Thurlow Lieurance(1878-1963)

Composer, songwriter, author and educator Thurlow Lieurance was educated at the College of Music in Cincinnati, Ohio and the Conservatory de Musique in France, and was awarded a scholarship to the Fontainebleau. A military bandmaster in Kansas during World War I, he was later honored by the American Scientific Research Society for his work in researching music among native Americans and he recorded a number of native American songs. He authored the book "To Dance, Live, Love and Sing". With his wife Edna Wooley Lieurance, he toured in concerts between 1918 and 1927 and then was a professor at the University of School Music in Lincoln, Nebraska and Dean of Fine Arts at the University of Wichita until 1947. Joining ASCAP in 1934, his classical works include "Colonial Exposition Sketches", "Scenes Southwest", "Prairie Sketches", "Water Moon Maiden", "Fantasia for Violin and Piano", "Conquistador", and "Eleven Song Cycles". His popular-song compositions include "By the Waters of Minnetonka", "Reverie", "Blue Mist", "At Parting", "Purple Pines", "Among the Pines", "And I Ain't Got Weary Yet", "The Good Rain", "From the Old Homestead", "In Mirrored Waters", "Hymn to the Sun God", "Holiday Pleasures", "Irish Spring Song", "I Wonder Why", "Came the Dawn", "If I Hadn't Had You", "The Sandman", "Sunbeams", and "A Prayer".