She also incorporated these sounds into her most famous composition. In addition to being a composer, she was an early ethnomusicologist, documenting the African-American music that permeated the streets, riverboats and churches of Louisville in the late 1800s. But Mildred has always interested me more. Patty lived until 1946, long enough to see the success of the song she wrote with her sister. Today, when the Hill sisters are remembered by name, the focus is usually on Patty, a nationally renowned pioneer in early childhood education. I’ve sung “Happy Birthday” at parties in Esta, where local legend says the song was performed for the first time. The Hill sisters’ cabin fell down decades ago due to neglect, but three other similar board-and-batten cabins - called Esta, Tophouse and Wisteria - are still there. My wife is the president of the Little Loomhouse, the nonprofit that currently owns the property. But then I learned more about the Hill sisters’ unlikely story in the early ‘90s, when I was researching my book about Louisville jug band music, and in 2011, when my wife and I bought a house one street away from Kenwood Hill Road, where the sisters had a summer cabin.
Growing up in Louisville, I was taught that “Happy Birthday” was written by two local white kindergarten teachers - that’s it. Mildred and Patty, born in 18, are interred in a small family plot with headstones bearing only their names and the year each was born and died. But there are no historical markers in Cave Hill for Mildred Jane Hill and Patty Smith Hill, the sisters responsible for the most popular song in the English language - “Happy Birthday to You.” Among them are George Rogers Clark, the Revolutionary War general who settled Louisville in the 1770s former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, known early in his career as the “Louisville Lip” and Colonel Harland Sanders, who gave the world Kentucky Fried Chicken. Its 296 acres are dotted with monuments and historical markers honoring notable figures. Jones’ birthday letter to America.Ĭave Hill Cemetery is where Louisville, Kentucky, buries its legends.
Jones’ piece on the black roots of “Happy Birthday to You,” in addition to Pam Platt’s reflection on why she chose to sit for the National Anthem and Ricky L. We present a trio of stories for Independence Day: below is Michael L.