The story of Mamie Desdunes [pronounced Dey-doon in French or Anglicized as Des-doon] is part New Orleans legend and part fact, most of it handed down through stories, including the narrative on her one known piece given to historian Alan Lomax by Ferdinand Lamothe "Jelly Roll" Morton in their famous recorded conversations at the Library of Congress in 1938, and on a 1939 solo recording. Both will be presented here as her importance as an early influence to one of the greater piano figures of early jazz should not be discounted, but should also be balanced with what facts were found on the alleged composer of, or at least the inspiration for Mamie's Blues. Her inclusion here is predicated on the assumption that she did write and perform works, even though she died before they could be published or recorded.

Finding out information on Mamie's birth was challenging until a check was done on addresses she was known to have lived at. A New Orleans directory listing from 1908 showed her as Mary at the same address where she was found in 1910, and at the time of her death, 2414 Clara Street. [It is interesting to note that in a time before forced segregation came to New Orleans that the (c) for "colored" was not applied to Creoles or Negroes in the parish directories.] Mamie was often used as a derivative of Mary or Marie, and other female composers were found that applied this same thinking. This find and comparisons of other Desdunes in the Soards' directories of New Orleans led to a positive birth identification and lineage.

Mary Celina Desdunes was born in Louisiana in New Orleans parish to mulatto Rodolphe [or Rudolph] Lucien Desdunes and his black lover Clementine Walker. There was a complication, since Rodolphe was married at that time to Mathilde Cheval, and in the 1880 census they were found living together with four of five surviving children and Mathilde's mother, but no Mary. She was instead living with her mother Clementine and grandparents John and Ophelia Walker, listed as one of their own children using her middle name of Celina. The affair did not end there since Mary had one full brother, John Alexander Desdunes, born to Rodolphe and Clementine on July 31, 1881. The nature of the financial or other arrangements between the parents did not come to light. A third child, Edna Desdunes (3/1887), appears to have been born to Rodolphe, likely with Clementine.

For whatever minimal involvement Rodolphe, a French speaking descendant of Haitian immigrants, may have had in the life of his illegitimate children, it should be known that he was a fairly busy activist in New Orleans, one of the leaders of a civic group called the Comité des Citoyens. He worked with them to oppose the impending legislation in Louisiana that eventually deemed the Creoles to be of color, forcing their segregation as per Plessy vs. Ferguson, which was passed in 1896 in spite of the opposition, and held up under appeal. They were joined in their effort by Southern railroad companies, part of the original Louisiana mandate requiring segregation, as they did not want the added expense of separate facilities, railroad cars, and more. It resulted in some ripple effect on the musical landscape of New Orleans as well, since due to the newly defined rules of color, Creoles of that town, who had previously enjoyed most of the same benefits of the whites, were now regarded as "Creoles of color," and were less welcome where more refined musical events were held, in spite of many of them having a classical background and top notch training. Rodolphe also went on to write a a historical treatise on the Creoles of New Orleans, published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada in 1911.

In this changing environment, Mary learned to play the piano during her upbringing with her grandparents, although she apparently received no more formal training in music than what may have been offered in primary schools of the time. She more likely picked up some of what she learned from the rich musical influences of the French Quarter and the Tremé, including some early variations of Mississippi Delta blues brought to the Crescent City by stevedores on the riverboats or traveling music groups. Any aspirations that Mary, now going by Mamie, may have had of a career playing the piano would have been cut short anyhow by a disfigurement she suffered.

This brings up another mystery. It was suggested that one of Mamie's occupations was either working for or managing a brothel. This is difficult to confirm, and somewhat curious, since the addresses found for her were actually in the Central City area, some distance away from the famous district legislated into existence by Alderman Sidney Story in 1897. She would have had to commute there, a distance of around two miles, and most of the working girls resided in Storyville proper, as it was named in dubious honor of the alderman. Not that it was not possible, but still suspect.

Yet another puzzle about Mamie was solved when an article from the New Orleans Daily Picayune was discovered. Dating from July 21, 1893, it clearly explains the incident at age fourteen in which two middle fingers on her right hand were damaged to the point that they needed to be amputated:

While there was no follow-up to this mention found, it is pretty clear that this was a serious accident and the most likely event that necessitated the removal of her two digits, a condition later noted by those that remembered her playing.

Around 1898 Mamie moved in with warehouse worker George Dugue [seen as Degay in some records]. He appears to have previously been married to an Essie Gibson in 1895, so this was a second union for him. As no marriage record was found, it may have been more of a marriage as declared by the couple than by the parish. The 1900 census nonetheless showed them as married, and that George and Mamie were residing with her younger sister Edna and no children of their own, as well as in the same unit as her brother John. The couple evidently separated within a year, as Mamie was found living alone in the same home and using her maiden name in the 1901 Soards' directory of New Orleans. Over the next few years she was hard to track, but it was likely during this time period that the eight-fingered pianist met the eager young mulatto musician.

It was with her disability that Mamie became known to a future jazz piano player, Ferdinand Joseph Lamothe, better known as "Jelly Roll" Morton. When he played the piece he recounted as having heard nearly four decades prior to historian Alan Lomax in 1938, Morton remembered that Mamie's Blues was:

Lomax interviewed New Orleans trumpeter Bunk Johnson in 1949, and got an even more colorful description from him:

This passage further suggests that she indeed either commuted to the Storyville district, or perhaps even lived there briefly during the period of 1902 to 1907. However, if Morton's description was close to the target, his godmother, Laura Hunter, also lived in the general vicinity of other known Central City addresses of Mamie's. Her influence on Morton was significant, and he became a well-known proponent of a number of blues styles recorded as solos or by his bands in the 1920s and 1930s. In any event, what Morton was evoking may not have been as much a specific composition as it may have been a style played by Mamie, and she may have had several more similar blues in her repertoire, suggested by the fact that she was known to have played and sang at parties.

The 1908 New Orleans city directory showed Mamie as Mary living at 2414 Clara Street and working as a seamstress. The 1910 census taken at that same address showed Mamie with another sibling, Louis Desdunes, born to Rodolphe, but no indication of who his mother was. George Dugue was also back in the picture, and the house. Mamie died as Mamie Dugue at the end of the following year from tuberculosis at age 32. She might have been all but forgotten if not for Alan Lomax and Jelly Roll Morton. Morton's iconic 1939 rendition of her three fingered right hand blues style is still played and recorded over a century later as either Mamie's Blues or Number 219 Blues.