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.

Charlotte M. Blake (May 30, 1885 to August 21, 1979)
Compositions
1903 King Cupid 1904 The Missouri Mule March     (No Kick Coming) 1905 Dainty Dames - A Novelette The Mascot: March My Lady Laughter: Waltzes 1906 Love Is King: Waltzes Could You Read My Heart? [1] 1907 A Night, A Girl, A Moon Curly: March Two Step Orchids: Novelette Three Step Hip Hip Hurrah: March Jubilee March The Last Kiss: Waltzes I Wonder If It's You? [2] Boogie Man, A Creep Mouse Tune So Near and Yet so Far [1] 1908 Love Tree: Waltzes The Gravel Rag In Mem'ry of You [1] 1909 That Poker Rag Honey When It's Sunny [1,3] It Makes A Lot of Difference When You     Are With The Girl You Love [1,4] Yankee Kid The Wish Bone (Rag) Lily Eyes: Valse Poetique	1910 Honey Bug (I Am Not to Blame) [5] Spoonlight [5] Tenderfoot [5] Bridal Veil - Waltzes You're a Classy Lassie [5] Love Ain't Likin', Likin' Ain't Love [5] Meet Me Half Way Miss Coquette Love's Dream of You [5] Roses Remind Me of You [5] 1911 The Road to Loveland [5,6] I Don't Need the Moonlight to Make     Love to You [7] That Tired Rag The Harbor of Love [5] 1913 Queen of the Roses Land of Beautiful Dreams [8] 1915 Rose of the World [9]    1. w/Arthur Gillespie    2. w/Vincent Bryan    3. w/Collin Davis    4. w/Harold Ward    5. w/Earle Clinton Jones    6. w/Charles N. Daniels    7. w/Francis X. Conlan    8. w/Maurice E. Marke    9. w/Richard W. Pascoe

     Charlotte M. Blake was born in Ohio to Edward C. and Caroline P. Blake within a year of the couple's marriage. She was the oldest of six siblings, including three brothers and two sisters. The family appears in the 1900 Census in Jackson, Ohio, near Columbus, with Edward listed as a "commercial traveler." Charlotte started her professional musical career in 1903 at age 18, working as a staff writer for Jerome H. Remick in Detroit, Michigan where the entire family had moved a year or so before. She was a fairly prolific composer for the publisher turning out a reported 35 titles, many of them marches and waltzes. This was done initially without recognition of her gender to the general public. Even Detroit city directories of that time show Charlotte's occupation as merely "pianist." Early acknowledgments in publicity and on covers, although generous in their prominence, listed her as C. Blake until she was 21. It was then that her full name was revealed on her music and in ad copy. In the 1910 Census she is listed as a music composer, but still residing with her family in Detroit City. Her father was now in the wholesale fur trade as E.C. Blake & Company, "Dealers in Raw and Dressed Furs."
     Around 1911 Blake wrote her last rag, and further compositions ceased altogether by 1919, when she had evidently retired from composing. Her mother Caroline, now widowed, had moved to Buffalo, NY, to live with Charlotte's sister Laura, but was back in Detroit before 1930. Most sources cite that Charlotte was never married, but there is a probability that she had a short marriage with a bank teller several years younger than her named Charles A. Wainman of Detroit, although born in Canada. Her status in 1930 shows her as recently divorced and living with her mother, but her last name as Wainman. After World War II Charlotte relocated to Santa Monica, California, and worked for some 20 years at Douglas Aircraft as a clerk. After retirement she remained in Santa Monica until her death, and her status on the death certificate also indicates that she was divorced.
     Charlotte Blake's rags demonstrate a direct and studied approach to composition, making certain that the pieces fit together, and they show inherent cleverness and a sense of humor as well. That Poker Rag and That Tired Rag in particular demonstrate her talents with both melody and cohesive continuity. She also wrote many songs while in the employ of Remick, though they have been mostly forgotten.

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. and Frances Bolen and raised in Kansas City, Missouri. She was the oldest of two girls and two boys. The family was farily well off as her father ran Bolen Coal. 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.
     Bolen's most famous piece, Smoky Topaz, was published by two former clerks of Hoffman at that time, 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 on his own Hiawatha, Smoky Topaz was reprinted under the Jerome H. Remick logo, and 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, which was twice in 1903 no less, the second time in December to Matthew Charles Smith.. A few years later, she married her third husband, Jay Davidson, a newspaper editor. They moved to Lafayette, Louisiana before 1920, and later to Kilgore Texas where she taught piano and voice, and raised their daughter Frances Lorraine. Those who knew her affectionately called her "Mama Grace." She passed on at the age of 89 just as the second ragtime revival was gaining ground in world-wide.

