905 would prove to be a banner one for Henriette, whose name on music covers was now sometimes used interchangeably with the perhaps more poetic Henrietta. In addition to another hit, Heart's Haven Waltzes, and increased sales of the popular Colleen - An Irish Love Song from 1903, she had another social hit when she got married. Miss Blanke had previously caught the attention of one of Frederick E. Belcher, Remick's New York manager and Vice President of the publishing firm. The Providence, Rhode Island native was already married, showing in the 1900 Census living with his wife and daughter, both named Emma, and listed as a dealer in music. In the next four years he had improved his position considerably, but his home life became a casualty.
     A few months after his divorce, 35-year-old Fred Belcher married Henrietta just before her 23rd birthday in an extravagant affair held at the Russell House in Detroit. It was attended by many top names in the growing music publishing business. Advance notice of the event appeared in The Music Trade Review of February 11, 1905: "On St. Valentine's day Fred Belcher, manager of the New York house of Jerome H. Remick & Co., will be united in marriage to Miss Henrietta Blanke, a writer on the staff of the Detroit headquarters for several years, several of her instrumentals achieving no mean fame. Following the wedding the happy couple will visit the leading eastern cities, though Mr. Belcher insists the trip is taken in the ordinary course of business and is not to be a honeymoon jaunt at all. Be this as it may, in retiring from the ranks of bachelordom Mr. Belcher is to be felicitated in winning so charming a bride. During his absence Mr. Remick will come east, after looking over the field in St. Louis, Kansas City and Chicago, and take charge." The now-hyphenated Henrietta Blanke-Belcher relocated to New York to enjoy a life of luxury with her new husband.
     While Henrietta continued to compose, she also became quickly accustomed to the finer things in life. Her pieces of 1906 and 1907 sold largely because of her name, but seemed to show only moderate effort to some degree. In the mean time, she was making the society page and snippets of trade news as was her husband as a result of their sometimes ostentatious lifestyle. The couple traveled extensively throughout the United States and Europe. Belcher's 1907 passport application (Henrietta's was not located as often wives were admitted on their husband's passport) shows him as a music publisher living at the north end of Central Park West in Manhattan. He reportedly enjoyed driving custom built touring automobiles made in Detroit explicitly for him, and wore such fine European shirts that his wardrobe often overshadowed his wife's, which was similarly replete with fine dresses and fur coats. Henrietta was described by retired hit composer Monroe Rosenfeld as "a prepossessing woman... one of the most beautiful girls in the musical arena." On August 26 of 1906, Henrietta gave birth to her only child, Maxine F. Belcher, who presumably joined her parents on some of their travels with a nanny in tow.
     In 1908 Mrs. Blanke-Belcher came fairly close to ragtime with her instrumental The New Barn Dance, and her lovely Marsovia: Waltzes reestablished her role as "America's Waltz Queen," an image that would be pushed by Remick in coming years. The following year Henrietta headed for the stage, playing for a time in vaudeville when not traveling, and presumably promoting her own material. This may have included two songs composed in 1909 with Bartley C. Costello, among them the considerable hit Ain't You Coming Out To-Night?. Then in 1910 she had the distinction of writing a song with the still largely unknown Irving Berlin, Telling Lies. That same year brought forth another waltz hit, Maxine: Waltzes, named for and dedicated to her young daughter.
     In a profile on women composers of note printed in The San Francisco [California] Sunday Call on November 20, 1910, Blanke talked about her songwriting and collaboration process:

     At least one of Henriette's works was orchestrated for cinema by Remick arranger J. Bodewalt Lampe, and was titled Polaire, likely in honor of the French singer and actress Emilie Marie Bouchaud who used Mlle. Polaire as a stage name, and was known for her obscenely tiny waist. Even more hits were forthcoming in 1911, and by 1912 the American Music and Art Journal described Mrs. Blanke-Belcher as "one of the big successes of the Remick staff," in spite of a rather light output compared to many other composers. But in spite of these successes, not all was well on the home front.
     The 1910 Census shows the Belchers living in high style, with Fred listed as a publisher (of books, but this may be an error), Henrietta as a composer, and a young Hungarian servant in the household as well. However, there are very often difficulties in "show business" marriages, and that of Fred and Henrietta was no exception. They divorced in 1912, an event which made the society news as much then as it may have a century later. Almost immediately Henrietta seems to have dropped off the map as there were no more compositions or vaudeville performances forthcoming. Fred continued in his role with Remick for several years, but died in 1919 at age 50 of complications from a surgery for appendicitis.
     Henrietta did resurface for one composition in 1918 in support of the war effort in Europe, the Loyalty Waltz. Soon after that she remarried to a British immigrant of German parents, Ralph Melson. Ralph was a few months younger than Henrietta, and a successful stockbroker. The 1920 Census shows the couple living on Riverside Drive in Manhattan with Maxine, but no occupation listed for Henrietta, who was by now nearly retired from music. One last piece, possibly composed earlier but released to a piano roll in 1922, was Butterfly Waltzes, the only one credited to her as Henriette B. Blanke Melson.
     As of the 1930 Census the Melsons had moved and were now living at the Plymouth/Mayflower building located at Central Park West, and could therefore be considered fairly comfortable in spite of the declining financial climate of the city. Henrietta was able to resume the lifestyle in which she had become accustomed, and the couple traveled extensively throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Manifests show them on pleasure cruises to and from various ports in Europe, Aruba, the Pacific Coast via the Panama Canal, and even Canada. The last trace of Henrietta and Ralph is in 1937 when in their mid fifties they cruised on the Statendam. They later retired to the Miami, Florida area where Henrietta passed on at the age of 76. Ralph subsequently returned to Manhattan and died there in October 1967 at age 85.
     Even though Henrietta never returned to music, her compositions remained staples in the Remick catalog nearly to the end of its run in 1929. She was one of the exceptions - a woman composer who continued her career even after she was married, although it may have cost her that marriage to some degree (though one must consider that Belcher had already divorced one wife). She was one of the few who managed to keep the waltz as a viable music and dance form in the midst of a flood of syncopated rags and songs, yet managed to remain current to some degree as well.

     Thanks to Ragtime Women historian Nora Hulse, for information article citations on Henrietta's time in Detroit and some of the details on her marriage to Belcher. The remaining information was researched by the author from numerous public records and assorted articles.

Grace Marie Bolen (July 20, 1884 to February 16, 1974)
Compositions
The Fair: March (1898) The Black Diamond (1899)	From Sea to Sea: March (1899) The Smoky Topaz (1901)

     Grace M. Bolen was born to James A. Bolen and Frances "Fannie" (Carter) Bolen, who were married in June of 1882. Raised in Kansas City, Missouri. Grace was the oldest of two girls and two boys, including James Griffith (3/20/1886), Frances (7/1891) and Lorraine (9/1892). The family was fairly well off as her father ran Bolen Coal in Kansas City. The family was notable enough that Grace made the social pages in the Kansas City Journal and the Saint Louis Republic as early as age 15, just after her first composition submissions, often helping to entertain at parties or similar events. Grace and her mother were even subject to early versions of "who are you wearing" at some events.
     Her first march, The Fair, was released by noted publisher Carl Hoffman when Grace was only 14, with two more appearing the following year. There may be a relationship to her discovery and the fact that she might possibly have taken piano from one of the piano teachers in the same building as Hoffman, facilitating knowledge of her compositions. The 1900 Census shows her still at school, so she had not declared herself as a musician or composer, even with compositions in print. Newspaper accounts of the circles Grace ran in clearly indicated that she was being groomed for something different than just a composer of questionably moral music. The family had two domestic servants working for them that year.
     Bolen's most famous piece, Smoky Topaz, was published by two former clerks of the Hoffman publishing house in 1901, Charles Daniels (aka Neil Morét) and Albert Russell, who had by then set up shop next door to their former boss. It is a gentle piece that evokes elements of both cakewalks and ragtime, and still frequently played by ragtime artists in the 21st century. When Whitney-Warner bought the Hoffman and Daniels & Russell catalogs in 1903 through Daniels' negotiating the sale of his own Hiawatha, Smoky Topaz was reprinted under the Jerome H. Remick logo. They kept it in their catalog for many years.
     As was the case with so many promising women composers, Bolen's work ceased shortly before she was married. Her first marriage was to William M. Louderman of St. Louis on Wednesday, January 7, 1903. In reports of preparations for the event Grace was called "one of Kansas City's most prominent belles, and is considered a beauty." The union, however, did not last very long and ended in either a divorce in late December. Grace got married once again on December 3, 1904, this time to Matthew Charles Smith. While it lasted a little longer, this marriage also failed.
     In the early 1910s, she married her third husband, Jay J. Davidson, a Missouri-born lawyer turned newspaper editor who had also been previously married. The couple moved to Lafayette, Louisiana before 1917, where Grace gave birth to their daughter Frances Lorraine Davidson that February. His 1918 draft record indicates that Jay was working for the Press Publishing Company of Lafayette. The family is shown in Layfayette in the 1920 Census with no profession listed for Grace. They were still living there as of the 1930 Census. Jay passed on at age 57 on April 9, 1932 in Lafayette. Grace later moved to Kilgore Texas where she taught piano and voice. Those who knew her affectionately called her "Mama Grace." Never having married again, she passed on at the age of 89 just as the second ragtime revival was gaining ground throughout the world.

     Thanks to to Ragtime Women historian Nora Hulse, for quite a bit of the information on Grace during her Missouri years.

Lilyan (Dale Foote) Coffee (October 26, 1891 to May 17, 1975)

Compositions

1915 Coffee Rag 1916 Regal Rag 1938 Tiny Little Fellow c.1930s I'm Just a Misfit We Welcome You to Texas

     Lily Coffee had a short lived writing career, but still provided an important component of Texas ragtime. Her life even warranted a largely unknown TV movie. Not too much information is available on her personal history, but what we've found is contained here, some with the valuable help of researcher Keith Emmons, and most presented here for the first time.
     Lilyan Dale Foote was born in Wharton, Texas, some 30 miles southwest of Houston, in October 1891 to a Virginia native Albert Foote and Corella "Corrie" (Horton) Foote, who had been married in 1889. (The 1900 Census shows June 1892, but her death record and Social Security record show the 1891 date, which is accepted as more likely.) Lilyan had one older brother, Albert Horton Foote, born in June 1890. A few years into the marriage the senior Foote showed alcoholic tendencies which created major problems in the household. By early 1900 either Corrie or her parents, Wharton County Justice Robert J. Horton and Mary Horton had had enough, and mother and children moved in with her parents who were also living in Wharton. This knowledge helped to counter previous failed efforts to find the Footes in the 1900 Census as they were living in the Horton household, but under variously misspelled names. Also living in the household were Corrie's younger siblings, Loula, Mary, Albert, June and Lida. Albert Foote Sr. ended up dying in 1902 as the result of his alcoholism, leaving Corrie a widow.
     The following year, Corrie remarried to railroad worker Peter Earl Cleveland, and the family was moved to nearby Houston. In spite of a healthier remarriage there was still friction in the household, with young Albert allegedly the cause of much of it as he approached his teens. He was apparently ejected from the household soon after the marriage when he was just 13, making his own way in the world. As of the 1910 Census, Lily, who had now shortened her name, was still living at home in Houston with her mother and stepfather. Between 1911 and 1915 she got married to William B. Coffee. In 1915 her first rag appeared, the self-named and self-published Coffee Rag, brought out soon after under the logo of W.C. Munn Company, a dry goods department store in downtown Houston. It is a casual and simple piece indicative of the laid back feel of several Texas grown rags. This was followed in 1916 by her Regal Rag which is cast in a similar manner. Both of these pieces share one unusual quality, in that most female composers of the time either used their maiden name for publication, or simply did not compose or publish works once they were married.
     As far as we know these two rags were the only published syncopated compositions by Lily. On June 17th, 1917, William Coffee Jr. was born. The couple appears in Houston in 1920 with William Sr. as the sales manager of a wholesale grocery broker and Lily with no profession, very likely a stay at home mom, pretty much what was expected at that time. However in 1931, as the Great Depression was setting in, she had picked up her musical career again, listed in the Census as a music teacher with William still a grocery broker.
     Lilyan wrote a couple of additional compositions, including Tiny Little Fellow in 1938 which was sung by Miss Opal Craven (a.k.a. the Lullaby Lady) on the radio in southern Texas. In 1941 when the Composers and Authors Association of Texas had their elections, Mrs. Coffee showed up as one of the vice presidents of that association, headed by Mrs. Ben H. Sanders of Harlingen. Beyond that, little else is known except that Lilyan died a widow in Houston in 1975 age 84.
     Of some interest is the story of Lily's brother Albert and one of his offspring. In spite of the trauma of being put out on the street at 13, he managed to make his way in the world, married his wife Henriette "Hattie" B. Foote around 1914, and had a son named Albert Horton Foote, Jr. on March 14, 1916. The elder Albert was shown to be a merchant tailor in Wharton on his 1917 draft record with a wife and baby. In the 1920 Census he appears as a dry good merchant. Two additional sons, Tom B. and John S., joined the family in the 1920s.
     Albert Jr., possessing some of his composer aunt's creative tendencies, worked under the name Horton Foote. Graduating from high school at age 16, he became one of the most famous Texas playwrights of the 20th century, writing a number of recognizable and well-awarded plays. Horton even made it big in Hollywood with screenplays for To Kill a Mockingbird and Tender Mercies, both of which also won him Oscars™ in 1962 and 1983 respectively. He was ultimately awarded the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1995 for The Young Man from Atlanta. One of his plays released in 1986, Lily Dale, was about his musical aunt Lilyan. It was made into a Hallmark Hall of Fame TV movie in 1996 starring Mary Stuart Masterson in the title role. Horton Foote passed on in March of 2009 at age 93, still living in his childhood home that he had purchased from his parents.

     Thanks to collector and researcher Keith Emmons of hulapages.com for some valuable follow up research on Coffee's extended family

Irene Bazelle Cozad (July 4, 1888 to August 2, 1970)
Compositions
1910 Affinity Rag 1913 Eatin' Time 1920 Kansas City Town [1]	c.1910s Mentioned but Uncertain Sunday Wedding Day (?) Minute Circle Whirl (?) Because (?)    1. as Mrs. J. W. Sherer

     Irene Cozad was born on the fourth of July, 1888 in Lineville, Iowa, to Joseph Addison Cozad and Olive Jane (Vanderbeck) Cozad. She was one of of four girls, including Flora L. (5/1886), Dearcie L. (10/1891) and Anna H. (3/1896), and three boys, including Charles Carleton (3/1/1882), William Carlisle (5/12/1884) and Guy Erving (1/29/1894). The 1900 Census shows the family living in York, Putnam County, Missouri, just a few miles across the border from Lineville, with Joseph listed as a school teacher. Most of the family had moved to Kansas City by 1908. By this time Joseph was a funds collector for a newspaper, and William was in the circulation department of the same paper. Irene would find some success in the music field in this vibrant ragtime-rich area. She also reportedly played piano with the Kansas Symphony and prior to the publication of her two rags was listed in the 1909 city directory as a piano teacher as well as in the 1910 census. Given her small compositional output, writing ended up being more of a hobby than a hopeful career track.
     Her first published composition in 1910 was Affinity Rag, a gentle full four-section rag that rivaled that of the best ragtime composers from the Midwest. It was published by J.W. Jenkins Son's Music in Kansas City, and actually enjoyed fairly good distribution. It would be three years until her next composition, Eatin' Time, which would appear under her maiden name even though she was married by 1913. This suggests that it was submitted in advance of the marriage. Jenkins also had a relatively good seller with this romping rag, a piece that echoes some of the style of fellow Kansas City composer Charles L. Johnson and contained a thirty-two bar one step for the trio, ahead of that trend which would become common by 1915.
     Irene married Pennsylvania born Joseph Whitman Sherer, M.D., an eye and nose specialist more than sixteen years her senior, on June 18, 1912. They subsequently settled in Kansas City, Missouri. However, her compositions did not entirely stop at that time. A few songs appeared up through 1920, including Kansas City Town which won her a $100.00 prize in a contest sponsored by the Million Population Club. The Sherer's daughter Jeanne was born around 1916, and Joseph W. Jr. in late 1918. By 1920 she is listed simply as a homemaker in the Census. During the 1920s and as her children grew older, she likely got the urge to be involved in music once again.
     In the 1930 Census it appears she was once again working as a pianist, although details of where she was playing have not been found. After Dr. Sherer's death in the mid 1930s, Irene spent her later years living with children Jeanne and Joseph, the latter who continued the family's musical interest as a piano technician. She remained in the Kansas City, Missouri area living in the house her family had owned for a number of decades. One of Irene's grandchildren, John Sherer, was located there as recently as 1988 some 18 years after her death.

Luella Lucile (Ella) Hudson Day (November 11, 1875 to November 4, 1951)
Compositions
America, My America (c.1900) Texas, Pride of the South (1909) Quality Rag (1909) Fried Chicken (1912)	You, Just You (1926) I'm in Love With You (1948) Sleep Time (?) Red Bird (?)

