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Grace Porterfield Polk

Grace Mae Porterfield Polk (September 1875 – April 8, 1965) was an American composer, singer, and poet, and founder of the American Song Composers' Festival.

Grace Porterfield Polk
A middle-aged white woman, wearing a wide-brimmed hat and a white lace dress with a deep scoop, off-the-shoulder neckline
Grace Porterfield Polk, from a 1919 publication
BornSeptember 1875
Preble County, Ohio, United States
DiedApril 8, 1965(1965-04-08) (aged 89)
Tampa, Florida, United States
Occupation(s)Composer, songwriter, singer, poet, clubwoman

Early life

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Grace Mae Porterfield was born in Preble County, Ohio and raised in Richmond, Indiana, where she lived from 1882 till 1903.[1] She was the daughter of David Porterfield and Minerva Jane Garland Porterfield.[2][3] She graduated from the Cincinnati College of Music,[4] and studied voice with Oscar Saenger in New York.[5]

Career

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Polk was a soprano singer, composer and writer of popular songs.[6][7] She was first National Junior Counselor of the National Federation of Music Clubs, and founder of the American Song Composers' Festival, an annual event held in Greenwood, Indiana from 1920 to 1922.[6][8][9] "In this quiet little Indiana town I will aim to bring together the song composers of the land so the young and ambitious may meet the veterans and successful members of the profession," she explained in 1919.[10] She established the Grace Porterfield Polk Fund, to support cash prizes for a song contest open to Indiana composers.[11][12] She also established a scholarship for students of composition at Indiana University.[13] She organized the Indianapolis chapter of the National League of American Pen Women in 1923.[14]

Her husband Ralph's business interests meant that the Polks spent much of their time in Florida. There, she sang her own compositions for radio concerts.[15] For example, she was heard performing live on Miami radio station WQAM on several occasions in April 1923, [16] and again in May 1923. [17]

She was a founding member of the Greater Miami chapter of the National League of American Pen Women,[18] and founder and first president of the Miami Music Club in 1920.[4][5] She was a member of the Inner Circle of Bookfellows, a Chicago-based writers' organization.[19] In Miami, she launched the Cardinal Club, a women's club for grandmothers over the age of 70. "There's not a city, or even a small town, that couldn't make its grandmothers happier, and make itself happier, by doing something for the old folks," she told an interviewer in 1924.[20]

In the 1930s, Polk edited the junior department of American Poetry Magazine, in a section called "Polk-a Dots" after her surname.[21]

Publications

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  • "Remembrance" (1917)
  • "Dawn" (1918)
  • "Love's Call" (1918)
  • "Lullaby" (1918)
  • "Just a Tiny Ray of Sunshine", "We Sing to You America", "My Garden of Roses" (1919)[22]
  • "Suffer Little Children to Come Unto Me" (1920)[23]
  • "Hoosierland" (1920)[24]
  • "Island of Happiness" (1920)
  • "Our First Rose" (1920)
  • "Glad Tidings: A Christmas Song" (1921)[25]
  • "Springtime is Songtime" (1922)
  • "Apple Blossom Time in Indiana" (1924)[26]
  • "Sunshine Cottage" (1925)
  • Blossoms from My Enchanted Garden (1928, poetry)[3]
  • Polk-a-Dots for Tiny Tots (1928, poetry)[3]
  • Thought Petals (1940, poetry)[3]
  • Polk-a-Dot Primer for Poets (1948, booklet)[27]
  • Blossomland, Polk-a-Dot Flower Fantasy (1949, operetta)
  • My Garden of Music (1964, musical score)

Personal life

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In 1903,[2] Grace Porterfield married Ralph B. Polk, who became president of his family's canning company.[28] They had a son, Ralph Jr., and three other children who died young;[7] their baby daughter Grace died from diphtheria in 1914.[29] Her husband died in 1952,[30] and Grace Porterfield Polk died at her home in Tampa, Florida in 1965, at the age of 89.[1][4]

