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 Virginia native Albert Harrison Foote and his bride Corella "Corrie" Horton, who had been married in 1889. The 1900 enueration showed her birth as June of 1892, but the 1910 census, her death record and the Social Security death database show the 1891 date, which is accepted as more likely. Lilyan had one older brother, Albert Horton (6/17/1890).

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 them. Also living in the household for the 1900 enumeration were Corrie's younger siblings, Loula, Mary, Albert, June and Lida. Albert Foote Sr. had ended up dying in early 1899 as the result of his alcoholism, leaving Corrie legally a widow.

The following year, Corrie was 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 was now using a shortened version of her name, was still living at home in Houston with her mother and stepfather.

On December 3, 1911, Lily was married to William B. Coffee in Houston. Four years later 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. These two rags appear to be the only published syncopated compositions by Lily. Both of them 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. Given work patterns and trends of that time, it is probable that Lily was working for Munn as a music demonstrator.

On June 17th, 1917, William Coffee, Jr., was born. This event most likely ended any working association she had with Munn. The family 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 1930, 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 several 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. Around the same time, discouraged that she was evidently unable to find any Houston area publishers interested in her works, she sent a package of twelve compositions to her playwright nephew, her brother's son, Albert Horton Foote, Jr., working his way up the professional ladder in New York, hoping he might be able find a publisher for them. Some were copyrighted, but none appear to have been published.

In the 1940 enumeration taken in Houston, William was now listed as a merchandise broker with a private practice, and Lily continued as a music teacher from her home. Her widowed stepfather also lived with the family. 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, Texas. The 1950 census still showed William to be a food broker, but Lilyan with no occupation. William B. Coffee died in the fall of 1958. With the exception of a couple of copyrights filed in 1964, little else is known about Lilyan except that she 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 Harriet Gauthier "Hattie" Brooks around 1914, and had a son, the aforementioned 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, indicating he had both a wife and a baby. For the 1920 enumeration he was shown to be a dry good merchant. Two additional sons, Thomas Brooks (1922) and John Speed (10/19/1923), joined the family in the 1920s.

Albert Jr., possessing some of his composer aunt's creative tendencies, worked under the name of 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.

Lily Dale appeared as a character in some of his works, including the three plays of the Orphan's Home Cycle and Valentine's Day. One of his plays released in 1986, Lily Dale, was clearly about his musical aunt Lilyan. It was made into a Hallmark Hall of Fame television 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.