     Ella Hudson Day, born Luella Lucile Hudson in Texas, was a Texas-based composer who was raised in Whitney, Hill County (there are two Whitneys in Texas) in between Austin and Fort Worth. Her true birth date is partially unclear, as the 1900 Census puts her at February of 1876, which is at variance with the November 1875 date cited more often, including on her death certificate. Ella's parentage is unclear. In the 1900 Census she cites both parents as from Arkansas. In 1910 she claims they were both Texans. In the 1920 Census Ella put down South Carolina and Tennessee as birth states for her father and mother. Finally, in 1930, she changed it to North Carolina and Arkansas.
     The closest positive match that could be found in the 1880 Census was a Lu Hudson, born in Texas around 1875 and living with her mother in the boarding house of J.M. Shropshire of Johnson County, Texas, about 200 miles north of where she would show up in the mid 1890s. Her mother, born in Tennessee and working as a cook, declined to give her name to the enumerator. This would align best with the 1920 Census. Evidently the pair were victims of abandonment or divorce, and growing up in a hardscrabble existence might explain the confusion, or perhaps even nonchalance, concerning Ella's parent's birth states.
     An alternate but more difficult to confirm lineage states that Luella's father, William Haney Hudson, was a blacksmith/farmer from Arkansas who moved to Texas with his second wife, Sarah Amanda (Northcott) Hudson. Luella was the youngest of his five children. They cannot be readily found in the 1880 record, but it is probable that William is the father based on her death certificate, and both scenarios might be correct as her mother may have left or been left when Ella was a toddler. Her mother's name is not listed on the death certificate.
     At some point Ella had received fairly good musical training in school, and reportedly had already composed piano music as early as age ten. She was teaching music by her early 20s in San Marcos, Texas. It was while there that she married Eugene Ramsey (Gene) Day (1870) on October 12, 1897. He was a tinner in the printing industry who had come from Hernando, Mississippi. Junius Eugene Day was born to the couple on January 29, 1899. The 1900 Census shows Eugene, Ella and Junius living in DeLeon with Eugene employed as a tinner. Donno H. Day was born the following year, and the family soon moved to Rotan, Texas, where Eugene ran a hardware store with his father and brother.
     It is not fully clear if Ella went back into teaching in Rotan, except perhaps private lessons. However, she eventually did start to compose beyond standard piano pieces. Her first rag came out in 1909. Quality Rag was published in Dallas by J.P. Nuckolls, but a second piece from that year, the song Texas, Pride of the South, was a vanity publication with her own imprint. Just the same, it had wide circulation and popularity, featured at the Waco Cotton Palace and used at many colleges and schools throughout the state. The 1910 Census shows the family in Rotan with Eugene as a hardware merchant. In 1912 her most famous piece, Fried Chicken appeared in Galveston published by Thomas Goggan & Brothers. Then there was a gap of more than a decade before anything else appeared. Perhaps it was the challenges of raising teenage boys; perhaps the hassles of even getting published at that time; public records can't speak to the reasons. The 1920 Census shows Gene, Ella and Junius in Rotan with Gene as a hardware merchant and Ella listing no occupation. Donno is living next door with his new wife Eva and their infant son Donno Jr. (5/1919), employed by his father.
     As of 1924 Ella was cited as being a member of the Rotan Baptist Church, the Daughters of Confederacy, Chairman of Child Welfare Department of the Rotan Parent-Teacher Organization, Corresponding Secretary of the 1921 Club, and logically the Chairman of Music in Fisher County for the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs. She was also an ally of the Rotan Chamber of Commerce, and represented Rotan at the initial meeting of the Texas Centennial Celebration in Austin on Februay 12th of 1924. To add to that already impressive list, Mrs. Day was a member of the Poetry Society of Texas, and a newspaper correspondent who was an active member of the Texas Woman's Press Association. In 1926, she self published a song titled You, Just You. There were reportedly several more songs in print that predated this one in the 1920s, but to date nothing definitive has surfaced. Some time during this period, Eugene had moved back into the printing business, so one might imagine that he could potentially have been responsible for printing this song. The 1930 Census shows the couple in Rotan listing Eugene as working in his own print shop.
     The Day's oldest son, Junius, died in 1938 (cause difficult to ascertain), then Eugene died December 27, 1940, having run his own printing shop nearly until that time. Ella had become active during the enormous Texas growth period which was outlined in the Edna Furber novel Giant, remaining a part of the Texas Federation of Women's Clubs, and serving in various offices in the organization. There were reports that in the 1940s she may have published a few children's songs, including titles like Sleep Time and Red Bird, although confirmation of this has only been word of mouth to date. They have not surfaced, so may have been local vanity short runs. She had one final song printed in 1948, I'm in Love With You, published in Hollywood, California. Ella passed on in Rotan in 1951 of congestive heart failure at nearly 76 years.

Much of the timeline and background research presented here, including an invaluable "Who's Who" article from Texas in 1924 that also contained her rare portrait, was sent by Nora Hulse, the champion of women composers of the ragtime era and beyond. Many thanks to Texas music historian Larry Wolz who provided some tidbits of information used here. Also, fan Don Lewis who knew Ms. Day in his youth (back in the Day), and reported on the children's songs. The remaining demographics and information on compositions was uncovered by the author.

Geraldine Dobyns (April, 1883 to September 12, 1956)

Compositions

1907 Possum Rag 1908 Bull Dog Rag 1909 Holly and Mistletoe

     Geraldine Dobyns was the fifth of seven children born to Harry O. Dobyns and Nellie M. Dobyns in Lousiana. Her large family included two older brothers, Harry and Thomas, two older sisters, Elizabeth (Lizzie) and Winifred (Winnie), and two younger brothers, Fitzgerald and Leo. According to her grandson she was likely born on the Australia Plantation near Milliken's Bend or Madison, Louisiana. Given the birth locations of her siblings, the family had been in both Louisiana and Texas during the 1880s. Sometime between 1888 and 1899 the family moved to Memphis, Tennessee. By 1900 her father Harry had died. Geraldine was attending the St. Agnes Academy in Memphis (there is a difference in age reported between her home and the school, as the Census at home shows 17 and the school shows 18, but a later Census verifies the 1883 birth date). It is likely she learned some musical skills while at this private academy.
     There are only three known compositions by Dobyns. The first two rags were published in Memphis in 1907 (some sources shows 1906) and 1908. Her first, Possum Rag, is still performed a century later. During this period she worked for the O.K. Houck Piano Company along with fellow female composer Elma Ney McClure. Her last piece, Holly and Mistletoe, perhaps the only rag that specifically indicates a Christmas theme, was published in New Orleans in 1909. However, the 1910 Census still lists her in as living in Memphis with her mother and younger brothers, employed as a music teacher. In 1916 Geraldine married Frederick Bruce Davis, several years her junior, in Memphis. The couple is shown in Memphis in 1920 with their toddler daughter Marie B. Davis born in 1918. Fred was working as a credit manager, and Geraldine listed no occupation. One other daughter, also named Geraldine, was born around 1922.
     At some point after that, the family moved to Los Angeles, California, where Frederick is first found in voter registration records in 1926 and 1928. The family appears near downtown Los Angeles in the 1930 Census, with Fred working at this time as a secretary in the lucrative real estate market there. Working his way up through the ranks, Frederick is listed in voter rolls in 1936, 1938, 1940 and 1942 as a secretary to the City Comptroller of Currency, which actually may refer to a higher level position. That he is in the rolls during this time may be an error, or indicate that he at least kept a residence in Los Angeles during that time. Geraldine is also listed in the same records as a housewife, at varying addresses in the downtown area. If she was playing any music outside of the house, there are no apparent indications of such activity.
     The residence confusion could be caused by a known relocation for the family. Frederick accepted a position with the Roosevelt administration some time during his presidency (there are indications it was in 1934), and he and Geraldine moved back east to Washington, DC. His position was a Schedule C Presidential Appointment, and he was credited with helping set up the FDIC for bank deposit insurance, which would explain the Comptroller of Currency title. According to Geraldine's grandson, one 1934 letter from her older brother Tom, by then a Benedictine priest in Bogalusa, Louisiana, referred to their move, hoping that Geraldine's daughters would be "provided the encouragement and opportunity, whatever the family sacrifices, to pursure their musical vocations..." As it turns out, both were talented pianists, with Marie focused more on classical music. Whether their mother was one of their early music teachers is unclear. Both daughters went to high school in DC, and Marie attended Immaculata College for two years. This information obviously conflicts with the Los Angeles city voter records and phone books, but there is a possibility that Frederick, who invested in real estate in Southern California, maintained these address and residency to facilitate his investments. Frederick's brother also lived in the area, and he may have maintained the properties and investments as well.
     Frederick left the Treasury department after a few years, and spent many years on the road, possibly as a bank examiner based in Dallas, Texas. The couple maintained a home there for several years. Once he retired Frederick and Geraldine ended up in Shreveport, Louisiana, even though many of her siblings had remained in Memphis and his relatives in Los Angeles. She died as Geraldine Dobyns Davis at age 73 in 1956, and was buried at Forest Park (East) Cemetery in Shreveport. Frederick was laid to rest next to her in 1964. Their oldest daughter, Marie, died young in 1957, with the younger Geraldine living until 2003. The remaining family has fond memories of all of them and their musical gifts.

     Some of the information presented here on Dobyns up through 1910 was uncovered Ragtime Women historian Nora Hulse. Many of the remaining demographics and chronology of the family were researched by the author. Thanks go to Geraldine's grandson Arthur Cullen who confirmed much of the information and added details on the Davis's involvement with FDR and their final resting place.

Ethel May Earnist (July 15, 1888 to December 8, 1957)

Compositions

Peanuts - A Nutty Rag (1911) My Southern Gal [w/Carl Moritz] (1912)

     Ethel May Earnist was long thought to have been a pseudonym for prolific composer and publisher Charles L. Johnson. However, information uncovered in 2006 by Bill Edwards and verified by historian Nora Hulse indicates that she was very real, and the probable composer of Peanuts - A Nutty Rag. Earnist was the only surviving child of three born to Belle (La Gourgue) Earnist and William H. Earnist in Odell, Nebraska. The Earnist family moved to Omaha early in her life, and the family is shown as living there in the 1900 Census. Ethel very likely had musical training as a child, since the 1910 Census indicates that she was a staff pianist at an Omaha department store, probably in the music department as a demonstrator more so than as an atmosphere performer. Since ragtime was THE most popular music form at this time, it is not only likely that she knew popular songs and piano rags, but that she felt inclined to write something as well.
     Based on subsequent Census records and other indicators, the Earnist family relocated to the Kansas City, Missouri area in late 1911, likely to the Eastern suburb of Independence. William is shown in 1912 directories in Independence and in many subsequent listings. This would coincide with the publication of Peanuts by Charles L. Johnson's publishing company in late 1911. Ethel would be just one of a handful of women composers who got a single-shot rag or song published by Johnson. A rare song was published in 1912 as well, but in Ohio by the lyricist in this case, Mr. Carl Moritz (1888). It is not known for sure how the two got connected. However according to the 1910 Census Moritz had worked in an Omaha music store and newspaper clippings confirm that he was performing in the area as "Omaha's favorite tenor" while Ethel was still living there. She may have actually accompanied him from time to time. My Southern Gal with music by Ethel was entered into copyright on October 30, 1912, by the Moritz Publishing Company of Toledo, Ohio.
     Ethel was still performing or plugging as of the 1920 Census, now listed as working in the music department of a drug store in Kansas City in the employ of what had been a Charles L. Johnson Publishing Company rival, J.W. Jenkins Sons Publishers aka Jenkins Music. She was also shown as working for them through at least 1923. That year, Ethel was married in Wichita, Kansas, to Obe (or Ober) Gentry Hamilton (1/23/1888), who had been a wholesale coffee salesman in the late 1910s and now worked in extermination chemical sales. The 1930 Census indicates that they continued to live in the Kansas City, Missouri area with Ethel's parents, but she is listed as having no occupation at that time (not even as a piano teacher, surprisingly) and mostly disappears after that Census. However, her death certificate lists her as a musician who was last in the employ of Jenkins Music, indicating that she perhaps had a longer career with them than the Census records reveal. Given that her siblings died in infancy, and she had no children, there are literally no remaining relatives from which to extract a family history. Ethel (Earnist) Hamilton died at 69 of lung cancer after a brief hospitalization in Kansas City.

     Many thanks to Women in Ragtime historian Nora Hulse who provided some of the information here to supplement my research, John Dawson who did some of the Kansas City legacy searches, historian Reginald Pitts who uncovered her death certificate in 2008, and ragtime performer Terry Parrish who was the catalyst for this search, strongly suggesting that Peanuts was clearly not composed by Johnson. Both Nora and Trebor Tichenor who have signed off on the probability of this Ethel being the mystery composer of Peanuts.
     I have also published a paper on this find if you would like to see more detail at ragpiano.com/ethelearnist.rtf in Microsoft Word format.

Irene Marie Giblin (August 12, 1888 to May 12, 1974)
Compositions
1905 Quit, You're Kidding Chicken Chowder 1906 Sleepy Lou Soap Suds: March 1908 Black Feather Two-Step Pickaninny Rag	1910 The Aviator Rag Columbia Rag Ketchup Rag 1911 The Dixie Rag

     Irene Giblin was born to printer Richard T. Giblin and his wife Nora E. Giblin in St. Louis, Missouri. She was the oldest of six children, including Gertrude (1/25/1890), Richard T. Jr. (10/28/1891), Leon F. (11/4/1893), Mary (9/1895) and Walter Anthony (12/1/1899). Irene lived much of her life in the St. Louis area, where the family is shown in the 1900 Census living at 1322 13th Street.
     Having been a good piano student showing a natural talent for the instrument in her adolescence, she was first employed as a music demonstrator by composers Eddie Dustin and Charles N. Daniels (aka Neil Morét) at the Grand Leader department store in St. Louis. Irene had known the pair for at least a year before they hired her at the tender but eager age of 14. Irene was hired to play all of the latest hits from the Jerome H. Remick catalog, and her sister Gertie was part of the deal, further encouraging people to buy Remick wares through sheer charm and guile. Miss Giblin was later moved to the Stix, Baer & Fuller department store, also in St. Louis, when she was right out of high school at age 17. She ended up working continuously for at least five years, missing only a week of work during that entire period.
     In her desirable position, playing the piano several hours every day for anyone who wanted to listen to the latest Remick wonders, it was natural for someone of Irene's creativity to also write some of her own works. Over a period of six years Giblin published ten rags, most of them with Remick. Among them, Sleepy Lou and The Aviator Rag were substantial sellers. However, it was the simply styled Chicken Chowder, which essentially had one theme turned in different directions for each section that was her runaway hit.
     An early mention of Irene and her simple hit rag was found in The Music Trade Review of August 19, 1905: "Miss Irene Giblin is St. Louis' youngest composer. Miss Giblin's latest successes are 'Chicken Chowder' and 'Quit, You're Kidding,' both of which have attained popularity Wherever heard. 'Chicken Chowder' is a composition full of originality and catchy passages. Though but 16 years of age [17 when the article appeared], Miss Giblin's remarkable abilities have attracted widespread attention. A great many copies of 'Chicken Chowder' have already been sold." Another blurb in a couple of the early 1907 Victor catalogs, touting the Victor Orchestra's recording of the piece, read: "There is no doubt about it at all; this mess of musical chowder must be of the chicken variety, the bird being very much in evidence throughout. One of the funniest two-steps we have ever heard."
     As was so often the story, Irene eventually gave up her composing and performing endeavors, at least professionally, within two years after she married railroad accountant Edward P. O'Brien in 1908. Her remaining rags of 1910 and 1911, all printed under her maiden name of Giblin, were possibly submitted as late as 1910, but may have been in the Remick archives for a little while before they were released. The included her patriotic-themed Columbia Rag and the interesting slow drag Ketchup Rag. After The Dixie Rag, published around the time of her first pregnancy, her musical output stopped.
     In late 1911 Irene had her first of two children, Richard, eventually followed by Edward Jr. in late 1915. Even though she devoted much of the rest of her life to raising a family, while still living in the Giblin family home with her parents for many years, Ms. Giblin never stopped her desire for playing the piano. In 1910 the couple is shown living with her family at 5844 Romaine Place, and Irene no longer lists music as an occupation. They were still living in the same crowded household in 1920.
     By the time of the 1930 Census the entire family had moved to a larger house, with Edward and Irene in their own section of the home at 5136 Lexington Avenue, and her widower father living in another section of the house with Mary and her husband George McSkimming. Edward was now listed as a public accountant with his own business, and Irene still showed no vocation. Although she spent much of the Great Depression through World War II without an instrument, her husband eventually procured a Baldwin baby grand for her which she treasured through the rest of her life. Mr. O'Brien passed away in early 1958, just short of the couple's 50th anniversary. Irene survived him by another 16 years, dying in St. Louis at age 85.
     As an indication of how hard it was for a woman to have a rag even considered by a publisher in this predominantly male city known for its ragtime, not one of Giblin's pieces was actually published in St. Louis, even though she was its most prolific female composer at that time. This was in part because of her job working with Remick, but it seems that bulk of women composers were published in Kansas City, Indianapolis, Chicago, Detroit or New York. Still, her music was most certainly heard in St. Louis, as Chicken Chowder was particularly popular with ragtime orchestras.

Imogene Giles (January 16th, 1877 to November 29th, 1964)

Compositions

Red Peppers (1907) Pensacola: March and Two Step [as Rupert Giles] (19??)

     Gertrude Imogene Rupert was born in Fairfield, Iowa to railroad worker Frederick Rupert and his wife Anna (McReynolds) Rupert. Little is known of Imogene's early years in Iowa or her music training, but it was evident that the family was on the move. She had one younger sister named Pearl (4/1882) born in Missouri, and a brother, Donald (3/1885), born back in Iowa. In 1885 the Rupert family was found living in Moulton, Iowa, around 40 miles southwest of Fairfield. By the time of the 1900 Census Anna had died, leaving Frederick a widower, and Imogene was living on her own in Quincy, Illinois where she would spend most of her life, listed as Daisy Rupert (her nickname), and working as a music teacher.
     In June 1901, Imogene married Henry Emerson Giles, originally from Pennsylvania. The event was announced in The Music Trade Review of July 6, 1901: "An event of some importance in the society circles of Quincy, Ill., was the marriage of Henry Emerson Giles, of the well-known firm of Giles Bros., music dealers, to Miss Daisy Imogene Rupert, an accomplished musician as well as a charming lady. There were no guests present outside of immediate relatives and a few intimate friends. Numerous presents were received." Mr. Giles, some 13 or more years older than Imogene, ran the successful Giles Brothers Music Company in Quincy, Illinois with his brother Jacob E. Giles. Reorganized with his brother in 1888 from a music store originally founded with Henry's uncle, They sold pianos, organs, various musical instruments and sheet music, and later published some music as well. Within a couple of years of the wedding, Imogene started to teach music at the company store. Her husband was already well known by that time as somewhat of a local philanthropist.
     The sometimes quirky Mrs. Giles, who often went by her preferred nickname of Daisy, may very well have published only one ragtime piece in addition to one other march attributed to her. Her single rag, published in 1907 by Giles Brothers, is well crafted and leaves historians and collectors wondering what more she was capable of. The 1910 Census shows her with no profession, and for whatever reason that she was now originally from Florida, where she alleged that her mother was born (other Census records indicated that Anna was from Illinois). Henry was listed as a partner for a music house. It was known that the couple attended Central Baptist Church in Quincy, where Daisy could potentially have been involved with music ministry in some capacity.
     Henry started to show signs of apoplexy and in 1921 had a cerebral hemorrhage which set him back. He suffered a second one the following year. In spite of this Mr. Giles managed to recover enough from both of these to continue running his business. However, the third one was too much to endure, and he died just a few days before Christmas in 1923. After Henry's death, Mrs. Giles was listed as a musician for the Star Theater, likely playing for both silent films and occasional live shows. Little else is known of her later years, most of which were lived out in Quincy. Daisy died there at age 87 after a brief illness.

