Kerry Mills
Musician · 1869–1948 · Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Best known for
Composer
Kerry Mills was an American ragtime composer and music publisher whose 1897 cakewalk “At a Georgia Camp Meeting” and 1904 “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis” entered the standard American popular catalog and circulated through old-time, Dixieland, and bluegrass-instrumental sets.
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- Born Frederick Allen Mills on February 1, 1869, in Philadelphia.
- Taught violin and music theory at the University of Michigan in the early 1890s.
- Founded the F.A. Mills publishing house in New York; published ragtime, cakewalks, and Tin Pan Alley songs.
- Composed the cakewalk “At a Georgia Camp Meeting” in 1897; it became one of the era’s biggest sheet-music sellers and a standard for old-time string bands and Dixieland jazz groups.
- Composed “Meet Me in St. Louis, Louis” (with Andrew B. Sterling) for the 1904 World’s Fair; the song became an enduring Tin Pan Alley standard.
- Died December 5, 1948.