References

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  1. ^ a b "Grace Porterfield Polk, Ex-Resident, Dies in Tampa". Palladium-Item. April 11, 1965. p. 13. Retrieved October 8, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  2. ^ a b "Polk-Porterfield". The Indianapolis Journal. April 16, 1903. p. 3. Retrieved October 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ^ a b c d "Indiana authors and their books 1917-1966". Indiana University. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
  4. ^ a b c "Mrs. Grace P. Polk Dies at Home Here; Widow of Citrus Canner". The Tampa Times. April 9, 1965. p. 3. Retrieved October 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. ^ a b "Mrs. Grace Porterfield Polk to Edit Children's Magazine". Palladium-Item. April 23, 1934. p. 4. Retrieved October 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  6. ^ a b "Memorable Event". Musical Monitor. 9: 386. June 1920.
  7. ^ a b L.S. (January 15, 1920). "Why Do I Compose Songs? An Interview with Grace Porterfield Polk, the Indiana Composer". Musical Courier. 80: 16.
  8. ^ Wilson Kimber, Marian (January 16, 2021). "Grace Porterfield Polk and the American Song Composers' Festival". Women's Song Forum. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
  9. ^ "Polk Community House to Celebrate First American Song Composers' Convention". Musical Courier. 80: 43. April 22, 1920.
  10. ^ "Grace Porterfield Polk: Eminent Composer Champions Unknown American Song Composer". Musical Monitor. 9: 653. October 1919.
  11. ^ "Grace Porterfield Polk's Songs Win Great Applause at the Indiana Convention". Musical Monitor. 9: 51. November 1919.
  12. ^ "$100 Prize for Song Offered". The Richmond Item. April 17, 1920. p. 8. Retrieved October 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  13. ^ "Indiana University School of Music Offers Two New Scholarships". The Educator-Journal. 23 (July 1923): 536. 1922.
  14. ^ "Collection: National League of American Pen Women (NLAPW) Indianapolis collection". Indiana State Library. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
  15. ^ "Noted Women Living Here on Program". The Miami News. April 14, 1923. p. 33. Retrieved October 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Society," Richmond (Indiana) Palladium, April 5, 1923, p. 4.
  17. ^ "Magic Rose Over Over Radio Sunday Eve," Miami News, May 5, 1923, p. 5.
  18. ^ Wilson Kimber, Marian (November 2018). "Women Composers at the White House: The National League of American Pen Women and Phyllis Fergus's Advocacy for Women in American Music". Journal of the Society for American Music. 12 (4): 477–507. doi:10.1017/S1752196318000378. ISSN 1752-1963. S2CID 232388959.
  19. ^ "With the Editor". The Step Ladder. 11: 92. March 1926.
  20. ^ Colman, Edna M. (July 1924). "Only Grandmothers May Join Her Club". The American Magazine. 98: 69.
  21. ^ "Polk-a Dots". American Poetry Magazine. 14: 14. May–June 1932.
  22. ^ "Reviews of the Latest Music". The Musician. 25: 29. May 1920.
  23. ^ Polk, Grace Porterfield (May 1920). "Suffer Little Children to Come Unto Me". Musical Monitor. 9: 2–5.
  24. ^ Polk, Grace Porterfield (1920). "Hoosierland". IN Harmony: Sheet Music from Indiana. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
  25. ^ Polk, Grace Porter. "Glad Tidings: A Christmas Song" (1921), in the Sheet Music Collection of Ball State University.
  26. ^ Polk, Grace Porterfield (1924). "Apple blossom time in Indiana". Indiana Historical Society. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
  27. ^ "The Educational Scene". Elementary English. 25 (8): 525–527. 1948. ISSN 0013-5968. JSTOR 41383587.
  28. ^ "Polk Family's Influence Felt in Greenwood". The Daily Journal. September 14, 1972. p. 12. Retrieved October 7, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  29. ^ "Grace Polk Dies". Palladium-Item. February 13, 1914. p. 6. Retrieved October 8, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
  30. ^ "Ralph B. Polk Sr. Dies; RItes to be Tomorrow". The Indianapolis Star. April 19, 1952. p. 11. Retrieved October 8, 2022 – via Newspapers.com.
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