     Thanks as always to Ragtime Women historian Nora Hulse, for a few additional snippets of information Giles' life, including her additional composition.

Louise V. Gustin Taylor (December, 1869 to 19??)
Compositions
1898 The Flag of Freedom 1899 An Old Virginia Cake Walk Topsy Turvy: Two Step Dominion March 1900 When Knighthood Was in Flower:     Waltzes X-N-Tric: Two Step The Daughter of the Regiment Janice Meredith Waltzes 1901 Soldiers of Fortune: March Viola Waltzes Mistress Nell Waltzes	1902 Lindy: March and Two Step 1903 Néomé: Waltzes Maids of Paradise: Waltzes 1904 In Love's Garden 1905 M.M. & M.C.B. (Master Mechanics     & Master Car Builders): March 1915 Let's Trot: Fox Trot Waltz With Me: Waltzes Uncertain Carmelita: A Mexican Dance Valse Passioneé

     Louise V. Gustin certainly left some mysteries behind, just as much as she left hints of the possibilities of great compositions had she pursued rag writing beyond what she did accomplish. Between the considerable efforts of researcher Nora Hulse and additional work by the author, some of these mysteries have been recently unraveled. Louise V. Moore was born in southern Michigan to British immigrants Francis B. Moore and Louisa (Rawlings) Moore. Mr. Moore was an office clerk and Mrs. Moore a "dealer in fancy goods." Her listed age of 11 in the 1880 Census would suggest a likely 1868 or 1869 birth date, but her age seemed to shift in subsequent records. 1871 is also a possible accepted date according to the information in the 1900 Census.
     Ms. Moore became Mrs. Gustin in the late 1880s, marrying a Canadian immigrant named Gustin (efforts to pin him down were met with some doubt). She first appears as L. V. Gustin in Detroit in 1895 as a music teacher either residing or teaching at 27 Laurel. It appears that Mrs. Gustin was divorced around this same time as she was once again living with her parents from perhaps 1895-1896. They were listed as Frank and Louisa Moore in Detroit city directories. Frank Moore had died by 1897 as Louise, still using Gustin, was then living with only her widowed mother Louisa at a new address. She is shown in the directory at 154 Charlotte Avenue.
     In 1898 Louise she composed one of her first pieces, a patriotic march written around the time of the military campaign in Cuba after the sinking of The Maine. Ms. Gustin remained with her mother through 1899, but is not mentioned under the name of Gustin in any future Detroit directories. For at least that last year she was employed at Shaefer's, a downtown Detroit department store, likely in the music department demonstrating sheet music. Some of it may have been her own, including her first two syncopated pieces, An Old Virginia Cake Walk and Topsy Turvy. Both were published by Fred Belcher who may have also got her the job.
     On November 14, 1899, Louise married her second husband, Harry Bennison Taylor, a clerk for the Pittman and Dean Coal and Ice Company in Detroit. They were wed across the border in Ontario, Canada, then settled in Detroit where both had been living. The couple was shown in the 1900 Census in Detroit with a 12 year old named Frank Nelle or Nelli, listed as a stepson, but implying Taylor as the last name. Whose child this was is unclear from the Census records, but given the likelihood that Louise was actually 30, not 28 as listed or 26 as she claimed when married, and that her husband was only 24, there is a probability that it is Louise's son with Mr. Gustin, further reinforced by her listing one surviving child (also a potential error by the enumerator). In spite of her having had four or five compositions in print by this time, Louise has no profession listed. Also as of the same Census, Louisa Moore was living in Franklin, Michigan, with the family of her nephew Samuel Rawlings, which included her older brother Joseph W.V. Rawlings.
     Regardless of her new last name change, Louise chose to publish her pieces as either L.V. Gustin or Louise Gustin. A search for titles under L.V. Taylor or Louise Taylor turned up nothing. Her works were published almost exclusively by Detroit publishers. Louise's X-N-Tric Two Step was picked up by Whitney Warner who had acquired Belcher's catalog, and Whitney Warner was in turn acquired by the growing and soon dominant publishing firm of Jerome H. Remick & Company. The quality and good sales of her work made getting more pieces into print a fairly easy task, including her next few works from 1902 through 1905. Then the promising output stopped after around sixteen known compositions. Louise and Harry had a daughter in 1907, Mary L. Taylor. At some point during the decade Louise's mother moved in with the family.
     There are clearly inaccurate reports in some published sources that show Louise as having died in 1910. Actually, the June 1910 Census lists the family in Detroit, Harry now as a manager with the coal company and Louise with no profession. There is a probability that her son had died, yet curiously under children born and surviving children only one is indicated, contradicting the 1900 Census. No Frank Gustin or a closely matched Frank Taylor were found in the 1917 draft. Louise's age as 40 also indicates again a probable 1869 birth date.
     Two more works did appear in 1915 via Remick, including a waltz and the instrumental Let's Trot, taking advantage of the fox trot craze sweeping the country. Given that the fox trot was not even a glimmer in 1910, it would make reports of her death that year somewhat premature. According to Nora Hulse, Let's Trot was dedicated to Mrs. Adele Strasburg Hyde, a well known dance teacher in Detroit. There is a possibility that Louise had accompanied some of her classes on the piano at some point prior to the composition. Between late 1918 and early 1920 the family had moved to Pittsfield, a far west Detroit suburb. Harry was still a manager for Pittman and Dean. During the subsequent decade Harry died, leaving Louise single once again. She is shown as widowed in the 1930 Census with Mary, who was still single, and a female lodger living with the pair. Mary was working in advertising as a sales promoter. Beyond this the trail currently grows cold, but efforts are underway to find a first marriage and death certificate for Louise, as well as verification for her potential son Frank. Any additional information would be very helpful.

     Thanks as always to Ragtime Women historian Nora Hulse, for information on Gustin's Detroit demographics and on her first divorce and second marriage that led to more discoveries by the author.

Georgina May (Campbell) (Keller) Irwin (Eisfeldt) (June 27, 1861 to October 22, 1938)
Compositions
1893 Mamie! Come Kiss Your Honey Boy 1894 Mandy: Plantation Song Live Humble: A Negro Hymn 1896 Hot Tamale Alley [w/George M. Cohan] 1897 My Baby I'll Go Too The Big Hand Out I Miss Dat Bread The New Love's Come to Stay 1898 The Serenaders [w/D.L. White]	1904 Albany [w/Hughie Cannon] I'm Worried to Death About That 'Tain't No Sense in Loving Dat Way 1906 May Irwin's Ragtime Dance: Two Step     Oddity May Irwin's Ragtime Dance Song Dan [w/Earle C. Jones] Dreaming [w/John E. Hazzard] 1907 She Borrowed My Only Husband (and     Forgot to Bring Him Back)     [w/William J. McKenna] I've Got Nothing to Do But Love
Selected Stageography
1895 The Widow Jones 1899 Sister Mary [120 Performances] 1900 The Belle of Bridgeport [45 Performances] Madge Smith, Attorney [46 Performances] 1901 The Widow Jones (Revival)     [40 Performances] 1902 Mrs. Black is Back [79 Performances] 1906 Mrs. Wilson, That's All [52 Performances]	1908 Mrs. Peckham's Carouse [63 Performances] 1910 Getting a Polish [48 Performances] 1913 Widow by Proxy [88 Performances] Mrs. Peckham's Carouse (Revival)     [63 Performances] 1915 No. 13 Washington Square [56 Performances] 1922 The '49ers [16 Performances]
Selected Discography
1907 Moses Andrew Jackson, Good-Bye The Bully Song Mat-ri-mony When You Ain't Got No Money, You     Needn't Come Around May Irwin's Frog Song Don't Argify	Matrix and Date [Victor C4510] 05/20/1907 [Victor C4511] 05/20/1907 [Victor B4512] 05/20/1907 [Victor C4514] 05/21/1907   [Victor B4515] 05/21/1907 [Victor B4520] 05/22/1907

     May Irwin was born as Georgina May Campbell (Ada has often been cited but can be brought into question as it is likely her younger sister's nick name). While 1862 has often been her accepted birth year, her birth record and her age in various Census records, starting in 1871 and continuing to 1930, is consistent with an 1861 birth year, which is likely the most correct. A native of Whitby, Ontario, Canada, her parents were Scottish immigrants (often shown in Census records as Canadians) Robert E. Campbell and Jane (Draper) Campbell. Georgina May was raised in her first years in Whitby, Ontario, around 35 miles northeast of Toronto. She was the second to last of six children, including Chester (1852), Franklin (1854), Albert (1856), Abagail (1858), and her younger sister Adeline Flora (2/8/1865). Robert was listed as an agent of some kind in the 1861 Canadian Census, and as a clerk in the 1871 Census, along with his oldest son working in the same position. May's singing talent was discovered quite early, and she was performing solos in church by age eight, sometimes joined by Flora. In late 1872 Robert fell ill and died, leaving his widow and four remaining children to fend for themselves. In need of funds to survive, Jane decided to leverage Georgina May's talent and potential as a singer and actress, convincing Florence to also give stage performance a try.
     The first American audition of the Campbell sisters took place in Buffalo, New York at the Adelphi Theatre in December of 1874. It was reported that Florence fainted after their number due to the stress of the situation, but May, at all of thirteen and a half-years-old, came back with an encore that secured them a job. There is some variance as to whether May made her professional debut as a soloist on a stage in Rochester or with Florence in Buffalo, but both of these events potentially occurred in early 1875. Early in their career a theatrical agent name Daniel Shelby took on representation of the act. He claims to have given the girls the names of May and Florence to replace their current names of Georgina and Ada, but there is some doubt to this story as both are part of their middle names. It is, however, possible that Shelby gave them their new last name of Irwin, which both kept to the end of their respective professional careers.
     Playing vaudeville stages in the Northeast over the next two and a half years, the sisters were finally booked at the Metropolitan Theater in New York City, which led to a series of bookings at Tony Pastor's famous music hall, where many vaudeville stars quickly rose to fame or sank to ruin. Pastor knew show business and he knew talent, fostering whenever he could. He was able to infuse many values of showmanship into the sisters, including stage presence and comic timing. This served May well when she finally struck out on her own a few years later.
     It was in New York that May met Frederick W. Keller (may be W. Frederick Keller), a treasurer at one of the Manhattan theaters (it may have been Pastors, but this has been difficult to pin down). They married in 1878 and settled in Manhattan. Even though May and Flo were still performing on a regular basis, she is listed in the 1880 Census as a housekeeper, staying home with their infant son Walter, the first of two children the couple had. It could be extrapolated that May was on a temporary hiatus following childbirth. Their second son Harry came around 1882. It was either late 1883 or early 1884 that May received an offer from producer Augustine Daly to join his traveling stock company. Either Flo was not included in this offer or she declined it. May did accept it and the sister act was split up, making May Irwin a soloist. She is shown traveling in 1884 on the Arizona for London with the company, listed as Miss May Irwin. It was on that trip that she made her London debut at Toole's Theatre in August of 1884.
     In 1886 Frederick, close to two decades older than May, died after eight years of marriage, leaving her as a widowed single mother. After a short break she managed to find a way to manage both children and show business, her only source of income, and continued her climb to fame on stages in New York city and around the east coast. Some time in 1889 May received an offer from Howard Athenaeum in Boston that raised her standard of living considerably. He was able to find productions that best suited May's comedic talents and unique singing style. While she appeared frequently in farces, some of the songs were simply interpolated popular favorites or new pieces, often having little to do with the plot. However, her growing fame in Boston increased the demand for the comic songstress back in Manhattan, and she returned in the early 1890s.
     Back in New York City, May developed her act into a genre known as "coon shouting," performing comic songs influenced by stereotypes of African Americans. During her travels she met a sportswriter that would eventually make her famous. In 1893, her current manager, Charles Frohman, got May a spot touring with the cast of The Country Sport, headed by Pete Dailey who had been engaged by the famous Weber and Fields. While they were in the western United States, she met Charles E. Trevathan, a sports reporter from the South. He joined the cast during a multi-day train ride back East in their parlor car while everybody told stories or sang songs. Trevathan had a guitar along and played on particular melody that attracted May's attention. She suggest that he put lyrics to it. Not long after that while the troupe was performing in Chicago, Trevathan came to the theater with a set of lyrics for the tune. May asked the musical director to arrange it, and soon after she to started sing The Bully Song, but not as part of the show.
     By 1895, after having spent some time touring with Dailey in a couple of other shows, May wanted to stay put. She won the starring role in a musical comedy called The Widow Jones which after brief tryouts in Brockton, New Bedford and Boston opened on Broadway on September 16, 1895 at the Bijou Theater. Included in the play, at her insistence, was The Bully Song. It was what might be described as a "coon song" like those she had become known for. Unlike other women stars of the time who sang similar material in blackface, May preferred to just let the song sell itself through her performance. The ploy worked, and both The Widow Jones and The Bully Song received great attention after their Manhattan debut.
     Not only was the piece a hit, printed as May Irwin's Bully Song (even though she did not receive composer credit), May became a bigger star almost instantly. She was also very protective of her new signature song, being the copyright owner. In a warning issued in the trades in 1896: "The White-Smith Music Publishing Co. have issued a notice to dealers warning them against unauthorized versions of the 'Bully' song written [sic] and sung by May Irwin,

A frame from the Edison film, The Kiss
(Click the photo to view the film)

which will soon be published by this house. Miss Irwin, in a recent communication to the White-Smith Music Publishing Co., says: 'It is solely and absolutely my property; no other publisher has a right to use it.'" A similar notice was clearly inscribed in her handwriting on subsequent publications and newspaper inserts.
     As a result of her meteoric rise in popularity, May became one of the first movie stars as well. In the play was a particularly sensuous (for that time) kiss between Irwin and her co-star John C. Rice. Thomas Edison allegedly saw the show and quickly realized that this would make for sensational film. In 1896, most "movies" consisted of snippets from 30 seconds to 3 minutes long, and virtually anything captured moving was considered film worthy. Whether Edison really considered this independently or not is uncertain. The more likely story told is that the idea of staging the kiss for such a film was brought to Edison by the New York World newspaper. As a result, this very short subject shot in April of 1896 in Edison's Black Maria studio became one of his best known early Kinetoscope productions. Titled The Kiss, the first such known kiss in the history of cinema, it became well known both for Irwin and for the scandalous notion that such a thing should not only be filmed but shown in public. Editorials railed against it and preachers lambasted it, which probably made it even more of a must see event. All of 21 seconds long, 2 seconds of it comprising the actual kiss, the film was great publicity for both the star and the show.
     By mid 1896 the lifestyle of a star who ate well had changed Irwin's figure a bit as she had gained several pounds since her appearances in the early 1890s. Yet she still insisted on doing high stepping dances, including the cakewalk, singing out loudly for all in the theater to hear her in spite of restrictive corsets. Her popularity actually helped make such figures in vogue by the turn of the century. Within a few years May was lauded by many titles including the "Dean of Comediennes", "the Funniest Stage Woman in America", and even "Madame Laughter." In the years directly after The Bully Song became a hit, she co-wrote some of her own pieces, including one titled Hot Tamale Alley with rising star George M. Cohan. Trevathan wrote a follow-up to the Bully Song called May Irwin's Frog Song, introduced in 1896. Both Bully and Frog would remain with May throughout the bulk of career, even when she wanted to shake them from time to time.
      A New York Times article from February 5, 1897, gives a slice of how she was viewed during this busy period of her fame. It talks about a charitable appearance at the Colored Home and Hospital at First Avenue and 65th Street in Manhattan the previous afternoon. The reporter wrote:

     Her confidence in this ability was underscored in 1910 when composer Irving Berlin and composer/publisher Ted Snyder brought her some sample songs for interpolation into her upcoming play Mrs. Jim. After the pair went through their list, Berlin brought out an incidental number in manuscript form that he evidently had not thought too much of. However, May was immediately taken by My Wife Bridget, and asked Berlin to name a price on the spot for her to own it. He threw out a somewhat outlandish figure of $1,000, but May believed in the possibilities of this piece with her performing it, and startled Berlin by accepting the offer which gave her all future royalties. As usual, she was correct in her assessment and did fairly well by the tune.
      While May's star started to fade in the 1910s, she still commanded attention at her performances. Her sister Flo was also seen from time to time, but rarely in the same place. In one 1914 ship manifest Flo is shown as an actress who was naturalized in the United States and living in New York, with a home in Canada as well. It is hard to find much on Flo past this point One play that May was in, Mrs. Black is Back, was turned into a full length feature film in 1914, her second film appearance following the famed kiss 18 years before. However she went in an out of retirement between 1915 and the early 1920s. In his 1918 draft record, Kurt is shown as a farmer living in Clayton, Jefferson County, Northern New York state, with May.
     In addition to the farm, she was known to have had summer home property nearby on Club Island near Grindstone Island in the Thousand Islands area of New York on the St. Lawrence Seaway, mentioned as early as 1897, and a winter hideaway on Merritt Island in Florida. She also owned an establishment in Clayton, New York, the Irwin Island Inn. There is a legend that May was responsible for the invention of Thousand Island dressing. In fact, she was merely part of a chain of people that helped to popularize it outside of upper New York state. Active during the war as an entertainer in support of the effort, President Woodrow Wilson suggested to the press that he would like to appoint May Irwin as the official Secretary of Laughter for the United States. Following the war, as of the 1920 Census, May was again working in Manhattan, but alone as Kurt was tending to their farm. She is listed as an actress in a theatrical company, and surprisingly as still unnaturalized, retaining her Canadian citizenship. In reality, May would be considered a United States Citizen by proxy of her marriage to her naturalized husband, a fact she may not have been aware of at that time.
     In the early 1910s the had Eisfeldts settled in Clayton, and by the early 1920s May had retired there, involved peripherally with her inn enterprise. The town of Clayton eventually named a street in her honor. In the late 1920s, having been retired from regular performance for some time, she was asked by her friend, agent Eddie Darling, if she could replace a sick premier opera singer, Emma Calvé, at The Palace, one of the more famous theaters in New York City. On just a few hours of notice May took the stage and worked for a whole week, explaining the situation to the audience. At the end of a very successful week for her and the producers, May refused to take any money, stating it was a favor for her friend and nothing more. As of 1930, Kurt and May are shown in Clayton with no profession. He had been naturalized for decades, but May had retained her Canadian citizenship status.
     Reaping the rewards of a long career and good investments, the Eisfeldts traveled the world during the early 1930s, often setting sail on The Resolute or The Reliance for their European adventures. Back in the United States she would sometimes make guest appearances in the "old-timers" shows at The Palace, and was known to have appeared on radio a couple of times as well. May finally succumbed at the age of 76 late in the decade, leaving a still substantial fortune to her husband and two sons, and a stellar legacy of the early days of Broadway to the rest of the world.