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

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

Compositions

Coffee Rag (1915) Regal Rag (1916)

     Lily Coffee had a short lived writing career, but still provided an important component of Texas ragtime. Little information is available on her, but what we've found is contained here. She was born in Texas as Lilyan Foote in 1891 to a Virginia born father and her mother Carrie Foote. Efforts to find the family in the 1900 Census under a variety of name and demographic combinations were fruitless, but they do show up in 1910. Carrie had remarried to E. Peter Cleveland and Lily was still living at home in Houston with her mother and stepfather. Between 1911 and 1915 she was 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 compositions by Lily. In mid 1917 William Jr. was born. The couple appears in Houston in 1920 with William as the sales manager of a wholesale grocery broker and Lily with no profession, assumably 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. Little else is known except that Lilyan died a widow in Houston in 1975 age 84.

Irene B. Cozad (July 4, 1888 to August 2, 1970)
Compositions
Affinity Rag (1910) Eatin' Time (1913) Kansas City Town (1920)	Sunday Wedding Day (?) Minute Circle Whirl (?) Because (?)

     Irene Cozad was born on the fourth of July in Lineville, Iowa, to Joseph V. and Ellen I. Cozad. She was the oldest of three girls plus one younger and two older brothers, growing up in a big household. Joseph Cozad, in the newspaper business as a carrier or distributor. The 1900 Census shows the family living in Council Bluffs, Iowa, with Joseph listed simply as a day laborer. He and Ellen are still shown in Council Bluffs in 1910, but Irene had moved south to Kansas City by that time, where she would find some success. She reportedly played piano with the Kansas Symphony and prior to the publication of her two rags was listed in the city directory as a music teacher as well as in the 1910 census. Given the small composition output, it was more likely a hobby than a hopeful career track.
     While Cozad married Joseph Whitman Sherer, M.D., in 1912, her compositions did not entirely stop. 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. By 1920 she is listed simply as a homemaker. In the 1930 census it appears she is once again working as a pianist. Mrs. Sherer spent later years living with her children Jeanne and Joseph (the latter who continued the familie's musical interest as a piano technician) in the Kansas City area house the family had owned for a number of decades, with one of her grandchildren located there as recently as 1988 some 18 years after her death.

Luella Lucile 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 at least one census puts her at February of 1876, which may be less accurate than the November 1875 date cited more often. Her father, William Haney Hudson, was a blacksmith/farmer from Arkansas who moved there with his second wife, Sarah Jane (Northcott) Hudson. Luella was the youngest of his five children. At some point she had enough musical training either privately or in school (either was common at that time for females) as she was teaching music by her early 20s in San Marcos, Texas. It was while there that she married Eugene Ramsey (Jene) Day on October 12, 1897. He was a tinner in the printing industry who had come from Hernando, Mississippi. They had two children, Junius Eugene (1899) and Dono H. (1901), and 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, except perhaps private lessons. However, she did start to compose, and 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. 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 the challenges of raising teenage boys; perhaps the hassles of even getting published at that time; public records can't speak to the reasons. In 1926, she self published a song titled You, Just You. 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.
     Their 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, active in 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 at nearly 76 years.

Much of the timeline and background research here in this corrected biography was done 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 of the information here, and fan Don Lewis who knew Ms. Day in his youth (back in the Day), and reported on the children's songs.

Geraldine Dobyns (April, 1883 to ??)

Compositions

Possum Rag (1907) Bull Dog Rag (1908) Holly and Mistletoe (1909)

     Geraldine Dobyns was the fifth of seven children born to Harry O. and Nellie M. Dobyns. Her large family included two older brothers, two older sisters, and two younger brothers. The family had been in both Louisiana and Texas during that period, Geraldine having been born in Madison, Louisiana. 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. After this, Geraldine is difficult to trace in public records. She eventually went back to Louisiana, even though some of her siblings remained in Memphis. Dobyns was buried in Baton Rogue, Louisiana.

     Some of the information presented here on Dobyns was uncovered Ragtime Women historian Nora Hulse. The remaining demographics on the family were researched by the author.

