Songwriter, who died Jan. 13,1864, lived in Cincinnati in the late 1840s where he penned his first successful songs.
Stephen Foster, America’s first professional songwriter, died at the age of 37 on this date in 1864 (Jan. 13). According to history.com, he died in the charity ward of New York’s Bellevue Hospital.
Stephen Foster was born in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, on July 4,1826 – the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, according to history.com.
His first hit as a professional songwriter was “Oh! Susanna,” which he sold to a publisher for $100 in 1848.
In 1846, Foster moved to Cincinnati, according to Wikipedia, and became a bookkeeper with his brother’s steamship company. While he was in Cincinnati, Foster penned his first successful songs in 1848–1849, among them “Oh! Susanna,” which became an anthem of the California Gold Rush. In Cincinnati, Foster lived in the Guilford School building.
He later moved back to Pennsylvania where he wrote “Camptown Races” and “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair.”
His song “My Old Kentucky Home” is sung at the Kentucky Derby and is the Kentucky state song.