     Most of the information was compiled by the author in public and private records and newspaper articles. Some additional information was found in a good substantial book set on vaudeville and early Broadway, Vaudeville, Old & New (2006) by Frank Cullen, Florence Hackman and Donald McNeilly.

Elsie Jane Bierbower Janis (March 16, 1889 to February 26, 1956)
Compositions
1910 I’d Rather Love What I Cannot Have, Than     Have What I Cannot Love 1912 Fo' de Lawd's Sake, Play a Waltz 1913 The Anti Ragtime Girl 1914 A Castle Walk Song [1] 1915 Won't You Come Back to Old Ireland [1] Miss Information: Musical [2]    Some Sort of Somebody (All of the Time)    A Little Love (But Not for Me)    The Mix-Up Rag Very Good Eddie: Musical [2]    If I Find the Girl    Babes in the Wood 1917 It Takes an Irishman to Make Love [3] 1918 Hullo American [4] The Jazz Band [4] 1919 I Never Knew [3] A Regular Girl [w/Bert Kalmar & Harry Ruby] Elsie Janis and Her Gang (1919): Musical [5]       [w/B.C. Hilliam & Richard Fechheimer]    Let's Go    Somewhere in America    The M.P. Song    In the Latin Quarter    It's My Temperament    I Love Them All, Just a Little Bit    The Heinie Fiftette    Just a Little After Taps    When I Took My Jazz Band to the       Fatherland 1920 Molly o' Mine Love's Melody: Waltz Song       [w/Pierre de Caillaux]	1921 All the World is Wonderful [5] 1922 Elsie Janis and Her Gang (1922): Musical    Discontent [w/Ferman Finck]    Love in the Springtime is Not What it       Used to Be [w/George Hirst]    I've Waited All My Life (For Somebody       Just Like You)    Property Man    Will You Remember?    Montmarte    Come, the Night Descends    Broadway    Memories    The Bonus Blues [w/Carey Morgan &       Arthur Swanstrom]    Too Young to Love    Why All this Fuss About Spain 1925 The Do I or Don't I Blues (Undecided Blues) You've Got to Dance 1929 Love (Your Magic Spell is Everywhere) [6] 1930 Paramount on Parade You Still Belong to Me There Ought to Be More Like You       [w/Ben Light & Paul Light] Anytime's the Time to Fall in Love [7] Live and Love Today [7] 1939 Oh Give Me Time for Tenderness [6]       (From the film Dark Victory)    1. w/William E. MacQuinn    2. w/Jerome Kern    3. w/Irving Berlin    4. w/Dan Kildare    5. w/William B. Kernell    6. w/Edmund Goulding    7. w/Jack King
Selected Stageography
1906 The Vanderbilt Cup [143 Performances] 1907 The Vanderbilt Cup [48 Performances] 1909 The Hoyden [66 Performances] The Fair Co-Ed [136 Performances] 1911 The Slim Princess [104 Performances] 1912 Over the River [120 Performances] The Lady of the Slipper [232 Performances] 1915 Miss Information [47 Performances] Very Good Eddie [341 Performances]	1916 The Century Girl [200 Performances] 1919 Elsie Janis and Her Gang [55 Performances] 1922 Elsie Janis and Her Gang [56 Performances] 1925 Puzzles of 1925 [104 Performances] 1934 New Faces of 1934 [149 Performances] 1939 Elsie Janis [4 Performances] Frank Fay Vaudeville [60 Performances]
Filmography
1915 The Caprices of Kitty [Starred; Screenplay] Betty in Search of a Thrill     [Starred; Screenplay] Nearly a Lady [Starred; Screenplay] Twas Ever Thus [Starred; Screenplay] 1919 The Imp [Starred; Screenplay] 1926 Behind the Lines [Starred] 1928 Oh Kay! [Starred; Adapted Gershwin Original]	1929 Close Harmony [Writer] 1930 Madam Satan [Writer] Reaching for the Moon [Dialogue Writer] 1931 The Squaw Man [Dialogue Writer] 1932 Mary Burns, Inc. [Writer - Not Produced] 1941 Women in War [Actress]
Discography
1912 That Fascinating Baseball Slide When Antelo Plays the ’Cello Fo’ de Lawd’s Sake Play a Waltz 1914 Florrie Was a Flapper I Want a Dancing Man You’re Here and I’m Here [1] I’ve Got Everything I Want But You [1] 1915 Prudence The Same Old Song [1] Ballin’ The Jack [1] The Fortune Teller 1916 Smiles Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula I'm Not Prepared Along the Rocky Road to Dublin When You’re in Louisville (Call on Me) 1918 I Love Them All a Little Bit The Jazz Band Give Me the Moonlight, Give Me the Girl     (Part 1/Part 2) The Picture I Want to See [2] Après la Guerre [2,3,4] 1919 The Darktown Strutters’ Ball Smiles 1939 Imitations    1. w/Basil Hallam    2. w/Owen Nares    3. w/Stanley Lupino    4. w/Will West	Matrix and Date [Victor B-12527] 10/22/1912 [Victor B-12528] 10/22/1912 [Victor B-12529] 10/22/1912   [HMV 2-3029] [HMV 2-3040] [HMV B-481] [HMV 04116]     [HMV 04126] [HMV B-485] [HMV C-569] 04/15/1915   [HMV D-388A] [HMV D-388B] [HMV ?] [HMV ?] [HMV ?]   [HMV ?] 11/22/1918 [HMV ?] 11/22/1918 [HMV 03629] 11/22/1918 [HMV 03630] 11/22/1918 [HMV ?] 11/22/1918 [HMV ?] 11/22/1918   [HMV 2-3329] [HMV ?]
Books
Poems Now and Than: Dedicated to My Friends (1909) A Star For A Night: A Story of Stage Life (1911) Love Letters of an Actress (1913) The Big Show: My Six Months with the American Expeditionary Forces (1919) If I Know What I Mean (1925) Counter Currents [w/Marguertie Aspinwall] (1926) Roping: Trick and Fancy Rope Spinning [as contributor] (1928) So Far, So Good! An Autobiography (1928/1932)

     Elsie Janis has long been known by many as the Sweetheart of that A.E.F., a title which is perpetuated on her headstone. But it was a long climb to that title. The story of Elsie is also deeply intertwined with her start in the ragtime era and the continuing presence of her doting mother. In spite of how well known both of them became, finding some information on their origins which is not present in most biographies of Janis, or at least accurate information, was a challenge at the very least because both were forgetful about many details of their life, including their names and their age, the latter being highly variable over time. Some deep searches by the author in 2008 uncovered much of this information, and some will be presented here for perhaps the first time, or at least the first time in one place.
     Elsie's mother was born Jennie Cockrell August 1, 1862 (she regularly claimed aynwhere from 1867 to 1875 later on) to Hiram and Nancy Cockrell in Delaware, Ohio. The Cockrells traced their lineage back to an arrival in the United States in 1757. Jennie's name may have been Jane at birth, but consistently shows up as Jennie in public records. One of her father's close cousins was Senator Francis Marion Cockrell of Missouri, of which there is a traceable connection, and which she did mention in an interview at some point. The 1870 Census shows her as eight years old. The family moved to Centervillage, Ohio in the the early 1870s where Hiram remained for most of his life. In 1880 Jennie appears as a boarder in nearby Mansfield, Ohio, working as a trimmer in a large millinery (hat maker). On May 1, 1884 Jennie was married to John C. Bierbower, who was born in Marion, Ohio, in a ceremony in Bucyrus, Ohio. They soon moved to the area around the capitol city, Columbus, Ohio. Five years into the marriage their only child, Elsie Jane Bierbower, was born on March 16, 1889. In later years she would have birth dates listed in Census records and on passports that varied from 1892 to 1895, the latter year most consistently, but there is no question of the actual year of birth, admitted later in a Time magazine article.
     It was apparent before Elsie was even two that she was a natural entertainer. As "Baby Elsie" she started singing for activities held at the First Congregational Church in Columbus at the age of two and a half. Jennie was delighted with the reception and quickly caught the management bug that many proud stage mothers were likely to get. She started getting appearances for "Little Elsie" as a singer, and finally got her a stage debut as a singer/actress at age six in the Great Southern Theater production of East Lynne in Columbus with the James Neil Stock Company. Elsie (or Jennie) also caught the attention of the wife of then-Governor William McKinley, and the child performed for the McKinleys at the official governor's residence, the Neil House. One of his favorite tunes that Elsie sang was reportedly Break the News to Mother. As much as Jennie, and reportedly Elsie, enjoyed their growing fame and occasional travel, Elsie's father John did not approve of the theatrical life for his daughter. Rather than deny her daughter, much less herself, of the opportunities afforded by Elsie's inherent talent, Jennie divorced John in the late 1890s. She then gave both she and her daughter a new identity.

Elsie Janis in 1903.
From the Elsie Janis Collection of the Laura M. Mueller British and American Theatre and Film Collections.

The last name of Janis, by some accounts, was derived from Jennie's alleged first name of Jane, or even Janis, which is hard to confirm since neither name appears in public records that were located. It was perhaps even more likely that it was derived from Elsie's middle name of Jane. In any case, Elsie Janis became the performer's permanent name (legal papers on this name change were evasive, so the legality is uncertain) and Jennie Cockrell Bierbower became Josephine Janis, professional stage manager with only one client throughout her career.
     Now making theater appearances with a local stock company, Elsie herself had the stage bug. Josephine parlayed their previous acquaintance with the McKinleys to receive an invitation for Elsie to perform in the White House where the couple now lived as President and First Lady. Given how well that went, Josephine next set her sights on the vaudeville stage for Little Elsie, now around ten. She went to vaudeville manager Mike Shea proposing he try the girl for a week. After that time she would either hit the bricks or he would pay her $125 per week. Put right after the opening on her first day, a make or break position, she was moved to second from closing by the end of the day, a position afforded only to top performers. So it was that Elsie, with Josephine in tow, spent the next few seasons performing in vaudeville stock companies. Yet they remained based in Columbus at this time, albeit in a nicer home. The mother/daughter team would call their High Street home across from Buckeye Field, part of the University of Ohio campus, ElJan, and Elsie would not part with it until after Josephine died. They were on the road at the time the 1900 Census was taken, so concerted attempts to locate them in that year proved fruitless, but they do appear there in local Ohio records.
     Among the emerging talents that Elsie possessed was that of imitation. She was able to do quite passable imitations of many celebrities of the time, including President McKinley and eclectic singing star Sarah Bernhardt. With the variety of talents she developed, Elsie was able to form a viable act that could sustain the larger part of a vaudeville show. Yet in spite of her good press, the child actress was not allowed to work in New York City for some time due to local child labor laws strongly enforced by The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, who also set limitations on youngsters Eddie Cantor, Al Jolson and Buster Keaton. In the case of Keaton the abuse was very real. But as for Elsie, her mother was her mentor, guide and protector. Added to her act were more impersonations, including vaudeville star Eddie Foy, himself a caricature, George M. Cohan in his gung-ho all-American style, Harry Lauder and his Scottish antics, and the patriarch of the great acting family, John Barrymore.
     In 1905, After several years of vaudeville touring and summer stock, Elsie, now nearing 16, replaced Anna Held for a tour of The Little Duchess, staged by Held's husband Florenz Ziegfeld. The tour was a success, and the following year Janis was offered a role in The Vanderbilt Cup on Broadway.

Elsie entertaining an eager audience in The Vanderbilt Cup in 1906.
Image restored from the Vanderbilt Cup site collection.

Two productions of this ran for 143 performances in 1906 and 48 performances in 1907. Among the highlights were racer Barney Oldfield simulating the car race on a special treadmill built into the stage. Elsie's success was enough to get her signed to a five year agreement with producer Charles Dillingham who worked at finding viable properties for the young actress. Their professional relationship would last for nearly two decades. One of the first opportunities presented was a starring role in The Hoyden which went 65 performances in its first run. Elsie was on her way, now known as a brilliant young comedic actor and ragtime singer. Her picture and name started appearing on sheet music covers and in magazines. However, Little Elsie was little no more, and at 18 was to be taken quite seriously. While she was a pleasant singer, she would never headline in that capacity alone, using all of her acquired talents to sell her performances. Josephine continued to manage Elsie's career, in spite of occasional protestations from more experienced theatrical managers. In the end, it was likely that Elsie could have done better financially with a better manager, but she remained loyal to Josephine, and still did not make out too badly.
     The first of many tours that Elsie and Josephine would make to Europe was to France in mid 1908, likely traveling with The Hoyden. They are shown arriving back in New York on the Rotterdam on August 3rd, just in time for her to engage in a new show. The next big production, The Fair Co-Ed, started on the road in 1908, affording Elsie a visit to her home town of Columbus where she was very well received. The local paper raved about her acting, singing and dancing. The show ended up in New York in 1909 playing 136 performances. At some point in 1910, mother and daughter took a break and were found back in Columbus for the 1910 Census. Elsie is listed as an actress with a theatrical company, and Josephine as her divorced mother, but with 13 years trimmed off her life showing an age of just 35 to Elsie's deflated 18. The same information appears in the Ohio Miracord Census for that year. She was one of the top paid stars of the stage in the still-developing entertainment industry, pulling in between $2,500 and $3,000 per week in 1910, either in stage musicals or vaudeville appearances. This was equivalent to two other top American female stars, Nora Bayes and Eva Tanguay.
     Next up was an English play brought to America, The Slim Princess, which opened on the road in 1910. This production, which went for 104 performances on Broadway in 1911, also introduced Elsie as a songwriter, her entry being I'd Rather Love What I Cannot Have, Than Have What I Cannot Love. It also signaled a transition into full adulthood for some of her fans and reviewers, as the following from The Music Trade Review of October 8, 1910 will attest: "It is Miss Elsie Janis now, if you please. No more little Elsie or even just plain Elsie, for the brilliant young lady is sedate and twenty and the relics of childhood days have been cast aside. 'The Slim Princess,' published by Chappell & Co., is the first play in which Miss Janis has ever worn her hair 'done up,' and considerable dignity attaches itself to this momentous transition... It is a new young woman who comes to us this year, with the recommendation of her name in electric lights above the Studebaker entrance, a mature and serious-minded young woman whose memories of the days long ago, when she was the 'Little Elsie' of vaudeville fame, are quite dim and hazy. Do not imagine that in personality the fair Elsie is less popular than ever, for no star ever held the affections of a company of stage players with firmer grip than she. But the romping days and the games of baseball with the boys, the decidedly ingenuous jokes on prim uplifters of the stage—all are forgotten."
     In some respects, The Slim Princess became somewhat autobiographical for the actress, who while seen and heard often was rarely found with a romantic partner. It would become known in inner circles that Ms. Janis was potentially either a lesbian or at least bisexual, so if she did have relationships of that type they were certainly kept quiet. Her mother's role in Elsie's choice has rarely been explored, which perhaps could have been a result of often warning Elsie about stage door Johnnies or men in general, or perhaps from experiences with her father. In any case, Josephine was evidently tolerant of her daughter's choices in this matter. Some of Elsie's energies were put into a book in 1911 called Star for a Night, largely a publicity vehicle for her stage work in the play of the same name. In July of that year Josephine and Elsie ventured to Europe on the Lusitania for another tour, arriving back in early August.
     The next couple of years found Elsie doing everything from stage revues to recordings of popular songs. One revue featured her second song, Fo' de Lawd's Sake, Play a Waltz, which had some popularity in New York City. After Over the River, which ran for 120 performances, Elsie won a role in The Lady of the Slipper, running an impressive 232 shows from 1912 to 1913. That summer was a trip to England, returning in August on the Imperator with Josephine, as always, by her side. Her single ragtime song, The Anti-Ragtime Girl, was published in 1913. It comically names off all of the "offensive" dances that the girl in question refuses to participate in, all of them fed by ragtime music. By 1914 Elsie stated her home as the Globe Theater, but Josephine was living in White Plains, New York, a short commute which is likely where Elsie spent much of her precious down time. They went to England in the summer of 1914 so Elsie could star in the Passing Show in London.
     In London, Elsie became romantically involved with comedian Basil Hallam for a short while, and the couple even cut a few sides together in 1914, then again in 1915. It was in 1914 that Janis did her first entertaining for the boys on their way to war. Elsie and Josephine returned on the Mauretania from Liverpool in October, 1914. There was also a song that Elsie wrote and performed which was this time actually associated with a dance and specific dancers. A Castle Walk Song was composed for the premier dance couple of the time, Vernon and Irene Castle. Vernon had appeared with her in Lady of the Slipper. It should be noted that Elsie only made a handful of sides in the United States for Victor in 1912, of which three were released. For whatever reason, her records sold much better in Europe, and the recording quality was higher, so virtually all subsequent sides were done by the His Master's Voice, the British equivalent of Victor. This makes them much more rare in the United States as collectors items.
     Elsie had also worked at the Palace Theater that year, a place that even Al Jolson was not able to get into, and she proved to be quite popular there doing her songs, imitations and other comedic material. However, Josephine, who was unflinching in her negotiations when it came to Elsie but also not abusive in that regard, insisted that the theater had not lived up to their promises to the star, and she pulled Elsie from her contract. Owner Edward Albee did not take kindly to this, and he attempted to blackball Elsie from The Palace publicly. His publicity in this regard turned back on him in an ugly way since the public could not imagine any such disagreement would be Elsie's fault, and they in turn came out against the theater creating potential financial issues. In the end, Albee had to send a public letter of apology to Josephine and Elsie, and offered them a much better deal, which worked out for all involved. In the end, the dynamic and perhaps even more famous Al Jolson STILL could not make it into The Palace, even though he evidently did rather brashly crash it one night, perhaps one of the reasons for his being shunned by Albee.
     1915 turned out to be a productive year for Elsie. A second book appeared titled Love Letters of an Actress, a fictional series of letters showing the progression of a number of humorous love relationships. She also entered into a film career, making four movies for Paramount Pictures, writing the scenarios (the early version of a screenplay) for all four of them. This was followed by a collaboration with the up and coming composer Jerome Kern Kern and Janis came up with the show Miss Information, which may have turned out to be a little bit "miss-guided" in execution, closing in just around 6 weeks. After another trip overseas for a new edition of The Passing Show, While there she again became briefly involved with Basil Hallam, but did not respect his concerns about the potential of being drafted for the growing war effort. Elsie ended that relationship and returned on the St. Louis in August. Hallam would end up dying in uniform in 1916, and many believe that Elsie never quite got over the loss.
     Upon her return Elsie immediately went into a show made from the remnants of Miss Information, this one also with Kern, titled Very Good Eddie. This one they writers evidently got right, for it started in the Princess Theater late in the year, went to two other theaters during its Broadway tenure, and closed again at the Princess after an accumulative 341 performances. This was followed in late 1916 by the ostentatious and very expensive Ziegfeld production The Century Girl which itself went around 200 performances. The fortunes of mother and daughter Janis were enough that Josephine was able to secure a shrewd deal for a home in Tarrytown, New York, known as the Talleyrand, which they named The Manor House. There they were able to live in style, most certainly in a manner quite different from Josephine's rural Ohio upbringing.