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

Composition

Peanuts - A Nutty Rag (1911)

     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 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, with the family moving to Omaha early in her life. She 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 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, likely Independence, in late 1911. (William is shown in 1912 directories in Independence and in many subsequent listings.) This would coincide with the publication of Peanuts by 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. She was still playing in 1920, this time in the music department of a drug store in Kansas City and in the employ of rival Jenkins Music. Ethel was married in 1923 in Wichita, Kansas, to Ober G. Hamilton, who worked in extermination chemicals. The 1930 census indicates that they continued to live in the Kansas City 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 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
Chicken Chowder (1905) Sleepy Lou (1906) Soap Suds: March (1906) Black Feather Two-Step (1908) Pickaninny Rag (1908)	The Aviator Rag (1910) Columbia Rag (1910) Ketchup Rag (1910) The Dixie Rag (1911)

     Irene Giblin was born raised in Missouri, daughter of Richard and Nora Giblin. She lived much of her life in the St. Louis area. Having been a good piano student showing a natural talent for the instrument in her adolescence, Irene was first employed as a music demonstrator by Charles Daniels (aka Neil Morét) at the Grand Leader department store in St. Louis at the tender but eager age of 14. She 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. She was later moved to the Stix, Baer & Fuller department store, also in St. Louis, when she was right out of high school at the age of 17. Giblin ended up working there 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 nine rags, most of them with Remick. As was so often the story, Irene eventually gave up her composing and performing endeavors, at least professionally, after she married railroad accountant Edward P. O'Brien in 1908 and two years later had her first of two children, Richard, eventually followed by Edward Jr. 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. By 1910 she no longer shows music as an occupation, and the same in 1920. Although she spent much of the Great Depression through World War II without an instrument, her husband 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 their 50th anniversary.
     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 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 the family of a railroad worker Frederick Rupert and Anna (McReynolds) Rupert. Little is known of her early years in Iowa or her music training. By the time of the 1900 Census she was living in Quincy, Illinois where she would spend most of her life, listed as Daisy Rupert (her nickname), and working as a music teacher. Little else is known until her marriage to Henry Emerson Giles. Mr. Giles, 17 years older than Imogene, ran the successful Giles Brothers Music Company in Quincy, Illinois with his brother Jacob Giles. They sold pianos, organs, various musical instruments and sheet music, and later published some as well. After the wedding, Imogene taught 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 attributed to her. Her single work is well crafted and leaves 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 her mother was born. Her husband 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. After her husband's death in 1923, 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, which were lived out in Quincy. During the 1930 Census she was staying in Chicago at the Lexington Hotel (again with the Florida birth reference), but was eventually back in Quicy. 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 (September, 1878? to ??)
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. One of the first mysteries was when and where she was born. The best possible clue to this is an entry in the 1900 Census records which is most likely her, but that also raises questions. Based on that entry, Louise was born in New Jersey in September 1878, or perhaps a year or two before if she was stretching things. Her name was evidently originally Louisa, and according to research by historian Nora Hulse she first appears as Mrs. Louisa V. Gustin in Detroit, Michigan, in 1895, as a music teacher. This would imply if the 1900 Census is correct that she was married at around 17 and quickly went into business. Subsequent listings showed her as Louise. However, the presence of a Mr. Gustin was never indicated. Whether she was widowed at a very young age or if her maiden name was Gustin and she just applied the Mrs. is one of the mysteries.
     From 1895-1896 she lived in the home of Frank and Louisa Moore. Searches on them seem to largely rule out the possibility that they were her parents. Mr. Moore had died by 1897 as she was then living with only the widowed Louisa at a new address. Again, Mr. Gustin is never mentioned. She was with Mrs. Moore when 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. She remained in that house through 1899, but is not mentioned in any future Detroit directories. For at least that last year she was employed at a downtown Detroit department store, Shaefer's, 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 published by Fred Belcher who may have got her the job. Gustin's subsequent disappearance from Detroit could be explained by a return to her native region in 1900, where a Louise V. Gustin is listed as a single lodger in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, working as a music teacher. The profession and exact name match give good odds that it is the composer.
     Even if Louise remained in the East (this is hard to confirm in later directories and Census listings), she remained loyal to Detroit as her X-N-Tric Two Step was picked up by Whitney Warner who had acquired Belcher, and was in turn acquired by the dominant publishing firm of Jerome H. Remick Her established connections in Detroit likely made getting in print a fairly easy task, as it did with her next few works from 1902 through 1905. Then the promising output stopped. There is a possibility that Gustin was (re?) married before 1910, making locating her a daunting task at best in Pennsylvania or New Jersey (no Louise in the United States with parents born in New Jersey was found to have a profession). There are inaccurate reports in some listings that show her as having died in 1910. However, two more work did appear in 1915 via Remick, 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 somewhat premature. In any case, that's where the story ends, so it seems.
     It is the opinion of this author that Gustin was likely born a little before the 1878 date, but not much more (many women taught piano in their late teens), and that the likelihood that she was single (as listed in the 1900 Census) rather than married or widowed is fairly good, for whatever personal reasons she may have had. Ms. had not yet been applied as a marital status non-specific title), and it has been suggested by performer Max Morath that she may have faced some gender discrimination in Detroit. As for the possibility that the name was a pseudonym, this seems fairly unlikely given the definitive presence of Ms. Gustin in public records. Anybody who would like to contribute to further research on Ms. Gustin from 1910 and later is welcome to our own research as a starting point.

