Stephen Foster
Songwriter
Stephen Collins Foster was the first American to make a living entirely from songwriting and is often called the father of American popular music. His parlor songs and minstrel tunes — “Oh! Susanna,” “Old Folks at Home,” “My Old Kentucky Home,” “Beautiful Dreamer,” “Hard Times Come Again No More” — passed into the American folk repertoire and remain bluegrass and old-time staples nearly two centuries after he wrote them.
- Born July 4, 1826, in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh), the ninth of ten children of William Barclay Foster and Eliza Clayland Tomlinson Foster.
- Largely self-taught as a musician; published his first song, “Open Thy Lattice, Love,” in 1844 at age 18.
- Wrote “Oh! Susanna” in 1847 while working as a bookkeeper in Cincinnati; the song became an unofficial anthem of the California Gold Rush.
- Returned to Pennsylvania in 1850 and produced most of his enduring songs in a five-year burst: “Camptown Races” (1850), “Old Folks at Home”/“Swanee River” (1851), “My Old Kentucky Home” (1853), “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair” (1854).
- Wrote roughly 200 songs, including the late masterpieces “Hard Times Come Again No More” (1854) and “Beautiful Dreamer” (published posthumously, 1864).
- Sold most of his work for one-time fees rather than royalties and died in poverty in a New York City hospital on January 13, 1864, three days after a fall in his rooming house. He was 37 years old.
- Buried in Allegheny Cemetery, Pittsburgh.
- Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame (1970) and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1970).
- “My Old Kentucky Home” is the official state song of Kentucky; “Old Folks at Home” is the official state song of Florida.