Sweetheart of the A.E.F.

They added a tennis court and an English garden, fully refurbishing the historic property as well. When in New York, both of them frequented the Algonquin Hotel where the famous inner circle of literary and musical figures held court for many years.
     Following her earlier efforts to give the troops morale in a time of war, Elsie committed herself to doing this for all of the doughboys in Europe, and set out on a six month tour into the war zone. One previous trip, sponsored in part the YMCA and Salvation Army, as the U.S. Government was neutral and would not commit to backing her, established her as a cherished presence near the battlefields, so it was not hard to encourage further support, or perhaps aggressively negotiate for it since Josephine did the leg work, for this extended tour. Elsie's passport issued December 19, 1917, shows her traveling "to France and England. To France to make a tour of hospitals and rest camps through the racket and for tours to sing and entertain THE BOYS." Josephine's applications stated she was going "To assist Elsie Janis to fulfill theatrical contract. Mother/Personal Manager." This trip was when Elsie clearly earned her title "Sweetheart of the A.E.F." With Josephine by her side taking the same risks, Elsie was not considered as much a glamour girl as she was one of the guys in a sense, Her small troupe traveled around in pickup trucks or similar vehicles, using them as a makeshift stage. She would perform for anywhere from fifty to five thousand soldiers at one time, always to vigorous cheering, and even learned enough French to extend her act into the realm of French troops as well. They all looked forward to sing-alongs at the end, something that allowed the boys to participate in a way that reminded them of the folks back at home. Out of this experience came a 1919 book, The Big Show: My Six Months with the American Expeditionary Forces, and a documentary movie along the same lines called The Big Drive. She also appeared in one of the earliest Warner Brothers Vitaphone sound shorts, Elsie Janis Behind the Lines at the Front, shot in 1926. (This is currently available on DVD on The Jazz Singer set.) Elsie's selfless example in this regard clearly set the stage for what would eventually become the U.S.O. in advance of World War II.
     After an extended stay after the war, continuing to entertain through Europe, Elsie and Josephine returned to the United States on the Rotterdam from Plymouth, England, on August 31, 1919. They were met in the harbor by a tugboat with a banner reading "Welcome Home Elsie Janis," and to a swelling crowd in port, having endeared herself to the American public even more during her time away. Unable to return to the stage owing to an Actors Equity strike that all but closed New York theaters, Elsie went back into film, working for a time for the Selznick Picture Corporation. One of the films was A Regular Girl for which she wrote the screenplay and a title song. She also prepared a new show based on her experiences in the war called Elsie Janis and Her Gang in a Bomb Proof Revue. When she finally got clearance to return to the stage, the show started on December 1 and played through mid January, going briefly on the road after 55 performances on Broadway.
     The 1920 Census shows Elsie and Josephine residing in Talleyrand at Tarrytown, with Elsie as an actress in motion pictures (in spite of her current stage work), and Josephine as 46 (adding a year to her previous claim), divorced, and manager for her daughter. Also in the household were five servants: a housekeeper, a chauffeur, a cook, a waitress, and a gardener to maintain the large property. Either because of the shift of the film industry to Hollywood, or perhaps since her company had gone out there, Elsie purchased a house in Los Angeles in early 1920, and would eventually trade up to Beverly Hills. On an April 1920 passport application she is shown as residing in Los Angeles. But she again recognized that she worked better in front of a live audience that could give her feedback, rather than in front of the camera. So Elsie again took another show to Europe and the United Kingdom in 1920, It's All Wrong: A Musical Complaint, followed by a tour of Elsie in Paris, actually staged in Paris in 1921, arriving back on the Titanic's sister ship The Olympic on August 31.
     Once back in the United States the actress attempted a new rendition of Elsie Janis and Her Gang which played from January through March for only 56 performances. Not able to capture the same energy after the war that she had before, and competing with the new acts emerging in the frenetic jazz age 1920s, her fortunes started to fade. Appearing wherever Josephine could get her booked, usually in Europe, she still worked fairly consistently through the decade. In 1925 Elsie got good some exposure in Puzzles of 1925, but after 104 nights the show closed. Her best effort of that year was the clever book If I Know What I Mean, one of the first that discussed her relationship with her tenacious manager mother. Elsie was also spending more time in Los Angeles, having bought an estate in Beverly Hills. Among her best friends there were actress and "America's Sweetheart," Mary Pickford, and her husband Douglas Fairbanks. Another book came out in 1926 called Counter Currents, co-authored by Marguerite Aspinwall. It was followed Behind the Lines for Vitaphone. Josephine and Elsie made two trips to France in 1926 and 1927. Another book came out in 1928 featuring contributions by Elsie. In her stage imitations of the famous Will Rogers she had become quite adept with a lariat herself, thus her role in the book Roping: Trick and Fancy Rope Spinning along with Rogers and actor Fred Stone.

A 1929 piece featuring actress Gloria Swanson with lyrics by Elsie Janis

One of her last Broadway appearances was in the George Gershwin musical Oh Kay!, which garnered inconsistent reviews, followed by a film adaptation of the same. On the final record that shows what is perhaps Elsie's final trip to Europe in early 1929, Josephine's name is absent. This would turn out to be the beginning of a very different phase of life for Elsie.
     As the Great Depression was just underway, the 1930 Census showed Elsie now living in Beverly Hills with Josephine, the latter listed as widowed (if there is a story to that we were not able to find it) and 58, a step closer to her actual age. Elsie listed herself in her new profession, a writer for motion pictures. Living them was one cook and a domestic servant. Indeed, Elsie started to amass film credits as a writer of both stories and dialogue. Among these were Close Harmony, Madam Satan, Reaching for the Moon and The Squaw Man. She also had several more compositions added to her musical credits. But it was also in 1930 that Josephine (Jennie), Elsie's constant companion, and at times both her biggest fan and driving force, finally passed on. Elsie took the loss of her mother hard, and buried herself in her behind the scenes film work. In what turned out to be a questionable decision, Elsie married Gilbert Wilson before the year was out. He was a stockbroker who was only 24 to her 41, and some termed it a marriage on paper only. However, in a 1936 letter reprinted in Time Magazine, and originally appearing in the Tarrytown News, she noted that after her mother died, "I had asked for a helpmate who would understand me. He came and was young enough to be as inexperienced in the fundamentals of mating as Old Maid Janis was at 42 [sic]. Result: Four years of two being one completely, and now an understanding of what is what. He is young enough to make a new life for himself, if orders are such..." The intent of that last line is unclear, but it was perhaps a harbinger of what was to come. As for what had already been, she attempted another autobiography in 1932, updated from a first attempt in 1928, and optimistically titled So Far, So Good.
     Early on in the marriage, Elsie evidently tried to turn the stockbroker into an actor with mixed results that created tensions. Perhaps a better indicator of the nature of their relationship is that she finally got him cast in a Noel Coward revue in 1934, Set to Music, and Gilbert soon became a frequent party companion to the gay playwright. Elsie herself was known to appear at parties with company as diverse as the "notoriously libidinous" actress Marilyn Miller at her side. She also attempted another show, staging New Faces of 1934, which ran from March through July for a respectable (given the times) 159 performances. But Elsie's lifestyle was fraught with drawbacks during the Great Depression, and Elsie's fortunes started to diminish. A serious automobile accident in 1935 created issues both with her body and her finances. In September, 1936 she made a move which prompted the Time Magazine letter printed above, selling her beloved Tarrytown Manor House and most of the possessions within during a three day auctions. While she attributed this as "Orders for G.H.Q." (General Head Quarters and she referred to God), it was more likely to help keep the couple solvent and in their Beverly Hills home where she spent more time. The property soon ended up in the hands of John D. Rockefeller Jr.. Through the second half of the decade Elsie and Gilbert spent more time apart than together.
     While spending most of her time on the West Coast in the late 1930s, she did attempt a Broadway comeback that was short lived. Her self-titled variety show, Elsie Janis, sort of a throwback to vaudeville with narration infused, opened on New Years Day 1939, and disappeared after a mere four performances. She was also involved with Frank Fay Vaudeville, a nostalgic revue, fared a bit better, lasting for 60 performances from March through late April of the same year. But that was it for Elsie Janis and the theater. She appeared once more on screen in 1941 in the film Women in War, playing a nurse in France. As for the real war, her husband Gilbert enlisted in the Army on April 22, 1941, and was shipped overseas for around five years. His enlistment shows him as an actor or entertainer born in Illinois and still married. As for Elsie, the car accident had pushed her into somewhat of a religious conversion and she started an involvement with the church that continued through most of the rest of her life. She did benefit performances, was involved with four war time patritotic concerts, appeared on radio whenever there was an opportunity, and spent fifteen years visiting veterans of past and present conflicts reading to them, writing to them, and honoring them however she could. At one point during World War II she even worked with Bob Hope, who had pretty much taken over the role of entertainment ambassador that Elsie had held since before America entered World War I in 1917.
     In 1946 when Gilbert returned it was clear to the couple that no real marriage existed. Rather than divorce they simply chose to live separate lives. In retrospect she was still loved, having had a number of works of music and poems and other literature dedicated to her. The number of articles that she had been writing for various magazines about her life and her associations with other stars started to trickle down to virtually no output. Other than her visits to veterans she was rarely in the public eye any more and spent most of the last decade as a recluse in Beverly Hills. When the end came in 1956 she was attended to by her long time friend Mary Pickford, who was at Elsie's side when she passed on. Another past friend was there as well. She had a framed photographc of her first real love, Basil Hallam, on the table next to her bed. While Pickford had been America's Sweetheart for so long, Janis still remained the American Soldier's Gal Pal, and was well remembered by many, particularly those of the armed forces. Her career had spanned vaudeville from before ragtime up through the height of swing and movie musicals. Her selflessness in recognizing and honoring those who fought for the United States set an example that continues among many entertainers to this day. Little Elsie Bierbower from Ohio had finally made good, but the show had closed and it was time to take the pictures down.

     Some of the information on Ms. Janis' life was gleaned by many biographies, including two of her own; magazine articles, including some she penned; and theater reviews or newspaper listings. The remainder was researched by the author, delving into Census records, passports, shipping manifests, and some deep family histories going back to the 1850s. The information on her origins leading up to 1905 or so is as accurate as can be presented based on public records, and is often contrary to known information on Janis and her mother, some of which was fabricated by the two women. Corrections or addendums are most certainly welcome with corroborating information.

Sadie G. Koninsky (August 1879? to January 2, 1952)
Compositions
1894 Belles of Andalusia: Valse Espagnole 1895 The Minstrel King: March 1898 Where Love is King: Waltzes I'll Be Your Friend Through All Eli Green's Cake Walk Eli Green's Cake Walk (song)     [w/Dave Reed Jr.] 1899 Belles of Andalusia: Valse Espagnole Boardin' House Johnson Phoebe Thompson's Cake Walk When I Return We'll Be Wed [2] 1900 Sing Me a Song of Other Days You Alone: Ballad Beneath the Starry Flag [1] I Didn't Think You Cared to Have Me     Back [2] 1901 The Grasshopper's Hop: A Bugtown     Society Event In a Japanese Tea House     [w/M.N. Koninsky] 1902 Cleopatra: An Egtypian Intermezzo I Wants a Man Who Ain't Afraid to Work     [w/Harry E. Stanley] When Mammy Puts Little Coons to Bed Forever The Return of the Troops [1] 1903 A Wigwam Courtship I Am Lonely Here Without You, Nellie     Dear When You Are Near If You Loved Me as I Love You	1903 (Cont) On To Victory [1] 1905 June Roses: Waltzes 'Tis You 'Cause the Sandman's Comin Around Old Glory: March and Two Step [1] 1906 In Lover's Lane: Waltzes Life in Camp: March [1] 1907 College Days: Waltzes 1908 Maid of the Mist Waltzes 1909 Love Tales: Waltzes Uncle Sam's Boys: March [1] 1910 Musical Moments (Opus 6)    Valsette (no. 1)    Melodie (no. 2)    Barcarolle (no. 3) 1911 La Cascade: Valse Caprice Heart of the Rose: Waltzes 1912 The River of Dreams 1914 Joys of the Dance: Waltz 1916 If I Had All the World Besides I'd Still     Want You! [w/J. Will Callahan] 1917 Mae Marsh Waltzes 1918 In Yucatan (Fox Trot)    1. As Jerome Hartman    2. w/Stewart M. Washburn

     Sadie Koninsky left a fairly impressive legacy in composition, and not just in ragtime. She spent the bulk of her life in Troy, New York, born there to German/Polish father Harris Koninsky and German/British mother Mary Koninsky. She was the youngest of seven children, including Edward M. (1/1865), David H. (9/1869), (Moses) Maurice Nathan (7/23/1874) and Sarah (1877 - died before 1900). All years of birth are what was listed in the 1900 Census, but are at some variance with the 1880 record. In the 1880 Census, Harris is listed as a tailor and Edward, shown as 16, was a clerk. Sadie is strangely absent from the record, bringing her birth year into question. As the Census was taken June 1, she may have been actually born in August 1880. Without further confirmation, we will use 1879 as her more commonly regarded year of birth, also suggested in the 1905 New York State Census. There is also the possibility that Sarah, listed as 3 in 1880, was Sadie, but as Mary showed 4 surviving children out of 5 as of 1900, that possibility seems less likely. In an 1890 directory the family was residing at 404 River in Troy. Harris was now shown working in the furniture business, Edward was still listed as a clerk, David was working as a clerk, and Maurice was listed as a musician.
     Sadie's first known published composition was issued by the house of M. Witmark in 1894. The Belles of Andalusia was a pleasant Spanish-tinged waltz. This was followed in 1895 by a typical march of the era, The Minstrel King, published in Albany. However, she first came to prominence at the age of 17 or 18. While training to become a classical violinist, a skill for which she turned out to be very capable, Miss Koninsky wrote Eli Green's Cake Walk It was quickly picked up by Joseph W. Stern for publication, and Stern had lyrics added by staff writer Dave Reed to further benefit from the call for cakewalk songs.
     At a time shortly after cakewalk dance music had been introduced into publication, Sadie, a white woman, was able to successfully capture the feeling of the typical black-composed cakewalk. Furthermore, it published under her real name, a feat not often duplicated until a few years later when women such as Charlotte Blake and May Aufderheide started putting out ragtime works. The success of the tune convinced her to seek instruction to gain some further pianistic skills with Harriet Brower, a respected teacher and author of The Mystery of the Piano, This was likely to help with her ability to construct good piano scores, but Sadie ultimately kept the violin as her instrument of choice. Upon completion of her education, Koninsky took on students of her own in Troy, as well as working as a soloist with various ensembles in the area. Her success with Eli Green's Cake Walk allowed her to secure a job as a staff arranger for short time with the Stern publishing house.
     In the 1898 Troy city directory, the Koninsky family is still living at 404 River, with Harris heading H. Koninsky & Sons, a pawnbroker firm that included David and Edward. Sadie listed music as her occupation. She was in business with Maurice, running what appears to be M. N. & S. Koninsky, dealers of music. By 1899 their local firm, now a full-fledged music publisher, was known as Edw. M. Koninsky & Brothers. One of their first publications was a female follow up to Eli Green, Phoebe Thompson's Cakewalk. In 1900 they opened an office at 1130 Broadway in Manhattan to secure better visibility in the industry. They snatched promoter Harry S. Marion from the firm of Frederick Mills and had him run the Broadway office.
     Sadie had also become a very adequate song writer by the time of this expansion. The Music Trade Review of June 23, 1900, gave credit where it was due. "The Review heard a number of songs from their catalogue this week, and they are of a very fine order. Miss Sadie Koninsky is the genius of the firm, and it is she, who is entitled to credit for the songs. 'When I Return We'll Be Wed,' 'You Alone,' ' I Didn't Think You Cared To Have Me Back,' 'Sing Me a Song of Other Days,' are four songs of the sentimental style, in which the lyrics and melody are both by Sadie Koninsky. 'I Wants a Man Who Ain't Afraid To Work,' is a coon song also by this talented composer, and shows her great versatility. All these songs are being sung by various top-liners, in different parts of the country, and the orders for them come steadily along." Their catalog was bolstered by the inclusion of pieces by the somewhat well known composer Arthur Trevelyan. The Manhattan branch of Koninsky Brothers was open only from mid-1900 to 1901.
      In the 1900 Census Sadie also listed her profession as musician as did Maurice. She and her older brothers, Edward, David and Maurice, also formed their own ensemble around 1904, and were listed as the Koninsky Orchestra for more than 20 years in based in Troy. There is no evidence that Sadie ever married. The same was true of Maurice and David. With all of her brothers she expanded the sheet music enterprise, changing the name to the Koninsky Music Company. They conducted their retail business from Frear's Department Store in Troy. The firm published out of the former Troy Times newspaper building, but their listed address was 17 King Street where the family now lived.
      Sadie took on multiple roles as the primary composer, arranger and song plugger for Koninsky Music. Most of her marches were released under the name Jerome Hartman (perhaps women simply were not supposed to write good marches). It has been thought in the past that she also composed under the name of Julius K. Johnson, as he was responsible for the company's biggest hit in 1910, King of the Air and three other lesser marches. However, since compositions of Johnson's have been found published by other houses in the Midwest, the author is certain that the Johnson in question was likely the prominent L.A. organist of the 1920s and 1930s born in St. Paul, Minnesota.
     In the 1910 Census Sadie is shown living with her now widowed mother Mary and her brothers David and Maurice (known by this time to Troy as Moe). Edward had left Troy for Rochester and was married by this time. David was the proprietor of their music store, and Maurice and Sadie list themselves as publishers of songs. As of 1918, the draft record for Maurice showed him still residing with his mother, and his occupation listed at musical director for Proctor's Theater, one of a chain of vaudeville theaters. He was also known as having worked at the Griswold Theater. As remembered by William Noller, leader of the Troy City Band, "Moe had fingers like wings on the piano. He was one of the best. He knew harmony and he would play the newly-issued numbers in the music department at Frear's where he always attracted a crowd."
     The 1920 Census shows Sadie as 42, again challenging her birth year. Mary was still heading the household, with David, Maurice and Sadie listed as music publishers. By this time David was also well regarded as a fine cornet player in the local bands and orchestras. In the 1920s Sadie started a separate publishing house in Troy, Goodwyn Music Publishers. She also took up teaching the violin and music both privately and in Troy area schools. David was a vocal teacher at the LaSalle Institute for many years during this period. The Koninsky Music Company finally closed in the mid 1920s. By the time of the 1930 Census Mary had died. Sadie is shown still living at 17 King Street with David and Maurice, and all three are listed as musicians, likely playing for dance bands or orchestras, and teaching as well.
     A 1932 Troy directory lists Maurice as a piano and vocal teacher, and Sadie as a violinist. David showed no occupation, likely having retired by this time. Moe was the best known musician of the family, playing piano not only in local bands but also as part of a trio on station WHAZ at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for a number of years, and pianist for the Maurice String Ensemble on station WTRY. Moe could also be heard playing at times in Schenectady on WGY He also was long regarded as a good substitute concert accompanist in a pinch, once directing a show with 300 cues while sight reading it all. Sadie and her brothers moved to 151 Second Street in the late 1930s, where she would live for over a decade.
    David died in 1942 and Maurice in May 1944, just four days after his last performance at the local Jewish Community Center. Sadie kept plugging away at her musical passion. In the 1947 Troy directory, she is still listed as a violin teacher approaching age 70. Koninsky outlived her older siblings, dying at around 72 or 73 years of age on the second day of 1952, following a long illness. Sadie was interred at the B'rith Sholom Cemetery in Troy. Her obituary listed her as a composer of more than 300 numbers, but many may have gone unpublished or are just lost to history. Her considerable net estate from royalties and other holdings was $50,613 was distributed in part among several local Jewish organizations, and largely to her niece, Edward's daughter, Marjorie K. Brainan of Rochester. It is unknown if this included any of the physical assets of the publishing company. However, it did include her fine violin, of which she asked Marjorie to "give the violin to a talented needy Jewish student, preferably a child, of the Eastman School of Music in Rochester." What finer final tribute could there be for such a great musical legacy.