     Thanks as always to Ragtime Women historian Nora Hulse, for information on Gustin's Detroit demographics.

Elsie Jane Bierbower Janis (March 16, 1889 to February 26, 1956)
Compositions
1911 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 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 Sprinttime 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) 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
Films
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]
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. 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. Two productions of this ran for 143 performances in 1906 and 48 performances in 1907. This was followed by a starring role in The Hoyden which went 65 performances. 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 The Slim Princess in 1911. This production, which went for 104 performances on Broadway, also introduced Elsie as a songwriter, her entry being I'd Rather Love What I Cannot Have, Than Have What I Cannot Love. In some respects, this 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 her off 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 her 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. She became romantically involved with comedian Basil Hallam for a short while, and did her first entertaining for the boys on their way to war. Elsie and Josephine returned on the Mauretania from Liverpool in October. There was also a song that was this time actually associated with a dance and specific dancers, A Castle Walk Song, written for the premier dance couple of the time, Vernon and Irene Castle. Vernon had appeared with her in Lady of the Slipper.
     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. 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. 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 Koninsky (August 1879 to January 2nd, 1952)
Compositions
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 Beneath the Starry Flag [1] I Didn't Think You Cared to Have Me     Back [2] Sing Me a Song of Other Days You Alone: Ballad 1901 The Grasshopper's Hop 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 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) Maid of the Mist Waltzes On To Victory [1] 1905 June Roses: Waltzes 'Tis You Old Glory: March [1] 'Cause the Sandman's Comin Around 1906 In Lover's Lane: Waltzes Life in Camp: March [1] 1907 College Days: Waltzes 1909 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 a German (possibly Russian) father and German/British mother. Sadie first came to prominence at the age of 17. In training to become a classical violinist, something she was very capable at, she wrote Eli Green's Cake Walk which was quickly picked up by Joseph Stern for publication. At a time shortly after cakewalks had been introduced into publication, Miss Koninsky, a white woman, was able to successfully capture the feeling of the typical black-composed cakewalk, and furthermore had 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, but she ultimately kept the violin as her instrument of choice.
     As of 1900 Sadie was listing her profession as musician. Her success with Eli Green's Cake Walk allowed her a job as a staff arranger for some time with the Joseph W. Stern publishing house. 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. 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 Troy.
     The only daughter of four children, there is no evidence that Sadie ever married. With her brothers she helped found the Koninsky Music Company, which conducted business from Frear's Department Store in Troy. They published out of the former Troy Times newspaper building. Sadie was also a very adequate song writer. She took on multiple roles as the primary composer, arranger and song plugger for Koninsky Music. Her marches were released under the name Jerome Hartman (perhaps women simply were not supposed to write good marches). Other pieces were released under her own name. In 1910 she is shown living with her mother Mary and two of her brothers. In the 1920s she started a separate publishing house in Troy, Goodwyn Music Publishers. In 1930 she is shown living with two of her brothers, and all three are listed as musicians. Koninsky outlived her siblings, dying at 72 in 1952.

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

Compositions

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 Tennessee as Elma Ney in 1881 to German 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 entire family appears to drop off, with none of the brothers appearing in the 1918 draft, and no Elma/Emma/Alma apparent with the same background in the 1920 or 1930 Census. 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.