     Thanks as always to Ragtime Women historian Nora Hulse, for information on some of Koninsky's activities in Troy. The bulk of the information was researched by the author from public records, embedded sheet music information, perodicals and newspapers.

Elma Ney McClure (October [26?], 1881 to October, 1963?)

Composition

1909 The Cutter: A Classy Rag

     Elma Ney McClure is yet another example of a female composer with a great deal of promise that was sadly unrealized. Little information is available on her, but what we've found is contained here. She was born in Shelby County, Tennessee as Elma Ney in 1881 to Bavarian immigrant saloon keeper Jacob Ney (erroneously spelled Kney in the 1900 Census) and his Missouri born wife Christina Ney. Elma was the youngest of five siblings including her older brothers Charles, Frederick, Albert and Amil. Jacob was probably fairly well off in the saloon business as the family also employed a cook/housekeeper in the late 1890s and later. As of the 1900 Census the family was living in Memphis with Charles working as a music clerk, Fred as a dry good clerk, and Amile having entered politics in his early twenties. Elma entered into the music field in the early 1900s teaching piano, and was soon working for the O. K. Houck Piano Company in Memphis, likely as a sheet music demonstrator and sales clerk. Also working there at the same time was fellow female composer and pianist Geraldine Dobyns.
     At some point in between 1900 and 1910 Elma was married and McClure was added to her name. However, by the time of the 1910 Census she showed her marital status as divorced and was living with her widowed mother and brother Fred, listed as a music teacher. Elma may have still been married in 1909 when her single composition, The Cutter: A Classy Rag, was published by Houck. The title may refer to either a cutting contest, common in those times, or perhaps cutting the rug. Neither seems to fit the gentle nature of this beautiful and effusive work. After 1910 the family appears to almost drop off, with only Amil as Albert Emil in the 1918 draft, working now for the Iron Mountain Railway. No Elma/Emma/Alma is apparent with the correct background in the 1920 or 1930 Census. Fred does show up in the 1920 Census as an inmate at the Home for Incurables in Memphis for an undisclosed ailment. It appears that either the entire family perished in the 1910s or they changed their family name. There is one possibility for her disposition; an E. Ney that was shown to have been born in October 1884 and died in Pennsylvania October of 1963, but without a first name or place of birth this is not definitive. If any family members have additional information, please let us know so we can update this biography with the best possible information.

Julia Lee Niebergall (Feburary 15, 1886 to October 19, 1968)
Compositions
1905 Clothilda (March) 1907 Hoosier Rag 1908 Bryan Cocktail [w/N.S. Carter]	1909 When Twilight is Falling (Song) 1911 Horseshoe Rag 1912 Red Rambler Rag

     Julia Lee Niebergall was born in Indiana to George Niebergall, a print shop lithographer, and Minnie (Krueger) Niebergall, who was likely already pregnant when the couple married on August 26, 1885. Julia was the oldest of two girls and a boy, including her brother Herbert (b.1888) and sister Mayme E. (b. 1891). She took to the piano at a fairly young age and by her late teens had become a friend of composer May Aufderheide, whose father eventually published two of Julia's works. Niebergall was born into a musical family as her dad played the double bass, occasionally even with the Indianapolis Philharmonic, her sister also took to the piano, and her brother was a percussionist. In the 1900 Census the family is shown in Indianapolis with George as a lithographer and all of the children still in school.
     Julia was a truly independent woman who allegedly married young shortly after finishing school, but soon found out that marriage was not for her and divorced young as well, keeping her maiden name. Evidence of this marriage has been difficult to come by, and she shows as single, not divorced, in the 1910 Census, so this was possibly confused with a marriage she entered into briefly several years later.
     After one early march she had a measure of success with her Hoosier Rag, which was eventually published by Jerome Remick in Detroit. Beyond that she wrote only two more piano rags, both published by J.H. Aufderheide, and a pair of songs. Julia also acted as an arranger for the Aufderheide firm for a period of time. She did not consider herself a composer by trade, and in the 1910 Census was listed as still living with her parents but with no apparent profession.
     One typical sighting of Julia utilizing her comic wiles is relayed in a late February 1911 edition of the Indianapolis Star, in which she attended the Maennerchor Costume Ball (their equivalent of Mardi Gras) dressed as Mary Quite Contrary, and later as Little Miss Muffet. That same week she had presented a musical monologue at a Daughters of the Revolution gathering. In fact, several other articles indicate that she was working at many Indianapolis events as a musical monologist (a pianist who gives comic or dramatic sketches punctuated with playing), often on the local B.F. Keith Vaudeville Theater, which also doubled as a cinema. Julia also played at her sister Mayme's wedding to Dr. Paul E. Bruick in Fort Wayne, Indiana, performing the famous Barcarolle from Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman, clearly demonstrating that she had some range as a pianist as well.
     During the 1910s and 1920s Ms. Niebergall taught music on and off at Manual High School, and was a professional pianist focusing mostly on playing for movies at the Colonial Theatre right up until recorded soundtracks took over, as well as for other stage presentations and social events. Many of these events were reported on in the Indianapolis Star throughout the 1910s. At one April of 1915 church event, in which her picture was published with the article, Julia was said to have played Desecration Rag, likely the Felix Arndt piece by that name. She also occasionally played for ballet and gym classes when her services were requested. Julia was also an active entertainer in Indianapolis during the war effort, raising funds and morale for soldiers, particularly those overseas without any parents for whom a local organization wrote letters of support. She was once again active after the war, featured in a minstrel show in 1919 among other events. In spite of this, Julia still listed no occupation in the 1920 Census. Newspaper references for her seem to evaporate in the 1920s as well.
     Julia tried marriage (possibly for a second time), starting on February 26, 1921, to Mr. George Ray in Hendricks County, but was subsequently divorced from him by the mid-1920s, resuming her maiden name. As an assertion of her fiery independence, it was widely known that Ms. Niebergall was one of the first women in Indianapolis to own and drive her own vehicle (make and model unknown).
     In later years Julia taught some piano and music theorytheory and played for gymnastic classes at the Athenaeum, where she was a member of the Women’s Auxiliary. She was listed in the 1930 Census as still living with her father, her mother deceased by that time, and working as a teacher in a music school, the first listing of her in a Census in the music profession. Her father George, who never took a vacation during his tenure as a lithographer with the William B. Burford Printing Company, had been forced into retirement by a stroke in 1925, and was in her care.
     Julia was able to support herself and maintain her own home as a professional musician and teacher nearly up until her death in 1968 at age 82.

Bess Elizabeth Rudisill (November 22, 1884 to August 8, 1957)
Compositions
1902 Polka Dot: March and Two Step Prince Henry: Waltzes Way Down East: Two Step 1903 Bright Eyes: March Two Step 1904 Burning Rags: Two Step Japanese Novelty I'll Meet You on the Pike [1]	1905 Ain't I Lucky: March Two Step Bessie [2] 1907 Inez: Intermezzo 1911 The Eight O'Clock Rush (2 Versions)    1. w/Eddie Dustin    2. w/Edna Williams

     Bess Rudisill was born in Rensselaer, Ralls County, Missouri, around 100 miles from the area considered to be the "Cradle of Ragtime." She was the second of four children born to James W. Rudisill and Ella M. (Bradley) Rudisill, including one older sister, Mina, and two younger brothers, Corwine and Robert Alva. Soon after she was born the family moved to the nearby New London area. At the time of her birth Mr. Rudisill was a farmer. However, the 1900 Census shows James as a drug clerk and Ella as a dressmaker, the family having moved west to Spencer in the same area of Missouri. Bess was still in school at that time.
     According to information uncovered by historian Nora Hulse, the family as a whole was rather musical. One clipping describing a local contest for the best musical family talked about James as the violinist, Ella as the cellist, Mina on the less than musical comb, and Bess at the piano. After playing "some soul stirring selections" they took the prize for the contest. James also had his own small string group for which Bess accompanied for dances, starting as young as 14 years. She was also elected the organist for a local group of young Baptists. Her inherent musicality was rewarded in 1900 when the citizens of New London sponsored a musical and literary program at the local Opera House, with the proceeds going to procure a piano for the talented teen. That same summer the family moved to St. Louis to afford their daughter the opportunity to work in the music department of the elegant Crawford's Department Store. (The beautiful original building still exists in downtown St. Louis.)
     As for composing, Bess had already started on her own tunes by age 11. So it was not long after the family had relocated that she got her first piece into print, Polka Dot: March and Two Step, published by the substantial firm of Harold Rossiter in Chicago. This was followed by another pair of marches including Way Down East which was released in two editions with varying covers. It is dedicated to Pattie Buchanan of Billlings, Montana, cited as her teacher. Given the time line, it seems more likely that Miss Buchanan was either from or had relocated to Billings, rather than Bess or the family having ventured that far from Missouri.
     Yet another raggy march, Bright Eyes, appeared the following year. Then her first true rag Burning Rags, made it into print around the time of the St. Louis Fair in 1904. Bess found more notoriety the following year. As recounted in the April 29, 1905 edition of The Music Trade Review: "Miss Bess Rudisill, a St. Louis girl, has been awarded one of the prizes offered by the Whitney Warner Music Publishing Co., of Detroit, for a march and two-step, 'Ain't I Lucky?' which has become popular here. She is also the composer of many other instrumental compositions. The young composer plays in the music department of the May store."
     It is unclear if Miss Rudisill lived in Chicago at any point between 1904 and 1908, but she may have at least spent some time there as most of her works were published in that city, which was at least a half-day train ride from St. Louis. It was more likely a business arrangement while she continued to work in St. Louis, possibly even representing Whitney Warner and Remick as part of her job. In 1910 Bess was shown in the Census as living in St. Louis with her parents, with James now working as a "park keeper" for the city, and Bess clearly still working as a pianist for Crawford's. Mina and her new husband George P. Agnew were also living in the Rudisill household.
     Around 1911 Bess actually did move to Chicago for a time, which was where two versions of her final published composition, The Eight O'Clock Rush, were put into print. The title likely reflects a street scene between the time of dinner and when the theater shows got underway in the city. Then she opted for a run on stage as a member of the vaudeville circuit for one of the many large touring companies during the 1910s. She was found in Oklahoma City for the January 1920 Census as Bessie Rudisill, listed as a vaudeville musician lodging with a number of other members of the troupe, and for whatever reason having deflated her listed age from 35 to 29.
     In 1922 Bess relocated to the West Coast, living in the Los Angeles area for the remainder of her life. She became a fixture on Los Angeles radio in 1924 on station KHJ as part of the Studebaker Radio Orchestra, a small jazz ensemble. Bess is also shown as a member of the Southern California Music Company. In a Los Angeles Times review March 15, 1924, the orchestra, headed by violinist Charles H. Lindsay, was said to consist of "a splendid combination, designed to lighten hearts and footsteps. The degree to which this effect has registered was strongly evidenced by the frequent requests to repeat or play other numbers. Many a couple undoubtedly danced to the tunes of these smooth portrayals of classic jazz, and if the truth were known many others had their youth restored to them by this elixir of music."
     In the 1930 Census Bess is listed as living with younger brother Robert (Alva) in Long Beach, California. He was also an orchestra musician, and she was now listed a theater and church organist, something she reportedly did through most of her final years. She appears in Los Angeles County voter records with Robert at various address, both listed as musicians in 1942 and 1944, after which occupations weren't listed. The pair were at 922 W. 30th from 1944 to 1946, and 3226 Royal Street in 1948 to at least 1954. Bess finally beat the Eight O'Clock Rush, leaving it behind at age 72, apparently having never married. As with many other female composers and performers of her quality we wish there had been more, but we'll certainly take what we got.

     Thanks as always to Ragtime Women historian Nora Hulse, for information on Bess Rudisill while in the New London area.

Cora May (Folsom) Salisbury Aulmann (February 12, 1868 to April 16, 1916)

Compositions

1904 I'm Worried to Death About That 'Taint No Use in Lovin' That Way 1906 Paula (Valse Caprice) 1907 The Poodles Parade 1908 My Light Guitar Pleading Eyes 1909 Lemons and Limes: A Sour Rag 1911 Ghost Dance (Dance Descriptive) 1913 Love's Embrace: Waltz

     It seems that there are two different schools of people who know at least something about Cora Salisbury - those who study or play ragtime piano, and those who know of her great protégé Benajmin Kubelsky. Hopefully the story of both will be melded together here. Cora was born in Wisconsin in 1868 to Maine native James Harrison Folsom (known as Harry) and his wife Eliza M. (Knofsker) Folsom. In 1870 the family is listed living in Winnebago, Wisconsin, just northwest of Oshkosh, along with James' younger brother Benjamin and his wife. Both brothers were working in the local saw mill, as lumber was a big Wisconsin industry in the exponentially expanding United States. The family was still living in the area, now in Oshkosh, in 1880, when Harry was listed as a saw filer. In 1884 Harry passed on. His widow, Eliza, started taking in boarders, something she would do throughout the next two decades.
     Most of those who stayed at the Folsom boarding house turned out to be theatrical types in traveling troupes or Chautauquas, usually at the Grand Opera House in town. So Cora certainly had exposure to contemporary music and learned something about working on the stage. Cora had been learning piano throughout her teens. She is mentioned in a February, 1887 article in Oshkosh as performing for the Carriage Men at the Y.M.C.A. along with Mary A. Grundy and the Keystone Orchestra. In April she is mentioned again, this time playing for Neff's Ball, a library benefit. Her name started appearing often in the local paper, over the next few years, sometimes in a social context, but often as a performer.
     On June 6, 1888, Cora Folsom married newspaper editor Charles P. Salisbury, which could have been the end of a potential performance career. However she did work from time to time as an accompanist. Charles had been a newspaper man for several years, working as an editor for the Oshkosh Times, but eventually shifted careers and became the manager of the local Grand Opera House, then later in the 1890s the Great Northern Theater in Chicago. There is no indication of whether Cora primarily played the role of housewife in the beginning or worked in music. However, it was publicly announced in 1897 that she had become a part of his musical theater troupe, The Music Hall Stock Company, based at that time in Buffalo, New York where the couple had relocated the prior year. At some point by the late 1890s the marriage, which was childless, became contentious according to the family. While in Buffalo in the late 1890s, both mother and daughter fostered a relationship with Eliza's cousin Frances Folsom Cleveland, the wife of former President Grover Cleveland, the only man to serve two non-consecutive terms in that office.
     By 1900 mother and daughter were found in Washington D.C. in the Census, with Eliza now running a boarding house for members of congress and their aides, and Cora as a saleswoman for an indeterminate product (the garbled text looks like "toilet" but could be "toiletries"). Mentions of Charles' company are difficult to locate, so they may have been there independently of him. The pair returned to Buffalo in 1901, likely due to her husbands current production company of A Trip to Buffalo performing there. Cora was at the Buffalo Pan American Exposition on September 6, 1901, in the Temple of Music hall (cannot confirm if it was in a performance capacity), and was reportedly standing in very close proximity to President William McKinley when the attempt on his life was made by P.M. Czolgosz at 4:07 PM. McKinley would die eight days later from infections sustained from inadequate medical attention when attempts were made to remove the two bullets.
     During this period it is unclear how often Charles was traveling together with Cora and Eliza due to the marital tension. However, in November of 1901 an article in The Daily Northwestern in Oshkosh cites his role as the producer of A Trip to Buffalo which had recently returned from playing in that city for a short run in Oshkosh. It also indicated that Cora was accompanying him on the Eastern tour of the play. But their marriage was not to last.
     The couple legally called it quits with a final divorce in November of 1903. As cited on the wires in May of that year, "Miss Cora Folsom Salisbury of New York is [in Oshkosh] for the purpose of prosecuting an action for divorce against Charles P. Salisbury, formerly of [Oshkosh]. The basis of this action is non-support. The defendant was manager at one time of the Great Northern Theater in Chicago." Eliza and Cora were reported to have gone back to Washington, D.C. for a time to run another boarding house. Cora was able to focus even more on music while there, not only teaching piano but taking some time to compose as well. Through this period she kept the married name of Salisbury as it was the one in which she had gained her growing reputation as a stage pianist. She returned to Waukegan by the middle of the decade.
     It was around 1907 that Cora created her own comic vaudeville act and started to travel, most likely with a small troupe of other vaudeville performers. She is listed in a September, 1907 Oshkosh Daily Northwestern News article performing at the Bijou vaudeville theater, giving a pianologue. On November 23, the same newspaper noted that:

     One of Cora's first published compositions was the waltz Paula in 1906, followed by Poodles Parade in 1907, printed by Thiebes Stierlin in St. Louis. Publisher choices further suggest that she was traveling during this time period. The following year saw another piece in print, My Light Guitar under the logo of Will Rossiter in Chicago, extremely hard to locate today so likely in a small run. In 1909 her most famous piece found its way into print, Lemons and Limes: A Sour Rag, also published by Rossiter. It mentions a piece she had composed called Love's Embrace, but the existence of this waltz in print is difficult to verify. In the 1910 Census it is difficult to pinpoint either Cora or Eliza, so one or both may have simply missed the local Census takers while on the road. Her mailing address as listed a few months earlier in 1909 was the Barrison Theater in Waukegan. One more composition would come from Cora during these years of travel, albeit still based in Wisconsin. This was Ghost Dance, a novelette published by Rossiter, That would be the end of published compositions by Cora Salisbury, but one of her best acts was yet to come.
     From perhaps 1905 on, one place in particular that was frequented by Cora in her capacity as a pianist when she was not traveling was the Barrison Theater in Waukegan, Illinois. By 1910 she had become a regular there and was the musical director of the Barrison. Around the same time she met a talented violinist who had joined the orchestra at age 15 in 1909, a move that got him expelled from school, Benjamin Kubelsky was being paid around eight dollars per week, so to him life seemed good. Finally Cora took some notice of Kubelsky, and there is a possibility he went on at least one of her vaudeville tours in 1910 or 1911.

Cora Salisbury with her younger protogé Benny Kubelsky, a.k.a. Jack Benny.

By September 1912, Cora managed to convince Kubelsky's parents, who on religious grounds felt the theater would ruin their son, that he had a future in vaudeville and convinced them that he should travel with her in a single act. She also promised to keep an eye on him at all times so he would not be corrupted by admirers at the stage door or even on the stage. This was meant to be strictly musical, not with comic patter. In this class act, the large-busted Cora often wore a blue velvet dress with rhinestone earrings, and even a tiara from time to time for effect. Benjamin's father had obtained a tuxedo from his father as a present for the tour, which became Ben's standard stage dress.
     The original name of the traveling act was Salisbury and Kubelsky: From Grand Opera to Ragtime. However, a legal wrinkle created a change. Another much more famous violinist, Jan Kubelik, was using a similar title for his own traveling show, and was ready to bring legal action against Salisbury if they did not change the name of their act. Since the had seen some success in their short tenure, the answer was to change the name of one of the actors. Therefore Benjamin Kubelsky became Ben K. Benny (or Bennie). Still touring with their Opera to Ragtime act, now billed as Cora Salisbury and Benny, they were, as Benny put it later, "killing audiences" around the circuit. Among the pieces played in their shows included Cora's own compositions, plus popular songs like Everybody's Doing It by Irving Berlin, one or more renditions of the Turkey Trot, the poignant classically-based song The Rosary, and the old standard Poet and Peasant Overture. At several points in a show Benny would exaggerate the difficulty of the music by moving the violin dramatically, and keeping the pinky finger of his bow hand extended. As he later recalled, "I was an actor playing the role of a violinist." Over the two seasons they traveled the act went through a number of changes, eventually infusing a little bit of comedy, and also seeing some name changes. In October, 1912, the pair played in Oshkosh where Cora was warmly welcomed during a week of a well documented homecoming.
     In 1914 Eliza had became ill and needed more frequent care. So Cora had to abandon the act with Ben Benny and return to Waukegan to care for her mother. Ben eventually teamed up with pianist Lyman Woods and would reprise the act as Bennie and Woods: From Grand Opera to Ragtime. But again, the question of what's in a name came up when another established bandleader named Ben Bennie took exception with Ben Benny. Another change was instituted, along with infusion of a little more comedy, and the career of comedian Jack Benny was born. He would forever remember with gratitude the role that Cora had played in refining his stage skills and getting him out in front of the public.
     Now retired from the stage, Cora got married again on October 7, 1914, this time to Navy Warrant Officer George L. Aulmann. He had been stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Waukegan, Illinois, but they were married in St. Joseph County, Indiana. Cora and her mother then resided with George in Waukegan. Eliza died on November 11, 1915 and was buried in her beloved long time home of Oshkosh. Cora's health quickly deteriorated after the loss of her mother and she remained in ill health for the next five months. She went to Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, for a stay in a sanitarium, during which she recovered somewhat. On April 9, 1916, Cora was hospitalized for an attack of peritonitis. She appeared to be recovering several days later when she had a sudden turn early in the morning of April 16, dying in minutes before George was able to get to the hospital from the Naval base after having been called by the hospital. George was now a widower after a mere 18 months. He would move back to California and remarry in the 1920s. As per Cora's final wishes she was buried beside Eliza in Oshkosh. But through her rags, and through the success of her finest student of the stage, she lives on well beyond her relatively fruitful time on Earth.

     Some of the information here was derived from various interviews of Jack Benny published over the years. Thanks also go to ragtime enthusiast and MIDI performer John Cowles who sent along some of the family information presented here, which was gathered by distant relation Tammy Wright through the writings of her grandmother, Dorothy Shorey Gavin. Much of the information on George Aulman was further clarified and corrected by women of ragtime researcher Nora Hulse. The remaining information was researched by the author in public records and publisher listings.

Ethyl B. Smith (November 27, 1887 to January 13, 1930)

Compositions

1905 Black Cat Rag [w/Frank Wooster] 1907 Fontella Rag

     Less is not always more. In the case of Ethyl B. Smith there was supposed to be more, but we simply can't confirm that, having to do with less. While not a complete mystery, there are still many unanswered questions about this somewhat talented lady composer and piano instructor. Attempts to pin her down in city directories and Census records proved daunting, considering her common last name. While nothing totally conclusive was found, through forensic evidence we believe we have a good match.
     Ethyl B. Smith was born in Emporia Kansas to Albert D. Smith and Delila (Terry) Smith. She had four other siblings, including Nellie M. (1880), Bessie P. (7/1883), Albert Jr. (2/1885) and younger brother Harry (12/1889). Harry was the key to our discovery. The family had moved from Kansas before the 1895 State Census was taken, and were found in St. Louis, Missouri in the 1900 Census with Albert working as an insurance salesman. Ethyl's first piece, Black Cat Rag (co-composed with Frank Wooster) was published in St. Louis in 1905 when she was 18 years old. Wooster was a Missouri native who was two years older than Ethyl. In the 1900 Census he was working as a collector for a hat shop. Black Cat Rag was published by Wooster, who already had a couple of pieces printed through a jobber with his moniker and picture on the front. Wooster ended up taking off for New York in 1907 where he established a new, but short-lived based for his fledgling company. Ethyl remained in St. Louis. Her next piece was Fontella Rag, published by Thiebes Stierlen in 1907, and named for Fontella Club, with two locations in St. Louis. With only two known compositions it was likely she was working in some other profession at that time. She was also very likely married at some point between 1907 and 1910.
     As of the 1910 Census Ethyl is divorced, living with her mother and younger brother Harry, and working as a hair dresser with her recently widowed older sister Nellie. Albert was nowhere to be seen, but Della does not appear to be widowed. The music tie-in is that Harry was working as a musician at that time, and it turns out he was a pianist, possibly doubling on other instruments. The family was living at 3815 Windsor Place, but would soon move to 5252 Delmar avenue, just three miles west of where Scott Joplin had lived a few years before. As of the 1917 draft Harry was working as a musician at Walsh's Cafe at the intersection of King's Highway and Delmar in St. Louis, and lists his mother as needing his support. He was also living with his mother at the same address in 1920, still working as a musician but now married, possibly to his oldest sister's 18-year-old daughter Gladys. This point was difficult to confirm.
     It has been confirmed that Ethyl was employed as a piano instructor for one of the Axel Christensen studios for ragtime and popular music in the Missouri capitol, Jefferson City as of 1918 owing to an announcement in his advertising. Given that the fortunes of many of the Christensen branches started to fade around that time, there is a chance that school was not open in 1920 when the Census was taken, or that she was married and no longer employed there. The Christensen announcement, as reported on by ragtime historian Nora Hulse, stated that she was a "composer of several well known rags, songs and instrumental numbers." Who knew these pieces well if at all? Other than Smith herself, that contention remains one of the mysteries, as they have not surfaced any time in the last sixty years of ragtime research.
     While Ethyl's one-time composer peer, Frank Wooster, ended up back in St. Louis working in a shoe factory, he soon became a successful advertising salesman in Ohio and Chicago in subsequent decades. Ethyl, on the other hand, appears to have simply faded out of view. Ethyl, on the other hand, appears to have simply faded out of view. Her death certificate from St. Louis Baptist Hospital in 1930 shows that Ethyl was still working as a musician and teacher. She died at age 41 of breast cancer and cancers metasticized in many other parts of her body. Ethyl and Frank's Black Cat Rag remains popular enough today that it is offered as a mobile phone ring tone by many companies.

     Thanks to Ragtime Women historian Nora Hulse, who found the Christensen article and the information on the Fontella Club. The remaining information was found, with some requisite struggles, through public records, news reports, and the process of elimination.

Bertha A. Stanfield Dempsey (August 4, 1890 to July 25, 1925)

Compositions

1910/1911 The Cabbage Rag 1912 That Touchy Kid: Rag Uncle Zeke's Medley Rag 1914 Evelyn Waltz President's Parade: Waltz Genevieve: Song 1919 America's Pinch Hit March [as Bertha Stanfield Dempsey] Moon Man [w/Erwin Davis]

     Bertha Stanfield was a born in rural Missouri to William H. Stanfield and Mary D. Stanfield, the youngest of five children, including brothers Harrison (Harry) C. Stanfield (1870), Aaron E. Stanfield (1876), Orson P. Stanfield (4/1881), and one older sister, Sarah J. Stanfield (1873). The family, comprised of William, Mary, Orson and Bertha, is shown in the 1900 Census living on the Shawnee Nation Indian Reservation in southeast Kansas, with William and Orson working as farmers, the same occupation William had listed in 1880 in Buffalo, Missouri. In the 1905 Kansas Census, the Stanfields were living in Eminence, Kansas, about 50 miles south of Emporia, with Mary working as a weaver and William and Orson as farmers. It also indicated that at some point William had been honorably discharged from military service under a Kansas enlistment.
     The Stanfields relocated to nearby Clifton, Kansas, over the next decade, where in the 1910 Census William was shown simply to have his own income and Bertha, now close to 20, had no profession listed. Her cousin Lillie was living with the family as well. The following year Bertha had her first piece published, The Cabbage Rag, printed over the border in Joplin, Missouri. She soon moved to nearby Baxter Springs, Kansas, where two more lively rags found their way into print, That Touchy Kid and the vivacious and eclectic Uncle Zeke's Medley Rag. The motivation for the title of Uncle Zeke is unclear, but this unusual work is one of her best, with 17 measures no less in the A section creating an interesting effect in the middle of that strain.
     As it turns out, that was the end of her rag output. Bertha was married to Roy E. Dempsey on March 13, 1913. However, she still published under her maiden name with two waltzes coming out of Baxter Springs in 1914. The couple had a son, James Franklin (Frankie) Dempsey who as per the 1920 Census may have been born in 1912, but circumstances behind that are not clear. Roy enlisted in the U.S. Army prior to World War One, but according to a Baxter Springs newspaper found by historian Nora Hulse, he died at an Army Camp somewhere in the United States in 1915, leaving Bertha a widow with a young son. Bertha did her own part for the war effort by touring the country playing with a band. According to a family member as relayed to Nora, they recalled a picture of Bertha poised at the piano on a railroad flatcar on the tour.
     Now working as a telephone operator, a job first started around 1916 after Roy's demise, Bertha released her last two pieces in 1919, including the baseball-themed America's Pinch Hit March, "The Hit That Ended the World's Greatest War," published under her married name in Joplin. The 1920 Census shows that she and Frankie had moved back in with her parents in Baxter Springs, and she was now the chief operator at the local telephone exchange. Her father William was working as a janitor. Bertha continued in her capacity with the telephone company until a bout with pneumonia in 1925 that took her life a week short of her 35th birthday. In her obituary there was no mention of her musical abilities or experiences. She was still greatly honored at the service by her fellow telephone company workers and three different preachers, along with her surviving family members except for Aaron who was now living in Southern California. Frankie died on March 28, 1928 at his grandmother's home at around 15 years of age. We are left wanting to have heard more from Bertha, but grateful for what she did leave behind in the ragtime genre.

     Thanks as always to Ragtime Women historian Nora Hulse, provided much of the information here through her regional and local research in Baxter Springs, Kansas. Remaining demographics were researched by the author in Joplin, Missouri, Baxter Springs, Kansas, and in public records.

Caroline May (Carrie) Bruggeman Stark (May 1, 1881 to June, 1972)

Compositions

1903 Dainty Foot: Dance Characteristic Dainty Foot: Schottische [Same as above?] 1904 Comus: A Two-Step Intermezzo 1908 The Dream Pillows: Lullaby [1] 1912 They Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dawg Aroun' [2,3] 1914 Tango Tangle [1] Sunset Waltz [1] 1917 Baby Blues (Fox Trot) [1] Baby Blues (Song) [1,4] Unknown or Uncertain Slumber Time    1. as Cal Stark    2. as Cy Perkins    3. w/Webb M. Oungst    4. w/Margie Brandon

     One of the more cryptic composers in ragtime was actually related by marriage to one of the most eclectic ragtime publishers, and she would manage to find her own place in the history of the genre, albeit leaving a bit of controversy in her wake. Carrie Bruggeman was born in Alton, Illinois as Caroline May Bruggeman to tailor Adolph Bruggeman and his wife Mary Bruggeman. Just over a year before her birth Adolph appeared as single, so her parents were married with the year of her birth. Carrie claims she had very little musical training, and mostly played by ear. However, she had enough lessons that she was able to read music sufficiently, and it landed her a job at the Boston Department Store in St. Louis in the late 1890s as a sheet music demonstrator, a position commonly held be women in the Midwest and East. It was there that she met William P. Stark, the son of music store owner and fledging publisher John Stark, in 1899, the same year the senior Stark had taken on Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag for publication and distribution. Will handed her a copy and asked if she would learn the piece and plug it. She worked hard to do so, and in her own words, "began pounding it out at work as often as I dared."
     As of the 1900 Census Carrie was still living with her parents, Adolph listed as a garment cutter. Mary shows with the name Matty, which is either a misinterpretation by the enumerator or an alternate name for her. The family also had two boarders living with them. Even though she was employed part time as a pianist, she did not have any occupation listed. While Carrie claims that Will kept visiting her at the store and soon proposed marriage, in reality the couple was not married until Christmas Day, December 25, 1904. In the interim, Carrie not only started learning more rags and songs, but writing them as well. One of the first of her instrumentals to be published under the Stark imprint was Dainty Foot, released under the heading of a "dance characteristic" and a "schottische," but very possibly the same work. This was followed by an almost-rag the next year, Comus, probably the last one issued under her own name. Then for a while she was busy with marriage and babies, giving birth to John S. Stark around 1906 and Ruth C. Stark in late 1907. Her next piece in 1908 would appropriately enough be a lullaby, most likely written for her children, and perhaps the first of her pieces published under the opposite gender pseudonym of Cal Stark. As of the 1910 Census William was listed as a music publisher, but Carrie showed no occupation. The couple was hosting Carrie's mother, who had been widowed early in the decade, and her stepfather, William Peters,, who had married her mother around 1906.
     Carrie herself admitted to not being able to notate her own works, and that she had written more songs than she could even remember, although very few of them actually made it into print. That which did get published was usually completed by her brother in law, the resident musician of the company, Etilmon Justus Stark, who also had several compositions in his own name in print. She would play the piece for him and he would notate it for typesetting and production. But there was at least one exception to this, which was her next act, a hard one to follow.
     There was a stir caused in 1911 and 1912 that was literally a matter of politics. Carrie wrote a song, (some insist she adapted an already existing tune from the Sally Ann family) with Iowa born newspaper printer and editor Webster Mil (Webb) Oungst (1854-1943). The song They Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dawg Aroun', was arranged by John Stark's staff arranger and composer Artie Matthews and published by Carries father in law. It nearly immediately became known as the official theme song for the Presidential Campaign of Missouri's favorite son James Beauchamp "Champ" Clark. It is somewhat likely that Oungst submitted the clever lyrics to publisher Stark in hopes that it could be set to music, and since Will was managing at that time, he had Carrie step in to plug in the melody. Mrs. Stark claims she chose the name pseudonym of Cy Perkins because it sounded like a "good hillbilly name, and might make the music sell better. Candidate Clark actually had a nice lead going, and this may have also been the motivation for Carrie to use the pseudonym of Cy Perkins in order to avoid any controversy as a woman songwriter involved in a political campaign. In any case, the piece was known even before it was officially published by Stark. The Dawg song became so popular that publisher M. Witmark wanted it for its own catalog. They offered John Stark the staggering sum of ten thousand dollars to acquire the piece and the plates, plus any unsold copies to date, which was soon accepted.
     However, soon after this the campaign of Clark, who was at that time the Speaker of the House of Representatives in Washington DC, against contender Woodrow Wilson collapsed,

Carrie Stark (C) in the early 1960s with The St. Louis Ragtimers (clockwise from left) Al Stricker, Trebor Tichenor, Don Franz and Bill Mason

and so did the apparent short term viability of the song. In addition, there were contentions from other camps concerning the true authorship of the song, which led to protracted court battles. Subsequent payments for the song were withheld by Witmark, causing John Stark to initiate his own lawsuit concerning the erstwhile Dawg. At the same time it was becoming a popular stage tune in New York and other venues where performers were looking for some "hick" aspects to their act. The Dawg grew legs again, starting a second life, and publisher Stark soon received the contracted payment based on an appeals court decision. Carrie was dragged along for the ride, but came out only slightly scathed as the acknowledged composer of the work. It soon prompted all kinds of hound dog paraphernalia in the stores as well, and gave wannabe hound dogs everywhere a temporary place on the stage. The piece was also picked up by the Second Missouri Infantry as their marching song, and at times has been proposed as a state song for Missouri. Starting in the 1920s it was recorded frequently, and remains in circulation in country, bluegrass and old-time music circles. It became an old dawg learning new tricks.
     Carrie got back on the horse, and in 1914 put out two more songs as Cal. One was a tango, a dance and music form that was very popular at the time, and the other was a a waltz, usually a safe bet for light but solid sales. In 1917 Carrie as Cal turned out another fine fox-trot/blues, which would perhaps her last in print. Baby Blues was also released as a song with lyrics by Margie Brandon, very likely the wife of another Stark composer Clarence E. Brandon. These were put out on the Stark's subsidiary Syndicate Music Company, a label reserved for pieces that didn't quite meet the standards of pieces issued under his main logo. But John Stark, who had lost his wife a few years before, was now trying to champion a nearly dead genre in his last gasps of rag publication, and soon Carrie lost her best outlet to jazz and old age. As of the 1920 Census she again was shown with no occupation, and William as W.P. was listed this time as a music printer, rather than a publisher.
     While she did not give up piano playing during the remainder of her life, Carrie more or less faded from public view for a while, and lost her husband Will Stark in January 1949. Then came the release of the book They All Played Ragtime the following year in 1950, and the acknowledgement, clearly found in the notes taken for the book, of Carrie's role in They Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dawg Aroun', which helped make her somewhat of a local celebrity again. Caroline Bruggeman Stark lived much of her final two decades with her daughter in Kirkwood, a suburb of St. Louis, occasionally venturing out to public ragtime events as pictured here. She finally passed on in 1972 just as the huge revival of the very pieces her father-in-law had championed was getting underway.

     Thanks to Ragtime historian Sue Attalla, for much of the history and information on They Gotta Quit Kickin' My Dawg Aroun' and its association with Clark. Sue is also responsible for the verification of Webb Oungst's identity and his role in the piece. Also thanks as always to Ragtime Women Historian Nora Hulse for some of the chronology of Carrie Stark's life. All additional information was researched directly by the author.

Nellie Mae Stokes Hawley (December, 1880 to 19??)

Compositions

1903 Checkers: March Two Step 1906 Hey Rube: Characteristic March Snow Ball: Ragtime March Breath of the Rose: Waltz 1908 In Love's Net: Waltzes 1909 Diamonds and Rubies: Novelette Razzle Dazzle: A Rag Two Step

     Nellie Stokes was born in Springwells in Northwest Michigan to British immigrants James W. Stokes and Clara (Minard) Stokes. She had one older brother, Charles J. Stokes. Her father, James, worked as a painter in Springwells. The first listing for Nellie is in the 1898 Detroit city directory, which shows her as a music teacher at 17. She appears in at least three subsequent directories in the same capacity. The Stokes family had moved to Detroit with James, still working as a painter, and who had remarried to Nellie's stepmother Florence Stokes. As of 1900, her brother Charles had moved to Cheboygan where he was listed as a landlord. Nellie is shown living still with her father, although city directories indicate that she was living in various boarding houses during the period.
     Starting around 1902 Ms. Stokes went to work for Pardridge and Blackwell, a prominent dry good store and banking firm founded in 1894 in Detroit. Her role was likely as a sheet music demonstrator in their frequently advertised music department, eventually representing publisher Jerome H. Remick. Given the known history of many other women composers, she probably got the composing bug while working in the store, and in 1903 her first piece appeared, Checkers, sort of a raggy march, published by Whitney Warner, a branch of Remick. The following year she moved back in with her father and stepmother. The next pieces to appear came in 1906, including Snow Ball and Hey Rube, two fine rag tunes under the Remick logo. A point of curiosity is why her name appeared as Nellie W. Stokes on the cover of these pieces, yet as Nellie M. Stokes inside. It was likely an error by the cover artist. The following year Nellie married Edward T. Hawley and moved in with him for a while. He and his brothers James B. and Louis J.M. Hawley, with the help of their father Louis D. Hawley, had opened the Hawley Brothers Saloon in 1900. However, by March 1907, when the couple was married on March 28, the saloon was no longer in business and Edward was listed as a travel agent, then later as a salesman for a novelty store. In 1908 the only piece published under Nellie's married name of Hawley, In Love's Net: Waltzes, dedicated to her new husband, was published by Remick.
     It was also in 1908 Nellie that became a manager for Remick in Detroit. There were two more pieces in 1909, including the great rag Razzle Dazzle. She was still working in 1910, albeit using her maiden name of Stokes. Edward appears to have left the nest by this time. She is listed in the Census as Mae, her middle name, living in a boarding house in Bay City in the northwestern part of Michigan, and working as a department store salesperson, likely for Remick. Then after 1910 she is difficult to locate at best. May's brother Charles was still in Cheboygan in 1910 as a dry good merchant, and in 1920 as the owner of a notions store (possibly the same business).

     Thanks as always to Ragtime Women historian Nora Hulse for much of the Detroit information on Stokes, including her employment with Jerome Remick. The remaining demographics on the family were researched by the author. As always, if anybody has more information on where Nellie went after 1911, or you care to follow up on what is already here, please contact us so we can share our research to date.

Kathryn L. Widmer (August 9?, 1881 to January 8, 1919)

Compositions

Notoriety Rag: Two Step (1913) Buenos Dios: American Maxixe (1914)

     Kathryn L. Widmer did not leave much behind musically, but her single rag was certainly one of Notoriety and deserves recognition. She was born in Barton, New York to Swiss immigrant father Adolphus Rudolf Widmer and her Pennsylvania born mother who she was named after, Kathryn "Caty" Widmer. Her death certificate claims August 9, but the 1900 Census cites May as her birth month. Also in the family was William (1873), Cornelia J. (1874), Anna A. (1877), Mamie J. (4/1879) and Agnes A. (10/1885), the only five of twelve children born that surived to adulthood. Adolphus was a professional sign painter for most of his career, and moved the family to New York City, likely in the 1890s. This is where Kathryn likely got most of her musical training. In the 1900 Census she is listed in the Census working as a musician in New York City, but no further details are available. She is not readily found in Manhattan directories of the time, perhaps because she was still living with her parents.
     The next sighting of Ms. Widmer is in the 1905 New York Census in Manhattan, living with her parents and two siblings, listed as a pianist. As of the 1910 Census, she was still living with her parents, as well as three of their grandchildren, likely those of an older sister. This time she is listed as a music clerk, very possibly at one of the locations hosted by Jerome H. Remick if not their main office. It was with Remick that she had her single syncopated marvel, Notoriety Rag, published in 1913. Unlike many of the Tin Pan Alley pieces of simple construction that were flooding the market at that time, Notoriety represented a great deal of skill and thought, and actually was fairly progressive in its makeup. It was a good seller and popular enough to find its way onto many piano rolls. The next year she composed a piece in the newly popular Maxixe dance genre, Buenos Dios. That was Kathryn's last known publication, although she may have continued to work as a player or arranger over the next five years.
     Kathryn Widmer died relatively young at age 37 in New York City, potentially a victim of the Spanish Flu pandemic that decimated much of the population during 1918 and 1919. Even on her death certificate she was still listed as a musician living in Manhattan, giving more credence to this probable cause of death.

     Thanks as always to ragtime historian Reginald Pitts for kindly providing information on Widmer's premature demise. Most of the remaining demographics were researched by the author.

Carlotta Burditt Williamson Blandford (January 17, 1869 to March 17, 1957)
Compositions
1901 The Pickaninny: Cake Walk The Carlotta Waltzes My Lady Dainty: Waltzes Beloved [1] When Love Was True [1] Sweet Annie Lee [1] 1902 The Blennerhasset: March and Two Step Sebenoa Go to Sleep Mah Little Creole Babe [1] Mistah Johnson [2] 1903 Sail On: Slumber Song [1] Beneath the Shadow of the Cross (Sacred     Song) [1] Thoughts [3] 1904 Samos Shiftless Sam: Two Step Farewell, My True Love [4]	1906 La Reve D'amour (The Dream of Love) Smiling Susan: Characteristic March Osceola: Characteristic March Maidie [w/Owen Clark] 1907 Consolation: Reverie 1909 Fifth Massachusetts: March 1910 Wild Flower Rag Uncertain Minnetonka When Love is True    1. w/William Henry Gardner    2. w/George E. Schultz    3. w/Charles Shackford    4. w/Owen Clark

     Carlotta Williamson was born to Erastus Edward Williamson and Mary Ann (Carrigan) Williamson in Hyde Park, Massachusetts. She spent most of her life in the Boston, Massachusetts area. Carlotta was evidently a child prodigy, as an ad from around 1874 uncovered by researcher Nora Hulse shows her sitting at a large upright, listed as "Carlotta Williamson, Infant Pianist, Aged 5 Years," followed by an address. Erastus left Mary and Carlotta in the late 1870s, leaving them destitute. In 1880 mother and daughter are both found living in a boarding house on Cambridge Street in Boston with Mary working as a dress maker. No definitive information on what type of income Carlotta had as a teen-aged pianist was found, but it was likely only a token amount that did not ease their poverty by much.
     There were mentions of Williamson in Boston papers playing at one or another special event from the mid 1870s on, a few even appearing after her marriage. By 1895 she was lovingly remembered the "former" child prodigy. Carlotta was first married in Boston to Edward B. Wickwire on April 29, 1891. Their union lasted only five or so years, and even with a husband to help support her, there was an October 1895 article in the Boston Daily Globe about her having to continue to find work to make ends meet. Carlotta was single again by the time of the 1900 Census, and continued to reside with Mary in Boston, but instead of playing music she was now working as a sales person in a hat store while Mary was still making dresses. There were four other lodgers living in their Clarendon Street unit.
     The turn of the new century was around the time that Carlotta started to apply her musical gift to composition. In 1901 she had three of her first pieces published, the self-named Carlotta Waltzes, My Lady Dainty, and The Pickaninny: Cake Walk, plus a couple of songs. In an article in the May 30, 1903 edition of The Music Trade Review, it was stated that: "Women composers are still a rarity in this country, and few have made a success in the field as yet The West and the East seem to share the honors on popular compositions, and perhaps the best known woman composer in New England is Miss Carlotta Williamson, of Boston, who is connected with the music department of the great store of the Jordan-Marsh Company."
     It was while working at the prestigious Jordan-Marsh department store in the 1902 time frame that Carlotta met her future husband. George M. Blandford was also previously married, shown in 1900 with his wife Lillian Roulston, working as a buyer in a music store (perhaps the aforementioned Jordan-Marsh), while he was working as a bookkeeper. It may have ironically been through his wife that George was introduced to Carlotta. Blandford soon arranged to have Williamson's pieces published under his own logo of G.M. Blandford, which would at some juncture morph into the Colonial Music Company. George divorced his first wife in early 1905 and Carlotta and George were married on September 11 of that year. Over the next decade she would release many different pieces from intermezzos and waltzes to mature rags out into the world, all under her maiden name, and with George supporting her throughout. One of her last works, Wild Flower Rag, was her most exquisite and well developed work, and is the best known one today.
     In the 1910 Census George was still listed as a bookkeeper, at that time in an electrical office, with Mary Williamson living with them. Carlotta proudly proclaimed herself as a music composer. However that was also pretty much at the end of her career. The couple did not have children so no family was available to find out much about her later years. As of 1920 George was listed as an accountant, but Carlotta listed no career. The same is true in the 1930 Census, followed by a similar listing in the 1934 Boston city directory.
     As of 1937, George no longer appears in the city directory, and Carlotta is shown as a widow. In the early 1940s she was involved with the G.O.P. Dorchester Women and provided musical programs for some of their meetings. The last listing discovered for Carlotta in Boston was in 1947 at the same address on Lyndhurst where she had been living for over a decade. Little is known beyond that except her death at age 88. However, we still have Carlotta's legacy of ragtime era music from Boston, the city that was among the first to embrace music publishing and composing for hire in the United States.

     Thanks to Ragtime Women historian Nora Hulse, for providing a date of death and information on a couple of Williamson's compositions. The remaining information was researched by the author from numerous public records and assorted articles.

Fannie Bell Woods (May 23, 1891 to December 28, 1974)

Composition

Sweetness (1912)

     Fannie B. Woods was thought to be a pseudonym for Charles L. Johnson until 2005 when it was revealed that the composer of Sweetness was indeed a real person.

Fannie at her favorite instrument, the organ.

She was born May 23, 1891 in Kentucky to John Lloyd Woods and Cora Lucinda (Scott) Woods. John was a Kentucky native who made a living as a carpenter, and Cora came from Indiana. The family is shown in the 1900 Census in Louisville with Fannie's older brother James and younger sister Edna. Fannie grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, where she was educated in music, specifically piano and organ. By the age of 18 she was working in a music store as a clerk according to the 1910 Census, and possibly as a song demonstrator. Her sister Edna, 15 at this time, is listed as a music teacher in the Census as well, while Cora is listed cryptically as a "home demonstrator."
     At the age of 20 Fannie composed Sweetness, the publication of which may well have been facilitated by Louisville publisher Al Marzian, who had recently had his own Angel Food Rag published with Forster Music Publishers in Chicago. Woods further had the enthusiastic backing of the Herman Strauss Company department store, also based in Louisville. They featured her as a local celebrity, allowing her to play Sweetness and other pieces in their store on several occasions in 1912. Fannie evidently signed copies of the piece as well. According to a receipt the family provided she received a total of $75 for the rag from Forster. Sweetness is dedicated on the inside to W.J. Mansfield. Woods would marry William J. Mansfield on December 12, 1912, and take that name for the rest of her life. This further reinforces her role as the composer of Sweetness.
     Fannie was not only a fine pianist but also a well-regarded organist, spending over four decades playing for the Parkland Baptist Church, and three decades for Pearson's Funeral Home. Between 1914 and 1927, she and her husband had three daughters, Mildred, Mary and Jean and a son as well, William Jr. The family is shown in the 1920 Census on Cypress Street with Fannie's parents living in the same home and William listed as a bookkeeper. In the 1930 Census they were living in a new location on 26th Street, and Cora was now listed as a widow. William was now a credit manager for a plumbing company. He died suddenly at the age of 60 on November 10, 1947. Fannie retired from playing by the mid 1950s, but continued to teach piano and organ to younger students nearly to the end of her life. Fannie and Edna also enjoyed performing Sweetness and other pieces as a two piano duet from time to time. Fannie Mansfield died in Louisville December 28, 1974 at age 83. The only other compositions that may have been attributed to her were available locally in Louisville, and were likely church related. A couple of mentions of possible compositions show up in various recital or concert programs published in area newspapers, but publication cannot be confirmed.

     I would like to add a personal note of thanks to Louisville dentist Dr. William J. Mansfield, Fannie's son, who helped me obtain information and materials in relation to his mother, and former Woods student and musician Rhonda Rucker who brought this information to my attention, and therefore to the ragtime community. It was this, more than anything, that motivated me to begin extensive further research to ascertain more accurate renewed or reinforced facts on all of the ragtime figures featured on this site.
     I have also published a paper on this find if you would like to see more detail at ragpiano.com/fanniewoods.rtf in Microsoft Word format.

Gladys Elizabeth Yelvington Parsons (November 29, 1891 to February 11, 1957)

Known Composition

Piffle Rag (1911)

     Gladys Yelvington (born Elizabeth Yelvington) spent her life in Indiana, the fourth of five children of Asa Yelvington and Alice (Cranor) Yelvington. Asa was a carpenter in the Elwood area, just northeast of Indianapolis. Her sibilings included Fran (11/1878), Mildred (8/1880), Herschel (10/1886) and Louise (7/1894). Gladys evidently received the minimal musical training given to most girls in this time period, some of it likely in Elwood public schools. In the 1900 Census the family is shown living in Pipe Creek a few miles west of Elwood.
     In her mid to late teens Gladys worked for a time as a pianist for silent movies in Elwood, Indiana, and likely frequented some of the music stores in Indianapolis. The 1910 Census shows Gladys and Louise still living with their parents in Elwood. However, it does not list an occupation for her, either an oversight or perhaps a choice. It is probable that she met and befriended composer May Aufderheide around this time. Piffle Rag is the only known ragtime piece of hers published, which was handled by May's banker turned publisher father John H. Aufderheide.
     Gladys seems to have left the composing and performance profession when she married tin mill worker Leo Gerald Parsons on August 31, 1912. They were living in Gary, Indiana by 1917, and are shown there in the 1920 and 1930 Census, as well as Leo's 1942 draft record. The couple had three children, Roger (c.1914), Joan (c.1919) and Alice (c.1921). Accounts from her family indicate that she was a gifted and expressive performer on both piano and organ, and was able to play virtually anything in the musical spectrum.
     Gladys died in February 1957 of unspecified causes. She was survived not only by her husband, children and siblings, but by her 102 year old mother who had recently moved in with the family. Her death notice made no mention of her musical activities or history. However, two decades later performer Max Morath would revive her name on his The Ragtime Women album, which included a small ensemble version of Piffle Rag. It has happily been uphill since then for this almost forgotten composer.